Where deep tech meets capital in pursuit of planetary abundance. Each episode features the investors and founders solving the hardest problems in climate, energy, industry, materials, and the built world. Host Sera Tajima, angel investor, explores how solutions get funded from pre-seed to scale, how the tech works, and how we leverage technology to consciously solve humanity's most pressing challenges.
Novobiom's Genomic AI Powers Fungi for Textile Waste & Bioremediation
Textile waste generates more greenhouse gas emissions than aviation and shipping combined, and most of what's produced ends up landfilled or burned. In this episode, Sera Tajima talks with Jean-Michel Scheuren, founder of Novobiom, about how fungi, nature's recyclers and chemists, can turn that waste into value. Jean-Michel breaks down how Novobiom uses fermentation, genomic modeling, and AI to separate cotton from polyester in blended textile waste, and how the same platform powers their bioremediation work decontaminating former industrial sites across Europe and their biotech partnership with L'Oréal. The conversation also touches on the shifting venture landscape for deep tech and biotech.
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00:00 – Intro
01:24 – How Jean-Michel got into mycellium
02:17 – Fungi as nature's recyclers and chemists
03:35 – Why fungi over chemistry
06:27 – The scale of textile waste
07:30 – Reframing waste as a resource
09:44 – Why cotton-polyester blends are "free food" for fungi
14:08 – The client request that started Novobiom's textile work19:06 – The L'Oréal partnership
34:39 – Expanding into bioremediation
36:16 – Why bioremediation is cost-effective but underused
52:40 – The shifting VC landscape for deep tech and biotech
53:04 – Lightning round
55:22 – The meeting that changed Jean-Michel's life
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21 Apr 2026
Endgame Capital Raised €8M First Close in 4 Months for Climate Denier Proof Startups
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Jinna Li and John Mairlot are the married GPs behind Endgame Capital (https://www.endgamecapital.vc/) — one of Europe's most commercially rigorous climate funds. In this episode, we get into their "climate denier proof" thesis, why they only back companies that win on economics alone, how they raised €8M in four months as first-time fund managers, and what European startups need to finally cross the chasm from lab to commercial contract.
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7 Apr 2026
Why 2150 Bet on Blue Frontier to Solve the Cooling Crisis
By 2035, cooling will consume more electricity than every data center on the planet combined. Yet, it remains one of the most underfunded problems in climate tech. In this episode, I sit down with Christian Hernandez, partner at 2150, one of Europe's leading urban tech funds, and Dr. Daniel Betts, founder of Blue Frontier, who spun his breakthrough cooling technology out of the National Renewable Energy Lab.
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[00:00] Christian's origin story: from Microsoft & Google to climate VC
[02:15] The contrarian bet: 50% of emissions, 11% of capital
[03:53] Why cooling? From comfort problem to survivability problem
[06:21] Daniel's story: from power generation to AC
[09:32] The technology was too good not to bring to market
[11:18] What actually happens to the grid during a heat wave
[13:50] What is a GigaCorn? Christian explains
[16:52] How Blue Frontier's technology works & liquid desiccant explained
[22:15] The refrigerant problem: 2,000x worse than CO2
[24:48] Why batteries aren't the answer: the California grid case study
[28:51] Cooling as a Service: Blue Frontier's business model
[31:56] What deep tech founders struggle with most
[37:11] "Ship what's on the truck," the no shiny things rule
[38:09] US vs. Europe: how 2150's pipeline has shifted
[39:36] Lessons from Fund 1: never underwrite subsidies
[40:36] Defense tech, dual use, and Article 9
[42:55] The unlock that would 10x the pace
[46:49] Lightning round
[48:04] Ichigo Ichie: the encounter that changed everything
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Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
121,818
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Spotify
4.9 / 5
37 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 54 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
44
Social presence
0
YouTube
82
Engagement
77
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