Emin Askerov
Cleantech FOAK Advisor

Cleantech Scaleup? Here's Your Real Problem, And Two Things To Do About It.

What does it mean for scaleups? With lithium-ion batteries locking down short-term storage, investors are now flooding the long-duration energy storage market, raising $582.4 million in Q2 2024 alone, according to PitchBook Inc. Key players are pitching everything from thermal energy to compressed gas. Highview Power and Rondo Energy are leading the charge, but here’s the catch: as grids absorb more renewables, the actual need for long-duration storage may not be as big as we

Is Nuclear Better Than Renewables for Decarbonization? That’s the Wrong Question. Here is why.

Australia can now run its grid on close to 100% renewables. What are the takeaways for cleantech scaleups?

🎙️ Reflecting on the Latest Climate Insiders Podcast with Nadav Steinmitz 🌍

The Battery Boom (no, not THAT one!): VC Funding Surges as Renewables Demand Grows

Who do you go to for the money and when? When you're scaling up from Lab to Nth-of-a-Kind (NOAK), understanding the capital stack is crucial. The picture from the Sightline Climate FOAK guide is a useful rough guide to the funding types available at different stages: 💡 Catalytic Capital:     - Stage: Lab and Pilot     - Description: Patient, risk-tolerant, and flexible investment capital that supports high-risk, innovative technologies. 🏛️ Government Funding:     - Stage: L

Good news at last. But progress still slow.  Morrow Batteries, founded in 2014, has finally opened its first 1 GWh factory after ten years and $206 million in investment. The factory will produce LFP batteries—nothing revolutionary, but solid progress for an EU battery industry that's been starved for good news. Unlike the fast-paced, high-risk approach of Northvolt, Morrow is taking its time—slow, deliberate steps. This first 1 GWh plant seems to be more about testing produc

Licensing, Buy-out or Project Finance? 

Investors think that hard tech climate scaleups lack generalist and financial expertise. While Founders agree only with the latter. Why? Source: https://planet-a.notion.site/BUILDING-AND-SCALING-CLIMATE-HARDWARE-A-PLAYBOOK-71e1b097041c49f69e31d4f3cb2de155 📖I’m reading the Building and Scaling Climate Hardware Playbook, and this picture struck me for two reasons. First, are the polarizing views of founders and investors. The gap is simply astonishing. Second, is the confidenc

We all love success stories, but the truth is, we learn best from failures.