This episode is part of our Capital Series hosted by Jason Jacobs. This series explores a diverse range of capital sources and the individuals who drive them. From family offices and institutional LPs to private equity, government funding, and more, we take a deep dive into the world of capital and its critical role in driving innovation and progress.
Fabian Heilemann is the founder and CEO of AENU. Fabian is a long-time entrepreneur, and after several successful exits, he became very concerned about climate. He started with his personal carbon footprint and then evolved to looking at what he could do internally when he was a traditional, financially-oriented venture capitalist. He looked at the footprints of the portfolio companies of that firm and then ultimately came to realize that he wanted to build a new kind of investment firm that puts impact front and center without being concessionary in any way from a return standpoint.
Jason and Fabian have a great discussion about his journey to starting AENU, some of the core principles the firm stands for and how they go about it, where they are on that journey, how they got going, and where Fabian sees AENU going in the future. And of course how that fits into his thoughts on the broader transition and what we can do collectively to accelerate progress.
In this episode, we cover:
- [4:21] An overview of AENU
- [5:59] Fabian's decision to work on climate
- [12:58] His firm's early structure and evolution
- [19:26] AENU's initial vision and its current strategy
- [28:50] The relationship between new technologies, sustainability, and their impact on established industries, corporations, and policymakers
- [39:10] Fabian's experience trying to start a climate sleeve in traditional VC
- [50:07] AENU's check size, portfolio construction, and the firm's scope
- [54:23] Fabian's thoughts on the need for collaboration
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Episode recorded on Sept 6, 2023 (Published on Sept 20, 2023)
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant
