Speaker 1: Financial markets can no longer ignore the impacts of climate change,
Speaker 1: shifting consumer expectations and increasing regulatory scrutiny. These forces are
Speaker 1: reshaping industries, redefining risk, and creating new opportunities for long
Speaker 1: term value creation. Through conversations with industry leaders, investors, and
Speaker 1: subject matter experts, we explore where sustainability is translating into
Speaker 1: measurable financial outcomes. Welcome to Sustainability Currents. Brought to you
Speaker 1: by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Speaker 2: I'm Yas Takehoma, analyst for Sussemble Finals at Bloomberg Individence.
Speaker 2: Over the past few years, climate technology has moved from
Speaker 2: being a niche investment theme to one of the most
Speaker 2: important drivers of innovation and economic growth. Governments are stringers
Speaker 2: in climate policies, corporations are racing to decarbonize their operations,
Speaker 2: and breakthrough technologies are attracting unprecedented levels of investment. Today,
Speaker 2: we are delighted to be joined by Tomosaku Sohara, a
Speaker 2: founder of Nordic Ninja, one of the leading venture capital
Speaker 2: farms focused on climate technology. The farmer has built a
Speaker 2: strong truck record of investing in startups that are driving
Speaker 2: the transition to a low carbon economy. In today's conversation,
Speaker 2: we will explore where climat tech investing is headed, which
Speaker 2: technologies are generating the greatest excitement, and what opportunities and
Speaker 2: challenges lay ahead for founders, investors and corporations. Soharazan, thank
Speaker 2: you so much for joining us today and then welcome
Speaker 2: to our podcast.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me, Homazan.
Speaker 2: Great to start, could you introduce Nordic Ninja to our audience.
Speaker 2: What is the investment focus and what makes the fund unique.
Speaker 2: We'd also love to hear to your team and where
Speaker 2: you are based and the philosophy the guys you were
Speaker 2: investment decisions.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all right, happy to do that. First of all,
Speaker 4: my name is Thomas x so'hara. I'm co founder and
Speaker 4: the general partner at the Nordic c Ninja VC. So
Speaker 4: the nerd KUNINJUVC is one of the largest Japanese VC
Speaker 4: focusing only in the European startup ecosystem, so with kind
Speaker 4: of an idea of making the bridge between the europe
Speaker 4: And entrepreneurship and innovation and the Japanese corporated in the industries.
Speaker 4: So as you can see that the Nordic gre Ninja
Speaker 4: is coming from the Nordics, so we have round the
Speaker 4: nerd Gringia in twenty nineteen headquartering Helsinki as a capital
Speaker 4: city of the Finland. And now we are expanding our
Speaker 4: geographical mandate and we are focusing on the northern part
Speaker 4: of Europe and pert Europe as well. So the nord
Speaker 4: Grininja is an early stage investor focusing on the deep
Speaker 4: technologies including a climate technology GEES and the digital technologies,
Speaker 4: especially for the Nordic and the uk or Banarux.
Speaker 3: And Iran as well.
Speaker 4: So one of the uniqueness for us is that we
Speaker 4: are the Japanese BC but the same times and we
Speaker 4: have international teams, so we have only the eleven employees
Speaker 4: working for the Nordic Ninjas, but the same time that
Speaker 4: we have combined of the European people and also the
Speaker 4: Japanese people. And another uniqueness that in general, I mean
Speaker 4: so many Japanese basis are making investment into the Europe
Speaker 4: and the US and Asia I mean outside of the
Speaker 4: Japan but the same time they usually join the investment
Speaker 4: cases as a follower investors. But for us, from the
Speaker 4: day one, we have been trying to make an investment
Speaker 4: into the start about the real investors. So as as
Speaker 4: a result, ninety percent of our profile company has been
Speaker 4: led by us, so this is kind of a uniqueness.
Speaker 3: Yes, we wanted to pursue for father great.
Speaker 2: Also, my interest is on the name of Nordic Ninja.
Speaker 2: So my follow up question is why did you put
Speaker 2: ninja on the company name.
Speaker 3: That's a good question.
Speaker 4: I mean, there was a lot of argument when we
Speaker 4: established the firm, so back into the twenty and eighteens,
Speaker 4: so they're like two options, the Nordic Samurai and the
Speaker 4: Nordic Ninjas. We also wanted to name ourselves as the
Speaker 4: people can easily understand that our firm was a combination
Speaker 4: of like nodic innovation and the Japanese cultures, so that
Speaker 4: we wanted to use some kind of unique Japanese name
Speaker 4: like a sakura or samurai or ninja's. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, as you know, they compared to the ninja
Speaker 4: and the samurai, as you know homicide, the summarai is
Speaker 4: willing to take a closy battlefield and the samurai in
Speaker 4: general samurai wanted to take on a center stage right
Speaker 4: compared to the ninjas. But the ninja is a more
Speaker 4: loyal and Ninja always tried to support the load and
Speaker 4: the Ninja doesn't need to take them a center stage.
Speaker 4: So from my perspect from our perspective, we wanted to
Speaker 4: put the entrepreneur founders on a center stage and the
Speaker 4: investors we se should not take a center stage. So
Speaker 4: that's why we decided to name ourselves Ninja, not nerdic Samurai.
Speaker 2: That's great, So let's move on to the role of
Speaker 2: climatic funds. Climate technology has attracted significant attention in recent years.
Speaker 2: Could you explain the role that climate tech venture funds
Speaker 2: play in accelating de carbonization. Has a climatic investment market
Speaker 2: been growing in terms of capital and the number of funds,
Speaker 2: How has the land skip evolved over the past few.
Speaker 4: Years well, as Hormosoon mentioned that, I agree in general,
Speaker 4: maybe in the last maybe five years, the climate technology
Speaker 4: the climate investors had been in March very significantly. But
Speaker 4: the same time, the name of the climate tech or
Speaker 4: climate inbassadors is shrinking thanks that maybe Trump administration in
Speaker 4: the US well. But at the same time, I strongly
Speaker 4: believe the role of the climate tech ambassador or crime
Speaker 4: technology is still very important for the future of the world.
Speaker 4: So from my perspective. The climate b C or crimate
Speaker 4: investors play two important roles. The first they provide a
Speaker 4: patient capital to technology that require longer development cycle than
Speaker 4: typical software like a Sazas business. Many climate technology involved hardware,
Speaker 4: manu factoring or infrastructure sometimes so they often need more
Speaker 4: time and a more capital, which mean that the capital
Speaker 4: intensities before reaching the commercial scale. That's a first role
Speaker 4: and the second row I would say climate BCEO Climate
Speaker 4: investors help the bridge the gap between technology and deployment,
Speaker 4: so success is really just about having a great innovational technologies.
Speaker 4: Companies need help finding the customers, securing the strategic partnership
Speaker 4: including like a big corporate, and navigating the regulations sometimes
Speaker 4: needed to educate the market, needed to educate the policy
Speaker 4: maker and raising FIGN capital so experienced climate investors can
Speaker 4: accelerate all of these Having say that BC along will
Speaker 4: not solve the organization. Infrastructure investors, corporate and government growth
Speaker 4: fund and even the debt provider including a project finance
Speaker 4: provider or play critical role as the technology is mature excellent.
Speaker 2: I feel the strong passion from you on the climat
Speaker 2: tech funds, so let me discuss the challenges in climat investing. So,
Speaker 2: from an investors perspective, what is the biggest challenge in
Speaker 2: backing climatic startups today? Is it identifying promising technologies, helping
Speaker 2: companies scale, or fundraising or something else.
Speaker 4: Well, honestly, compared to the last couple of years, we
Speaker 4: see a lot of challenge in terms of the climate
Speaker 4: tech envestment nowadays. Well, I actually don't think identifying interesting
Speaker 4: technology is the hardest part. University and the research institutions
Speaker 4: continue to generate the outstanding science and today there's no
Speaker 4: shortage of ambitious founders in the India, Europe. The biggest
Speaker 4: challenge is what I could say, commercialization and executions.
Speaker 3: So let me give you one example.
Speaker 4: Have you ever heard the boat right, nose boat the
Speaker 4: largest secure of action is in the Europe. So they
Speaker 4: raise a ton of money. I believe that they raised
Speaker 4: more than a billion dollars. I think more the keen,
Speaker 4: brilliant the money is. But they failed. They were to bankruptcy.
Speaker 4: And after the failing of the noseboat stories, everybody was
Speaker 4: complaining about okay, maybe I mean noboat technology products. It's
Speaker 4: not useful and there's no market which has been looking
Speaker 4: for the nospoad technology.
Speaker 3: This is not true.
Speaker 4: So Nobot has a lot of clients, had a lot
Speaker 4: of customer. They have signed a turn up the off
Speaker 4: taker agreement. So the market demanded is not an issue.
Speaker 4: The p is execution. They have a capital, they have
Speaker 4: a market, they have a customer, and they have a
Speaker 4: great tilet But the same time that they cannot deliver
Speaker 4: the data product on time and at the cost. So
Speaker 4: that's why I mean they cannot create sustainable the business model.
Speaker 3: That's a tricky part.
Speaker 4: So the previously when every is saying about the climate
Speaker 4: technology or decarbonization, there are a lot of like a
Speaker 4: business involved which is counting the green premium. So in
Speaker 4: the Europe they have a lot of product image like
Speaker 4: a so called a green product, so green steel, I
Speaker 4: mean the green food, I mean green somethings. But the
Speaker 4: same time, after the couple of years, we realize that very.
Speaker 3: Few people is willing to pay the green premium.
Speaker 4: So looking at for example, alternative protein industries, so there's
Speaker 4: a lot of alternative protein that can beyond me the
Speaker 4: impossible folds. But nowadays nobody wanted to pay these curable
Speaker 4: green payments. So this is the biggest thing that I
Speaker 4: have learned is that climate startup climate companies don't compete
Speaker 4: only on sustainabilities. They needed to compete on the economics
Speaker 4: the customers by solutions because they are cheaper first and
Speaker 4: more reliable or more convenient, not simply because they are greater.
Speaker 3: So this is the biggest program. We should not underestimate
Speaker 3: this part.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for raising some example. Then let's
Speaker 2: move on to some cases in your Portofolio. First one
Speaker 2: is in in Ride. So in Ride has become one
Speaker 2: of the best known companies developing autonomous and electric freight
Speaker 2: solutions due to the IPO in the New York STO
Speaker 2: Quick Exchange recently. Could you introduce the company and explain
Speaker 2: what makes its technology so disruptive, what excites you most
Speaker 2: about this future?
Speaker 4: Thank you, Thank you Burnamud for picking up the ain Ride.
Speaker 4: So we are so excited. We're so happy that the
Speaker 4: air led made successfue IPO in the netslex through the
Speaker 4: spac rasman so an Ride is a Swedish company that
Speaker 4: is a transforming flight transportation by combining the three technologies
Speaker 4: electric tracks, autonomous driving and AI power the freight management software.
Speaker 4: This is a revolutional technologies for the industries. So what
Speaker 4: makes the company disrupt is that it doesn't just sell
Speaker 4: the electric tracks. It offers an integrated logistic platform that
Speaker 4: helps customer optimized routs, charging and biggle utilization, making flight
Speaker 4: transport both cleaner and more efficient. What exciting me most
Speaker 4: is wrong time opportunities. And we made an investment into
Speaker 4: the Inlet in twoy nineteen, so it took a little
Speaker 4: seven or eight years. This is this is a wrong shot,
Speaker 4: but the same time were still am excited to pursue
Speaker 4: the their journeys. So load of flight accounts for the
Speaker 4: significant shield of the global shieldy emissions. So even small
Speaker 4: improvement can have a huge impact. As battery costs, ford
Speaker 4: and autonomous technologist matures, companies like an ain Let could
Speaker 4: fundamentally change how goods are transported. And if we look
Speaker 4: at the maybe Japanese industries, one of the biggest charging
Speaker 4: for the track industry is lacking of the driver or
Speaker 4: maybe aging. In addition to the Asian societies, the many
Speaker 4: like a truck or logistical industries, they are struggling to
Speaker 4: find or to seek you the meaningful younger truck drivers.
Speaker 4: So and that could also not disrupt the a light
Speaker 4: could also contribute for the rucking of dimad driver in
Speaker 4: these industry.
Speaker 2: Is very interesting. Another fascinating company is core Power Ocean
Speaker 2: which is developing wave energy technology. So many of our
Speaker 2: listeners may not be familiar with wave power. Could you
Speaker 2: explain how it works? Do you see wave energy becoming
Speaker 2: a meaningful part of the global clean energy mix, which
Speaker 2: reasons for countries have the greatest potential to adopt this technology.
Speaker 4: This is one of the personally most exciting profile company
Speaker 4: than Neude Ninia. So the core Power developed This is
Speaker 4: also another Swedish company by the way, the same as
Speaker 4: ain Ride. So core Power develops the technology that converts
Speaker 4: the motion of the ocean waves into the electricity. So
Speaker 4: they are floating device to move up and down with
Speaker 4: the waves and that the mechanical movement is comboined into
Speaker 4: electric power. So which means that maybe that with the
Speaker 4: core Power device they can amplify three times energy efficiencies.
Speaker 3: From the wave energies.
Speaker 2: So what's interesting.
Speaker 4: What makes the core Power particularly exciting or interesting is
Speaker 4: that data technologies is designed to capture much more energy
Speaker 4: than traditional wave power energies while surviving harsh ocean conditions,
Speaker 4: which has history historically been one of the biggest challenges
Speaker 4: for the industries. I'm not sure you are aware of
Speaker 4: the home Muslim but the Japan with the first countries
Speaker 4: that has successfully p RC pilot project wave power in
Speaker 4: maybe ninety yeah, after the World War seconds in nineteen
Speaker 4: I'm naturally exactly timing, but ninety fifty five or ninety
Speaker 4: sixty near the TOLLHK regions. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: I mean, the way power industry is way power excitement
Speaker 4: in Japan has been drinking because of a lot of reason,
Speaker 4: so maybe fisherman reason. And also it's really difficult for
Speaker 4: the device to survive under the harsh weathers, including leg
Speaker 4: storm weather. But I don't think the way energy will
Speaker 4: repress solar or wind, but it can become an important compliment.
Speaker 4: The waves are often more predictable and continue generating electricity
Speaker 4: even when the sun isn't shining or the wind. This week,
Speaker 4: the regions with a strong I mean costlines such as
Speaker 4: the uk Iround, Portrugal and Norway, maybe even some part
Speaker 4: of Japan, have a particularly strong potential for the wave
Speaker 4: energy deployment and sensitizing of the demand for the AI.
Speaker 4: The data centers the world mass needs these kind of technologies.
Speaker 2: Great, thank you. Another case is on Ego Bio. Correct
Speaker 2: me if my pronunciation is wrong. So Oneggo Bio is
Speaker 2: also a very interesting company because it produces bioidentical egg
Speaker 2: protein without relying on chickens. Eggs are often described as
Speaker 2: one of the most complete sources of nutrition, so this
Speaker 2: technology could have significant implications for food production. At the
Speaker 2: same time, Oneggo says its process can reduce CO two
Speaker 2: emissions by around ninety percent compared with conventional egg production.
Speaker 2: How does the technology achieve that and what impact could
Speaker 2: it have on both sustainable food systems and the climate change?
Speaker 3: Okay, yep, happy to so.
Speaker 4: On Ego is an another exciting profile company and the
Speaker 4: day of the finished companies not sweating now, So only
Speaker 4: you produce the egg protein without using the chicken as
Speaker 4: you described. Instead, they use a precision fermation where microorganisms
Speaker 4: are programmed to produce exactly the same protein and feature
Speaker 4: that naturally exists in the white eggs.
Speaker 3: Because there are no.
Speaker 4: Hands forms of feel involved, the process uses far less land,
Speaker 4: water and energy, and that's why the company estimated it
Speaker 4: can reduce the COEO to emission by around the ninety
Speaker 4: percent compared with the conventional egg productions. So I mean
Speaker 4: the energy is very important. But at the same time,
Speaker 4: I mean the water is very important. There's a lot
Speaker 4: of competition to secure the high quality of the water,
Speaker 4: I mean because of the data center or other use cases.
Speaker 4: So onegar as I mentioned that the ONEGLE I mean
Speaker 4: doesn't need to use much water for producing their product.
Speaker 4: I think the biggest opportunity isn't replacing every egg people
Speaker 4: it it's supplying a high quality egg protein to the
Speaker 4: food industry for the products like baking, some snacks and cookies,
Speaker 4: and processed foods even like a pasta as well. The
Speaker 4: way functionality is more important than the egg itself. If
Speaker 4: the technologies reach the largest scale production and the competitive cost,
Speaker 4: it could make a food production both more susceinable and
Speaker 4: more resilient. Maybe one thing that I wanted to add
Speaker 4: regarding the onegle as I mentioned that the products can
Speaker 4: reduced shield to emission significantry compared with the conventional egg productions.
Speaker 4: But the same time, the business model doesn't count on
Speaker 4: a green premium. But the same time, for example, in
Speaker 4: the US or some Southeast Asian countries, they frequently struggle
Speaker 4: with the bolder through. If the ball through happens occurs,
Speaker 4: the price of the egg is very of the balladize
Speaker 4: has been fluctuated, so many food processor companies want to
Speaker 4: want to stop rights their price. So that's why I
Speaker 4: mean they are willing to pay something like a not
Speaker 4: green premium, but like sustainable or suprighting permium for that.
Speaker 4: So only go might be able to contribute very significantly
Speaker 4: to stabil right the subpriting for the eggo industry. But
Speaker 4: that that is the biggest contributor which an ongle could
Speaker 4: provide for the world.
Speaker 2: Excellent, that's great, Thank you so much. Then let's return
Speaker 2: back to the broader market discussion. Climate investing doesn't happen
Speaker 2: in the vacuum. Policy changes can have a major impact
Speaker 2: on the industry. The United States has recently seen a
Speaker 2: shift in its approach to ESG and climate policy, including
Speaker 2: moves away from some international climate commitments. How do these
Speaker 2: policy changes affect climatic startups and the investors? Do they
Speaker 2: slow innovation? Do you see opportunities emerging elsewhere in the world?
Speaker 3: Well, the honor three. The policy change.
Speaker 4: From the US government is significantry add best effect to
Speaker 4: the world entirely well, especially for the climate attack. So
Speaker 4: that's why the very few people currently calling a climate attack.
Speaker 4: So the a couple of years ago, I mean so
Speaker 4: many star founder, so many entrepreneurs in the Europe and Asia,
Speaker 4: everybody's talking about the climate attack. But nowadays I mean
Speaker 4: nobody wanted to say about the climatettach. But instead if
Speaker 4: we were talking about the resilience technologies or critical technologies
Speaker 4: or like I mean energy technologies. For example, in the Europe,
Speaker 4: after the Ukraine's situation was happens, the energy suborignities, energy
Speaker 4: securities one of the most important agenda for the Europe.
Speaker 4: So I mean so many companies and so many industries,
Speaker 4: so many PCs has been looking for the energy related
Speaker 4: the startup.
Speaker 3: But this kind of energy really startup.
Speaker 4: They can contribute to both for the for the security
Speaker 4: and the energy security in the Europe, but also contribute
Speaker 4: for the.
Speaker 3: Global global warming mitigations.
Speaker 4: So I would say that yes, I mean the climate technology.
Speaker 4: The naming of the climate climate technology I mean should
Speaker 4: be replacing by resilience tech, energy tech, whatever we called
Speaker 4: so natively has been changed. But the mindset and passion
Speaker 4: for the decarbonization has not been changed. One thing that
Speaker 4: we should be aware from from also the US perspective
Speaker 4: that the US is still the largest provider of the
Speaker 4: growth capital to the old I mean, I think all
Speaker 4: kinds of startup, not only the deep take climate but
Speaker 4: also any kind of startup. And the Europe has a
Speaker 4: lot of hourly stage investors, and Europe has a lot
Speaker 4: of the government who could support that maybe are the
Speaker 4: stage of innovation by using like a grunt or subsidy
Speaker 4: or like a tax incentives. But at the same time
Speaker 4: someone needed to provide the growth capitals. So unfortunately Europe
Speaker 4: and made easier. We had been counting on the growth
Speaker 4: capital from the US. But nowadays, I mean the growth
Speaker 4: investor infrastructure invested in the US, they don't want to
Speaker 4: invest into the climate tech. So this is something that
Speaker 4: maybe Europe needed to tackle with maybe partnership of the Asia.
Speaker 4: So that's why so many European entrepreneur founders wanted to
Speaker 4: consider the collaborating with the Japanese industrial Japanese investments. I
Speaker 4: believe maybe the next couple of years. But this is
Speaker 4: a great moment, great momentum for the Europe to build
Speaker 4: something together with Japan.
Speaker 2: Great thank you so much for sharing your experience and insights.
Speaker 2: That's all from us today. We really appreciate it. Thank
Speaker 2: you so much, so
Speaker 3: Thank you very much for Homeberson, good luck,