Every month we interview a promising startup or scale-up in the climate & energy tech ecosystem and ask them our 10 questions. With our platform (ZERO), we want to put these bold innovators on a pedestal and introduce them to our audience. Do you want to connect with this startup/scale-up, feel free to contact us at info@platformzero.co! 

Build a net zero future with your capital? Carbon Equity is a climate investing platform for alternative investments. These alternative investments include a.o. Venture Capital, Private Equity and Real Estate Classes. All these classes have in common that they are direct/primary investments into climate technology. In this way, Carbon Equity guarantees true and direct climate impact – whilst generating attractive financial returns. And we had the opportunity to present our ten questions to them!

10 Questions

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself, who are you and what makes you tick?

My name is Jacqueline van den Ende . I am the co-founder of Carbon Equity. I spent more or less half my career building companies and the other half investing in them. I love to build things and I love to learn. Entrepreneurship affords me the ability to do both. There is no steeper learning curve than having to build a company from scratch. But also few things are more rewarding than pulling it off and turning a split-second idea into a thriving company that lives way beyond yourself.

2. What is the core of your mission (the bold goal) that you are pursuing?

Our big hairy audacious goal is to move EUR 10billion of additional capital into true impact private equity over the next 10 years with at least 100k customers. I believe capital is one of the most powerful weapons to solve big societal challenges such as climate change. I also believe that when people invest they become ‘invested in’. I want to engage people in a positive way around huge challenges such as climate change by literally giving them the tools to make a change (in this case with their money) and affording them the opportunity to benefit from the upside too.

3. What are you building/developing with your organization (and where are you now)?

Carbon Equity is building the world’s first democratised impact private equity platform. We dramatically lower the barrier for next gen investors to invest alongside the world’s smartest and most successful investors in some of the world’s most impactful startups and scale-ups. By investing in impact private equity funds your money truly moves the needle on e.g. climate change and earns attractive returns.

4. What makes your team that you are working with, special?

Competence and passion. If I have learned one thing over the past 10 years of building companies is that talent is the single most important asset for a company. It makes all the difference. Every single person in our small team really carries the full organisation.

5. What is your view on our climate challenge and how do you want to contribute?

I believe there is no greater challenge within our lifetimes than climate change. The huge challenge facing climate change is a huge lack in sense or urgency. Covid and now the Ukraine crisis have shown that governments and corporates can respond with incredible speed and that they are willing to make decisions that are painful, at least in the short term. We need the same urgency and commitment when it comes to climate change. I want to contribute by building companies over the next 20-30 years which help battle climate change, with my weapon of choice being capital.

6. What is your view on your sector and what is needed to accelerate change?

I think particularly in the finance world there is a ton of confusion about what actually has impact and what does not. ESG investing in the stock market for example is a good way to improve financial returns (assuming companies with better environmental, social and governance standards perform better over the long run) but there is no evidence that it has any impact at all on the underlying companies. The same goes for divestment strategies. The only way to really have impact as an investor is when your investment changes the amount of impact a company has. That is why investing in startups, either directly or through funds has a lot of impact because these companies depend entirely on external capital, and the capital is directly invested in product development or growth. I think more transparency about the impact various financial solutions really have would avoid a lot of greenwashing and make sure capital flows to the highest impact initiatives.

7. What are some recent highlights that really make you proud?

To me it is really gratifying to see some early customers turn into true ambassadors who are so enthusiastic about Carbon Equity that they tell all of their friends and family and get them to join them in putting their capital towards true climate impact. I think when customers turn into ambassadors you know you are onto something.

8. What is the biggest challenge you see for your company to grow even faster? 

Carbon Equity enables people to invest in impact private equity, who never had such access before. This also means that we have a lot of educating to do to get people familiar with private equity and to make the experience as simple and user friendly as possible (e.g. by removing all the financial jargon).

9. Are there needs (network, funding, people) that our community could provide?

If you know anyone looking to invest in climate technology we greatly appreciate it if you spread the word about Carbon Equity. Furthermore we are always on the lookout for awesome people to join our team – so please check out the vacancies on our website.

10. What are the inspiring startups/scale-ups you think we should interview next?

Plantible, Agurotech, The Next Closet.

Enthousiastic about Carbon Equity or do you want to connect with Jacqueline? Contact us at info@platformzero.co and we will bring you in touch!