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Caroline Walerud is a Swedish entrepreneur and Partner at Walerud Ventures, a deep-tech investment company that focuses on early-stage green tech startups.
She also co-founded Volumental, a company that developed a cloud-based, 3D-scanning technology to create models to customize products and services. Walerud co-founded Volumental in 2012 together with three computer vision experts.
In this episode, we discuss:
- the most hands-on investment model in the World. Walerud invests and acts as a co-founder
- why Europe seems to trust more finance experts than entrepreneurs as fund managers
- the different roles one can play in Climate Tech Today
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ABOUT CLIMATE INSIDERS:
Climate Insiders is brought to you by Climentum Capital, a Seed+ and Series A cleantech European venture capital firm focused on funding and scaling climate-positive ventures that cut down on CO2 emissions.
If you are interested in how smart capitalism combined with mission-driven founders building innovative tech startups can overcome our climate crisis and build a better future, you’ve come to the right place.
Check us out at: https://www.climateinsiders.co and https://www.climentum.com
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ABOUT THE GUEST:
Caroline Walerud is Partner at Walerud Ventures, a deep-tech pre-seed investment firm.
They are the first investors in Klarna, and investors in GreenTech and deep tech companies like Midsummer, Swedish Algae Factory, SatCube and Graphmatech
Caroline has been an entrepreneur since age 14 and has been part of many startup journeys. Now she splits her time between two startups where she is Chairman and Cofounder:
-Volumental - creating custom shoes through the use of 3d scanning and AI
-And AirForestry - Re-inventing Forestry with the use of electric drones.
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SHOW NOTES:
00:00Start
01:50 - Maternity leave and coming back to work
02:20 - Introduction to Walerud Ventures
03:47 - Deciding who Walerud Ventures wants to work with
05:30 - Deciding which project to continue
06:52 - How do investors feel when the company pulls out?
08:17 - U.S. VC compared to Europe. Are startups everyone’s beginning?
09:45 - Main reasons for differences between the U.S and Europe
13:50 - How can more VCs emulate Walerud board model?
15:31 - The dynamics of the company
17:32 - How does the selection of projects work?
19:49 - Use of drones in forestry. How did Walerud pick this venture?
22:33 - Regulations on forestry
25:14 - The transition from traditional jobs to the climate fight. Which sector of climate should people join?
28:33 - Investor vs entrepreneur who is the better option?
30:53 - The natural flow from entrepreneurship to becoming an investor
32:47 - Rapid fire round
35:59 - Outro
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ABOUT THE HOST:
Yoann Berno https://www.linkedin.com/in/yberno/ After a career spent building and investing in top tech startups, Yoann is now a founding member and General Partner at Climentum Capital focused on investing in game-changing technological solutions to our worsening climate crisis.
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To learn more about CLIMENTUM CAPITAL and apply for funding, please visit https://www.climentum.com
To become an LP and invest in one of Climentum’s upcoming funds, get in touch at: https://www.climentum.com/contact-form
And don't forget to SUBSCRIBE to our NEWSLETTER at https://www.climateinsiders.co
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Climentum
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/climate-insiders
Caroline Walerud - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cwalerud/
Jane Walerud - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janewalerud/
Bengt Walerud - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bengt-walerud-18a955/
Sifted - https://sifted.eu/articles/vc-experience-operational-vs-consultancy/
Volumental - https://volumental.com
Air Forestry - https://www.airforestry.com/en/
Partner at Walerud Ventures
Caroline was awarded Forbes 30 under 30 Europe Leaderboard 2016, #1 Swedish Supertalent of the Year 2013, and is cited as one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs under 30 and one of Sweden’s most powerful business people. She has advised the Swedish government on startup policy, and she promotes entrepreneurship through Sting Incubator's advisory board and Prince Daniel’s Fellowship. She is a mentor at the deep tech incubator Creative Destruction Lab’s climate stream. In 2022 she was included in EYL40 as one of Europe’s foremost leaders under 40 by Friends of Europe. She studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University.
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