20 Women Driving The Future of Climate Tech: Part 5

Boosting the involvement of women in climate tech is about more than gender equality, it’s about putting your money where your mouth is in terms of sustainability.  

Climate action is more than just reducing our carbon footprint. It is a holistic approach to the climate challenge that looks at the governmental, environmental, social, and economic facets of the problem. To address the economic challenge of climate change we must address the fact that women make up a large part of the labor force and their full and equal participation in climate action is vital.
 
Regarding the socio-cultural facets of climate action, women have historically had less access to resources, fewer rights, and little say in decision-making, making them particularly vulnerable to climate hazards. In addition, women and men have disparate knowledge sets based on their gender roles and women will have different ideas about disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and mitigation. Directly involving women in the leadership and climate tech community can promote a more equitable and climate-resilient future.
 
For the above reasons, we have been highlighting women in leadership roles in climate tech. In this ongoing series, we aim to highlight the female founders who are both creating the technology needed to address climate change and those helping drive and finance it. These role models inspire us to keep creating and supporting climate innovation and, in doing so, spur on the positive feedback cycle for other climate-focused women!
 

For more useful resources on female founders and investors, we recommend taking a look at our first editions of Women Driving the Future of Climate Tech: Part 1Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

As this is our 5th installment, we now have 100 women driving the future of climate change, so we invite you to check out our full running list of all 100 women. 

 If you know of any female-led teams doing or funding climate-positive work, we hope you share it with us in this form.

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1. Miroslava Duma

Founder

Company: PANGAIA

Climate Action Area: Materials

Company Mission: PANGAIA is a materials science company that brings innovations and patents into the world through lifestyle products.

2. Riddhima Yadav

Investment Analyst

Firm: Goldman Sachs

Climate Action Area: Climate Tech, transportation

Company Mission: We’re deploying $750 billion across investing, financing and advisory activities by 2030 and bringing our commercial expertise to help our clients accelerate climate transition and advance inclusive growth.

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3. Dominique Airey

Co-founder, COO

Company: Sward

Climate Action Area: Carbon management

Company Mission: Sward provides the software and support enabling farmers to measure accurately, develop and sell carbon removal credits to corporate buyers committed to taking effective climate action.

4. Buffy Price

Co-founder, COO

Company: Carbon Re

Climate Action Area: Carbon Management

Company Mission: Carbon Re use AI software to achieve operational efficiencies, reduce costs and cut carbon emissions in heavy industries.

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5. Francesca Whitehead

Investor

Firm: G2 Venture Partners

Climate Action Area: Climate Tech

Company Mission: G2 Venture Partners is a venture and growth investing firm focused on emerging technologies driving sustainable transformation across traditional industries. We support entrepreneurs who are unlocking new paths to environmentally and socially responsible economic growth.

6. Maija Itkonen

Co-founder, CEO

Company: Onego Bio

Climate Action Area: Food Tech

Company Mission: For us, smart protein is a piece of cake. It’s actually not so difficult to produce egg white proteins in a bioreactor. It’s much more difficult to change attitudes.

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7-8. Cindy Moncada and Natalia Palacios

Co-Founders

Company: Viridis

Climate Action Area: Circular Markets

Company Mission: We develop a digital passport based on blockchain technology that rewards consumers with tokens for the purchase of sustainable products, helping green companies to generate brand value.

9. Chante Harris

Director

Firm: Second Muse

Climate Action Area: Climate Tech

Company Mission: At SecondMuse, we build resilient economies. Economies in which all people and communities are able to contribute, benefit, and when faced with hardship, recover quickly. We believe that economies are easily shaped and influenced in their infancy, so we start by supporting entrepreneurs and the ecosystems around them.

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10. Monja Mühling

Co-founder, Managing Director

Company: Smartlane

Climate Action Area: Mobility

Company Mission: Smartlane Transport Intelligence is a cloud-based software for transport optimization for general cargo logistics.

11. Kristine Fredriksen

Co-founder, CEO

Company: Ocean Oasis

Climate Action Area: Energy Production

Company Mission: We utilize the power of waves to deliver desalinated water to shore where needed in a flexible, efficient way and without emissions, through putting Norway’s unique offshore competence to work.

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12. Laura Zizzo

Co-founder, CEO

Company: Manifest Climate

Climate Action Area: Edutech

Company Mission: Manifest Climate SaaS platform aims to help organizations learn, govern, disclose and act with climate confidence. Their approach uses a combination of climate software & data and support from dedicated climate strategists.

13. Victoria Slivkoff

Executive Managing Director

Firm: Extreme Tech Challenge

Climate Action Area: Climate Tech

Company Mission: The Extreme Tech Challenge is the largest global platform showcasing the world’s most innovative, purpose-driven startup companies.

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14. Julia Marsh

Co-founder, CEO

Company: Sway Bioplastics

Climate Action Area: Materials

Company Mission: We make seaweed-based packaging that replenishes the social and ecological systems harmed by petroleum plastics. Sway’s flexible packaging solution technically outperforms petroleum plastic, too.

15. Ellie Mackay

Co-founder, CEO

Company: Ellipsis

Climate Action Area: Waste Management

Company Mission: Ellipsis Earth uses machine learning and aerial imagery to remotely identify, map and track plastic waste.

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16. Dr. Tara Karimi

Co-founder, CTO

Company: Cemvita Factory

Climate Action Area: Biotechnology

Company Mission:
Cemvita partner with organizations and heavy industries to identify how synthetic biology can can be used to revolutionize their business. This is done by using CO2 or methane as a feedstock (CCUS) or by replacing energy intensive or chemically invasive processes.

17. Christina Lie

Chief Investment Officer

Firm: Climate Point

Climate Action Area: Climate Tech

Company Mission: ClimatePoint is a digital platform and innovation firm that helps businesses uncover, choose and acquire the most environmentally impactful solutions, so that we all can move beyond net zero. We want to partner with businesses who aspire to make a meaningful contribution.

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18. Rachel Delacour

Co-Founder, CEO

Company: Sweep

Climate Action Area: GHG and Storage

Company Mission: Sweep has developed a tool for reducing, measuring & communicating the carbon emissions in a business as well as its value chain.

19. Emily Morris

Founder, CEO

Company: Emrgy

Climate Action Area: Energy Production

Company Mission: Emrgy develop hydroelectric solutions that eliminate the need for construction or dams.

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20. Nina Heir

CEO

Firm: Katapult Accelerator

Climate Action Area: Climate Tech

Company Mission: We invest in and accelerate tech start-ups with a positive impact on the world. Our track record of investing in and running accelerator programs, accelerates the growth of tech start-ups by providing training, technical expertise, financing, and also by gaining access to our extensive global network.

GET ACCESS TO THE FULL RUNNING LIST DATABASE OF WOMEN IN CLIMATE TECH

The database is accessible to the members of our community as part of other exclusive content we provide to them. We have also have databases of climate tech VCs, accelerators, startups and more. Learn more about the membership options here. 

Contribute to the Women in Climate Tech Running List.

Have a suggestion for a person to add to our Women Driving Climate Tech running list? Please submit here and we will be in touch.

Want to learn about more amazing women in ClimateTech?

Check out the previous posts in this series.

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