Declan McEvilly, Co-Founder of OnePlanetCapital, discusses efficiency investing and what makes early-stage climate technology investable on Episode 32 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.

McEvilly argues that climate technology should be reframed as efficiency investing, on the basis that the technologies worth backing make an end user measurably more efficient, with carbon reduction following as a consequence. He contrasts this with what OnePlanetCapital call voluntary contribution businesses, meaning companies that ask a consumer or corporate to pay a premium for a sustainable option, a category that has struggled through higher interest rates and a cost of living crisis. The fund screens every opportunity against three carbon tests and requires each portfolio company to agree on a measurable KPI before investment is completed. Across six years and around 60 investments, McEvilly reports on portfolio trends and performance.

This episode is relevant for pre-seed and seed climate technology founders preparing an EIS or SEIS raise, angel and retail investors evaluating climate funds, and B2B marketers working on investor-facing messaging and pitch deck narrative for deep tech companies.

Guest profile

Declan McEvilly is Co-Founder of OnePlanetCapital. He has worked in venture capital and private markets for close to 15 years, focused on helping private companies fundraise and grow. He co-founded OnePlanetCapital six years ago after identifying a gap in UK private market investment schemes, which at the time offered investors little climate-focused exposure. As Sales Director, McEvilly manages OnePlanetCapital's relationships with financial advisers, intermediaries and investors.

OnePlanetCapital is a specialist climate technology investor backing UK businesses from seed to pre-Series A. The fund invests under the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme across energy, transport, construction, packaging, and waste and recycling. It has made around 60 investments. The fund was originally the OnePlanetCapital Sustainable EIS Fund and now operates as the Climate Change EIS Fund.

Company website: https://www.oneplanet.capital/

Find Declan McEvilly on LinkedIn.

Topics covered

• Explaining a climate VC fund to a five-year-old

• OnePlanetCapital's investment thesis and the three carbon scopes

• Reframing climate technology as efficiency investing

• Repositioning a fund from sustainable to climate technology

• Three value drivers for retail climate investors

• Hardware versus SaaS in climate portfolios

• Runway, burn rate, and why startups actually fail

• UK startup infrastructure and the scale-up cliff edge

• Raising in the US and the valuation trap

• What makes a good pitch: problem, solution, traction

• Content, thought leadership, and selling trust

• Climate adaptation and grid transition as growth sub-sectors

Will Tope, CEO of LiNa Energy, discusses low-cost sodium batteries and how deep tech companies find product-market fit on Episode 31 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.

Tope explains that LiNa Energy did not invent a new chemistry. The company revived the ZEBRA battery, a sodium-based design from the 1980s that is inherently safe and heat-tolerant but historically too expensive to manufacture. LiNa's contribution is the electrolyte: a ceramic component that once had to be baked slowly in thick tubes, now re-engineered as a thin layer around 60 microns thick and produced through a faster, lower-energy process. That change brings the battery cost close to the price of its abundant raw materials. It positions salt batteries as a low-cost option for long-duration storage in hot markets such as India and the Middle East, where lithium-ion systems struggle.

This episode is relevant for energy storage founders, deep tech CEOs, grid infrastructure investors, and commercial leaders working on go-to-market strategy, business development in long sales cycles, and marketing for hard tech companies.

Guest profile

Will Tope is the CEO of LiNa Energy. He trained as a chemical engineer and began his career as a process engineer at the Fawley Refinery near Southampton. He then spent over ten years on the commercial side of oil and gas, covering energy origination and mergers and acquisitions, including sell-side work in Aberdeen and buy-side work in the United States. Towards the end of that period, he was chief of staff for a new trading group at ExxonMobil, where a focus on power first led him to grid-scale batteries. He joined LiNa Energy in 2021 and later stepped up to CEO.

LiNa Energy is a Lancaster-based company developing solid-state sodium batteries, also described as salt batteries, for long-duration and grid-scale energy storage. The company runs two laboratories and a pilot manufacturing site in Lancaster, and has run pilot projects in India with Tata and testing in the Middle East. Its technology targets hot climates, where conventional lithium-ion systems carry higher real-world cost.

Company website: https://www.lina.energy/

Find Will Tope on LinkedIn.

Topics covered

• Explaining LiNa Energy and salt batteries to a five-year-old

• The elevator pitch and reviving the 1980s ZEBRA chemistry

• The electrolyte bottleneck and why the old design was expensive

• Manufacturing the thin ceramic electrolyte

• From individual cells to container-scale battery systems

• Commercialisation stages and the Lancaster pilot manufacturing line

• From oil and gas at ExxonMobil to climate founder

• Business development versus sales in deep tech

• Escaping the pilot graveyard

• Finding product-market fit in hot markets: India and the Middle East

• Customer signals versus investor advice on data centres

• Marketing, "external eyes," and what is next for LiNa Energy

Jonathan Jackson, CEO of Previsico, discusses forecasting surface water flooding and scaling a university spin-out on Episode 30 of Scaling Green Tech, a podcast by Adopter.

Previsico gives property-level flood warnings up to 48 hours ahead. Jackson explains that surface water is now close to 60% of UK flood risk, driven by a changing climate, urbanisation and ageing drainage. The company began as a Loughborough University spin-out built on Professor Dapeng Yu's flood model, with the UK government as its first customer, which reversed the usual startup order of finding a problem before building a product. Jackson traces the commercial journey from Innovate UK grant funding and an angel round through venture backing from Foresight Group, and into the US via a customer-led, site-by-site expansion rather than a country-by-country one.

This episode is relevant for climate adaptation founders, deep tech and university spin-out teams, insurtech and climate tech investors, and B2B founders working out how to sell a preventative product to a market that underestimates its own risk.

Guest profile

Jonathan Jackson is the CEO of Previsico. He describes himself as an entrepreneur rather than a scientist, having started in telecoms before building several businesses that moved offline industries online, including Farming Online, which he describes as the UK's longest-running B2B internet business. He joined Previsico after becoming entrepreneur in residence at Loughborough University, where he met the company's scientific founders and helped spin the business out.

Previsico is a flood forecasting company that provides property-level surface water flood warnings up to 48 hours in advance, combining a hydrodynamic flood model with real-time weather data and IoT sensors. The company was spun out of Loughborough University and works with insurers, corporates, councils and housing associations in the UK and, increasingly, the US.

Company website: https://previsico.com/

Find Jonathan Jackson on LinkedIn.

Topics covered

• Explaining flood forecasting simply, and the surface water flooding gap

• Why surface water is now the biggest and hardest-to-predict UK flood risk

• Launching with the product built and the government as first customer

• Working with academic founders versus commercial and developer teams

• Raising as a university spin-out: grants, angels and proof points

• Sequencing fundraising around insurer contracts and venture rounds

• Differences between UK and US investors and due diligence

• Customer-led international expansion versus country-by-country growth

• Marketing a preventative product to a market that underestimates its risk

• Case studies and social proof as the core marketing asset

• Selling climate adaptation without relying on climate belief

• Building a commercially driven business with a social mission