S8: E7. Series A Fundraising Advice for Deep Tech Climate Startups ft. Kate Ronayne (BGF)

Kate Ronayne is a deep tech climate investor from BGF. She particularly enjoys drawing on her time leading commercialisation activities from UK national laboratories to find, validate and back teams who are using exciting science to solve big challenges.

BGF invests in small to mid-sized UK businesses. As the most active equity investor in the UK and Ireland, they back a wide variety of ventures from climate to pet food.

During this series of bite-sized episodes, I’ll be speaking to investors from across the climate ecosystem to get their reflections on 2024, insights about the funding landscape for 2025, advice for founders looking to raise, and finding out what they’re most excited about for the coming year.

1:47 - Intro to BGF and their thesis

3:56 - Kate’s reflections on 2024 and the trends she noticed

5:12 - Has there been a shift away from asset-light propositions towards hard tech and deep tech?

7:03 - Which BGF climate companies have done particularly well and what helped them to succeed?

10:34 - Predictions for climate investment in 2025

12:49 - How will the US election result affect climate work in the EU and the opportunities for companies to expand into the US?

17:28 - What technologies Kate is excited about for 2025

22:12 - What does BGF look for in investments?

27:15 - How does BGF assess a team during due diligence?

29:32 - Kate’s advice for founders who want to approach BGF for fundraising

33:21 - How to contact BGF and Kate

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