Investment and Innovation in ClimateTech | Green Career Series
Log-in details and reminders will be emailed by Zoom (under AIM SG name) automatically following your registration. Please do look for them under your spam or junk email folder in case you don't see them and add our email hello@asiainstituteofmentoring.com to your safe list/whitelist to receive the login, news & updates.
Synopsis
The rise in extreme weather conditions and natural disasters all over the world is damaging food, property and causing loss of life and jobs, prompting governments and businesses to tackle the climate crisis. Technology can be a powerful solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and with the push to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, investment and innovation in ClimateTech is growing.
ClimateTech involves the development of digital tools that are explicitly focused on reducing emissions, or addressing the impacts of global warming. Examples include innovations like electric vehicles or digital tools and applications related to agricultural systems, construction, building management and the analysis of big environmental data.
In Asia, investment in ClimateTech is accelerating and investors are pouring money into startups to develop solutions that tackle environmental challenges. At the same time, consumers are becoming more environmentally conscious, increasing the demand and investment for green goods and services.
In this webinar, we discuss the trends and opportunities for investment and innovation in ClimateTech, the barriers and possible commercial and policy solutions.
Erika Balzarelli
Vice President & Entrepreneur in Residence, OLAM Ventures
Erika brings 20 years of experience of “360 degree agriculture” – from consulting, strategy, brand and marketing management across international development, private sector commercial work to venture building.
Erika holds a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Groningen, Netherlands and a Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard University, USA, Erika has worked across Europe, Africa, USA and APAC – mostly focusing on developing and/or implementing high impact projects within the international development and/or agriculture space. Erika speaks seven languages including native Italian and Dutch, fluent in English, French, German, Spanish and conversational Hindi.
Erika currently is VP at Olam Ventures, building corporate innovation solutions and ventures on the intersection of agriculture, digital and sustainability.
In mid 2021 Erika founded the boutique consultancy The Sustainable Smallholder, an Impact and Innovation studio working with companies who want to transition smallholder farmers to sustainable production. Erika also serves on the Board of Advisors for start-ups: AgriG8, bringing fintech to smallholder rice farmers, AgroSolar delivering solar powered water pumps and irrigation systems to smallholders in Cambodia, Myanmar and Bangladesh, Sustainable Growers empowering women coffee farmers becoming sustainable across the entire value chain.
Erika was the Asia Pacific Lead for Sustainable Rice at Corteva Agriscience. She led the strategy and implementation to position Corteva as a thought leader in sustainable rice production and also led innovative business models to reach and educate the rice farmers at the bottom of the pyramid. She was Marketing & Strategy Director South Europe for Nufarm, Director at the Agricultural Transformation Agency in Ethiopia, strategy consultant for Dalberg in India, and was with Syngenta for 9 years where she won the “Syngenta Purpose Award 2012”.
Shafkat Fahmid
Chief Strategy Officer of app.interseed.co; Director of Corporate Relations of Young Sustainable Impact Southeast Asia (YSI SEA)
Shafkat started his career as a lawyer and transitioned into tech policy and governance. Shafkat has been building communities and ecosystems for Green Innovation since 2018 through his work with Interseed, YSI SEA and UNDP Bangkok.
Interseed is an online community platform for regional green entrepreneurs and talents looking to grow in the sustainability sector and scale their impact. Under YSI SEA, his team has incubated 27 sustainability startups and worked closely with entrepreneurs from Southeast Asia to build and deploy their solutions in the communities.
Su-E Yap
Vice President, Wavemaker Impact
Su-E is passionate about impact and development at scale, and solving big problems like climate change. As Vice-President at Wavemaker Impact, Southeast Asia's first VC climate tech venture builder, she leads the venture build program where she works closely with proven entrepreneurs to build and launch sustainability-focused businesses that have the potential to drive decarbonisation at scale.
Prior to joining Wavemaker Impact, Su-E was part of the leadership for McKinsey’s South East Asia sustainability practice.
Nimisha Tailor
Competition and Regulation Specialist
Nishima is a competition and regulation specialist with international experience. She has advised tech companies, central banks and international organisations like World Bank and OECD in the areas of digital finance, digital trade, data governance, e-commerce and logistics.
Nimisha is passionate about developing the next generation of leaders and mentors young female professionals and university students with career planning. As a mentor for the NexGen Keynote Women Speakers programme, she has supported talented women to make impactful speeches on stage by drawing on her work experience at consulting firms and government agencies in UK, New Zealand, Singapore and Australia (secondment).
About Asia Institute of Mentoring
Asia Institute of Mentoring (AIM) is a non-profit volunteer based organization with a mission to bring mentoring to the spotlight in Asia, raise the quality of mentors and the standard of mentoring, bringing mentoring to all facets of society to impact millions of lives.
We are committed to create an Asia-based people-powered mentoring movement to move people … to learn, to share, to give forward, to transform, to harness the deep human potential, and create social impact – bringing about a kinder, gentler, more inclusive, just and sustainable world for all.
Join us as a member here.
