Don Wood, Venture Partner, B Capital
Earlier in May, global multi-stage investment firm B Capital announced the appointment of Don Wood as a Venture Partner focused on climate tech.
The Venture Partner was recently a managing director at DFJ as well as Venture Partner and Advisor at Energy Impact Partners and Piva Capital; he has also served as a board member for 15 public and private companies and is a faculty member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
With his over 25 years of experience as a venture capitalist and climate tech specialist, Wood’s appointment is meant to expand the firm’s climate investment strategy, serve as a trusted advisor to the firm’s growing climate team and mentor select portfolio companies.
In an email interview with e27, Wood explains in more detail the kind of support that B Capital wants to give to climate tech startups–and the opportunities that the firm wants to pursue.
Through a strategic partnership with BCG and its own internal platform team, the firm provides guidance to enable entrepreneurs to scale fast and efficiently, expand into new markets and build exceptional companies.
“This approach drives high performance for portfolio companies and B Capital, regardless of the market cycle,” Wood says.
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B Capital’s climate tech portfolio includes eight investments across the US and Asia, such as Patch, a company that offers a suite of APIs and developer tools that connect buyers and sellers of carbon credits, and Accacia, which provides AI-enabled decarbonisation solutions to the real estate industry.
Going forward, the firm will continue investing along core themes it sees in climate tech today, including decarbonisation, electrification, and adaptation.
“The core mission of B Capital is to champion founders whose technologies have the potential to change how people work and live across the globe,” Wood stresses.
The following is an edited excerpt of our conversation with him.
In your years of experience in the climate tech sector, what do you think is the biggest challenge faced by climate tech startups in promoting their solutions and building a sustainable business?
Many climate tech startups are breaking new ground – which means they have no playbook to follow for success. These startups are at the forefront of developing groundbreaking technologies, requiring substantial investments and time to demonstrate their efficacy.
Many are pioneering innovative business models that necessitate forging new partnerships and attracting customers with innovative value propositions. Compounding these challenges is the dynamic nature of the regulatory landscape they must navigate, which constantly evolves and presents market timing uncertainties.
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However, climate tech startups have learned many lessons from the startup wave we saw a few years ago in Clean Tech 1.0.
By building on these lessons, and by taking advantage of the significant tailwinds in the current landscape, we’re seeing stronger companies that are more likely to succeed.
There has been a conversation about how the corporate world is moving relatively slowly in adopting decarbonisation initiatives. How can startups play a role in accelerating and tackling this problem? What advantage can they offer to the corporate world?
Climate tech companies will be essential in supporting corporates in achieving their net-zero pledges. We are seeing early signposts that large corporates, particularly in the US, are heeding this opportunity (albeit much work remains) to strategically partner with or invest in new technologies to carry out their climate goals.
This drove our investment in Patch, which is helping large corporates offset their emissions with high-quality, trusted carbon credits to hit their net zero goals. More broadly, industry leaders will increasingly need to think about what their business will look like in the context of a net-zero economy and engage with climate tech companies to build advantage through access to their innovative products and services.
This is mutually beneficial. For startups, increased engagement from corporate champions will help de-risk investments and create a positive feedback loop to propel the climate tech ecosystem further. Though it is still early days, and much work remains to be done to activate corporate climate tech strategies more broadly, we are excited about the potential for partnership between startups and corporates and are leveraging our close partnership with BCG to explore this opportunity.
Also Read: The key to tackling climate change: Electrify shipping
Does the funding winter affect the prospect of climate tech investment negatively?
Wider macro trends from the public and private sectors signal a positive outlook with increasing demand for climate tech.
In 2022, a record US$70 billion was invested globally into 4,000 climate tech startups according to HolonIQ. 2023 will be down by perhaps 30 per cent but will remain a very active sector for venture capital investors.
Over US$1.3 trillion in capital was invested into the energy transition and decarbonisation globally and BNEF forecast this will more than triple by 2030 and continue growth beyond that in order to address stated climate goals. This investment will fuel hundreds of successful new climate tech startups in the years ahead.
What will be B Capital’s major plan this year in the climate tech sector?
B Capital will continue to grow our climate tech practice, making new investments into the most promising technologies and companies to earn strong returns for our investors and helping decarbonise the economy and enable the energy transition.
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Image Credit: B Capital
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