Hey Startup Leapers 👋

This week, we’re spotlighting something urgent, inspiring, and deeply entrepreneurial: climate innovation.

Because while the headlines often focus on policy or protests, we’re here to talk about the founders who are rolling up their sleeves and building the future.

And where better to look than London Climate Action Week, which is wrapping up today.

Let’s get into it 👇

🌍 Climate Innovation from the Frontlines

We were especially proud to see friend of the pod Marta Krupinska take centre stage at LCAW with CUR8’s most oversubscribed event to date.

Marta opened the Carbon Removal Summit with a clear call: CDR (carbon dioxide removal) is no longer a “nice to have.”

It’s core infrastructure and it’s moving from niche to necessity.

What’s shifting?

• $8B has already been spent on carbon removals - expected to hit $60B by 2030

• The buyers now include aviation, real estate, and food - beyond just tech giants

• The green premium is fading - the next decade is about cost-effective climate action that protects both the planet and the balance sheet

Marta calls CDR the space race of the 21st century.

Want to know what it really takes to make that leap?

This week, we’re spotlighting two powerful founder journeys from the pod:

Marta, who left Big Tech to tackle carbon removals with CUR8, and Julia Collins, who’s turning regenerative agriculture into a data-driven climate engine.

🎧 Marta Krupinska, Co-Founder & CEO, CUR8

Before CUR8, Marta co-founded fintech startup Azimo and later led Google for Startups UK, supporting hundreds of founders.

But in her own words, she was “done selling money”.

She wanted to work on a problem that mattered at a planetary scale - and climate called.

At CUR8, Marta is building the infrastructure for carbon removals to become a serious, scalable financial asset.

Not just offsets - but verified, science-backed removal.

Here’s what you’ll learn from her episode:

🧬 Carbon removal is not the icing - it’s the base layer:  Marta breaks down why decarbonisation alone won’t get us to net zero.

CUR8’s platform helps companies actually remove carbon from the atmosphere, by aggregating and underwriting high-integrity credits from solutions like biochar, ocean-based capture, and enhanced rock weathering.

📦 How they’re doing it: CUR8 evaluates projects based on durability, co-benefits, and risk - then packages them into diversified portfolios companies can purchase with confidence.

It’s like the “Bloomberg Terminal for CDR.”

💼 The buyer landscape is shifting fast:  Marta names sectors like aviation and logistics as early movers - not because they want to be “green”, but because climate risk is becoming credit risk.

These industries are under pressure to prove action, not intent.

📈 The new climate finance mindset: Marta sees a future where CFOs (not just sustainability teams) drive carbon purchasing.

Her insight? If your climate product doesn’t speak to cost, compliance, and capital markets - it won’t scale.

🎧 Julia Collins, Founder of Planet FWD

Julia is no stranger to scaling ambitious companies - she made history as the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn.

But after exiting Zume Pizza, she turned her energy to the intersection of climate, food, and data.

Planet FWD helps food and personal care brands measure, model, and reduce their emissions - especially the hard-to-tackle Scope 3 emissions across their supply chains.

What makes this powerful:

🥕 Food brands are flying blind: Most don’t know the carbon intensity of their ingredients - let alone their packaging, distribution, or waste streams.

Planet FWD uses Life Cycle Assessments powered by big data & ML to fix that.

🧾 Case in point: Using Planet FWD, brands can simulate the emissions impact of switching oat suppliers or changing how they ship to retail - before a product hits shelves.

🌱 Regenerative ag at scale: Julia isn’t just preaching soil health - she’s built a network of over 30 regenerative farms whose practices are validated and integrated into the platform’s data engine.

💸 On funding climate tech: Julia shares how she had to turn some investors into students - educating them on carbon cycles, soil microbiomes, and the messy truth about offsets.

It’s a masterclass in pitching complex ideas with clarity.

📊 From story to spreadsheet: Planet FWD gives brands the evidence they need to make product-level carbon claims - critical as regulation tightens and greenwashing risks mount.

🚀 Ready to Leap?

If you’re climate-curious but don’t know where to start, here’s your leap:

• Look at sectors you understand - where is climate risk already showing up?

• Study the supply chain and trace the carbon.

• Ask: What would it take to make climate action “boringly easy” in this space?

We can’t wait to see what you build next.

Until next time,
Maria & Yvonne 💫

📚 Interesting Reads & Resources

1. Earthscale: UK-wide 12 month programme supporting climate tech startups

2. Hundreds of London Small Businesses Launch Without a Plan

3. Corporate Social Responsibility Grants are transforming African tech

Thanks for reading 💜

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