My guest today is Alejandro Solé, chief investment officer of TechEnergy Ventures, the CVC unit for the energy transition division of Tecpetrol, an energy company that is part of Italian-Argentine industrial conglomerate Techint group, which has under its umbrella companies in areas like steelmaking, engineering and construction, and energy.

Solé has been in the role since 2021, and was previously CIO of Artha Capital’s energy fund, as well as a manager at Bain & Company.

The unit he now leads focuses on a range of cleantech technologies and has in its portfolio startups like includes the likes of geothermal technology developer Quaise, energy storage companies Quino Energy and Noon Energy, carbon management startups Svante and OXCCU and more.

Techenergy Ventures is unusual among CVCs in that it invests virtually exclusively in hardware-based technology. Where most investors like to target the lower capex and shorter development cycles of software, Solé talks about how, for a corporate like Techint, which likes to own and operate its own assets, it makes more sense to invest in hardware, as well as how important it is to do deep due diligence in the kinds of deep tech startups the look at.

He also talks about how LatAm has an important role not just in decarbonising itself, but in providing the materials to decarbonise the rest of the world – especially around the crucial energy transition ingredient that is lithium, how he manages a team split across the Atlantic, with some being in Italy and some in Argentina, and how the impact of regulatory systems – which are inherently a mix of incentives and disincentives – differ across geographies, with certain markets like the US having lots of carrot but not enough stick.

We also touch on how new geothermal energy technologies are popping up that will allow more baseload energy to be produced virtually anywhere, and not just in certain places, how we should be mindful of where to use clean power to achieve the most bang for its buck – and why that is not always in producing things like green hydrogen, as well as the advantages that come with having close and strong relationships with good coinvestors.

CVC Unplugged

Investing in the hard assets of cleantech – a conversation with TechEnergy Ventures’ Alejandro Solé

The CVC Unplugged podcast is a weekly show that brings you fascinating and wide-ranging conversations with leading corporate venture capital investors, subject matter experts, startup founders, journalists and other market participants to keep you informed of the most important trends affecting early-stage investing.

Hosted by Global Corporate Venturing's, Fernando Moncada Rivera, guests dive into strategy, market movements and drivers, best practices, macro trends and much more.

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