With the highly anticipated 0100 Conference Europe 2024 on the horizon, we had the privilege of engaging in a conversation with Beau-Anne Chilla, Partner at FORWARD.one, a prominent VC firm leading investments in Climate Tech. With a profound dedication to expediting the energy transition, Beau-Anne brings invaluable insights into the role of Climate Tech innovations in tackling climate change—a subject she will further delve into as a keynote speaker at the conference. Join us as we uncover Beau-Anne's expertise and explore the transformative potential of Climate Tech in shaping a sustainable future.
Recent Research by Pwc showed that the world needs to decarbonise seven times as fast as the current rate, to limit warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial averages. Climate Tech innovations are our only hope to accelerate the pace at which we as a society decarbonise. The Energy Transition is the largest and most important aspect of Climate Tech in that regard. As it is gaining momentum, so are the investment opportunities in this space.
When we started, deeptech and hardware investments in VC was a blue ocean. Now we see more and more VC's interested in the space. Forward.one applauds this development; true impact in Climate Tech comes from hardware investments and more co-investors are needed to make a huge success out of the untapped potential.
It is simple: we cannot solve climate change with software alone. Hardware is essential along the entire value chain of the energy transition, of electrifying households and the industry, of making the industry more energy efficient, and of capturing (past) emissions.
We have top-ranked technical universities in Europe that form the basis of the most innovative companies we encounter. Unfortunately, too often, founders with their great technology miss the commercial knowledge to scale their innovation in the market. We have experience in finding product market fit and building these sales teams for hardware companies.
Great question! The market evolves so swiftly that the promising areas in 5 years time will be completely different from what we see as promising today. But battery recycling, solving net congestion and storing captured CO2 are definitely areas I am currently looking into.
he third edition of 0100 International — organized by Zero One Hundred Conferences in partnership with the Milan City Council’s Department of Economic Development and Milano&Partners — brought together the global private markets community for a high-signal, execution-focused gathering held from October 27–29.
François Candelon, Partner for Value Creation & Portfolio Monitoring at Seven2, shares how the firm aligns every investment around a clear “exit animal”—a vision of the company at exit—and uses disciplined execution, AI-driven transformation, and sustainability as levers for resilience and premium valuations. From reengineering core processes with AI to embedding decarbonization into business strategy, Candelon explains how Seven2 builds companies that are not just exit-ready, but future-proof.
Private markets are entering a new era where trust, compliance, and technology converge. While public markets enjoy automation and transparency, private assets still depend on paper-based, fragmented systems. Antonio Chiarello, CEO of Weltix, argues that the next leap forward is not just digitization, but the creation of digital infrastructures that redefine ownership. In this conversation, he discusses why friction is structural rather than technological, how regulation enables innovation, and how programmable liquidity and transparency can channel more private capital into real economic growth.
