'25 problems, but the will to build ain't one' – leading impact firm puts out call for climate tech founders

Paris-based Marble is a climate-focussed deeptech impact studio, with a mission to, in their own words, "erase several gigatons from annual greenhouse gas emissions, and create the industrial foundations of a climate resilient future."

The firm just put out a call for ambitious founders to partner with them, looking to tackle twenty-five climate problems they’ve identified.

In recent times, as we here at Impact Loop have noted, there has been some anxiety and debate over the future of climate tech, as well as the related clean- and green-tech. Amid an environmental backlash in some parts of the developed world, as well as some shakiness in funding in recent years, some commentators have gone so far as to call the climatetech revolution over before it has even started.

"Not from where we're sat"

Marble clearly thinks otherwise. "So, climate tech is dead huh…? Not from where we’re sat."

The call is for people to pitch to Marble’s Founders in Residence programme, where they partner with would-be founders, helping them build their idea into a pre-seed company, and then ideally spinning them out with Marble as their first backer.

The seven companies Marble has already spun out speak to the breadth of their climate tech remit; geologic hydrogen, coastal regeneration, carbon-friendly concrete and direct air capture, among others.

25 areas to tackle

Now they’ve found 25 other areas they want to tackle, and are on the hunt for people with ideas. There’s a lot there, from geothermal energy, to modular reactors, green aluminium, bioplastics, wastewater, forests and even a green construction revolution.

Each thematic is accompanied by a brief outline of the specific projects they’re looking for. Some get quite specific – for instance when it comes to advanced biofuels, they want to see "improved processing and utilisation of lignin’s aromatic components" – while others are much broader.

When it comes to making data centres less resource-intensive, for instance, the firm considers a broad range of ideas, "across flexible designs, computing hardware, software middle layers, clean firm power integration, cooling, and waste heat management."

This hyper-focus on core individual elements of the larger overall climate challenge will no doubt be refreshing to young founders and people with ideas. The callout is very effective in cutting out all the noise and hand-wringing around the future of "climate tech," focussing instead on specific challenges that need solving.

"We got 25 problems, but the will to build ain't one," wrote Benjamin Tincq, founding partner of Marble.