Episode 112 - Mary King - Aligned Climate Fund

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Hi Impactful Listener!

In this episode of the Female VC Lab Podcast, host Barbara Bickham sits down with Mary King, Vice President at the Aligned Climate Fund, the venture strategy of Aligned Climate Capital. Mary shares her journey into venture capital, discusses the fund's investment thesis focused on decarbonizing infrastructure, and offers insights into the evolving landscape of climate tech, energy innovation, and the future of venture capital.

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Key Points Discussed

• Origins and Motivation: Mary’s path to climate-focused venture capital, mentorship, and early industry exposure.

• Aligned Climate Fund Thesis: Investing in companies advancing the clean energy transition across sectors like clean energy, electric transport, infrastructure, and sustainable land use.

• Approach to Energy Innovation: Interest in both intermittent and base load clean energy like solar, battery storage, and geothermal, with commentary on nuclear and waste-to-fuel technologies.

• Emerging Tech and Distributed Solutions: Exploration of novel solutions such as point source carbon capture and microgrid technologies for resilience and distributed power.

• VC Landscape Transformation: The anticipated role of AI and data in speeding up due diligence and investment processes, especially within climate venture capital.

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Chapters

• 00:00 Introduction and guest background

• 00:24 Mary’s inspiration to join venture capital

• 00:50 Aligned Climate Fund’s investment thesis and focus

• 01:57 Discussion on geothermal, nuclear, and waste-to-fuel energy sources

• 03:40 Current areas of research: Power electronics and geothermal applications

• 04:53 Investment in point source carbon capture and the shift to distributed energy

• 07:12 Outlook on the evolution of venture capital and climate VC

• 09:21 How listeners can connect with Mary

Full Topic Guide

Accelerating the Clean Energy Transition: Inside Aligned Climate Fund’s Venture Strategy

The Road to Climate Venture Capital

Mary King took an unconventional journey into venture capital, ignited by a formative co-op experience at Hercules Capital in the Bay Area. Guided by a mentor who encouraged her to explore clean tech and venture investments, Mary’s career quickly aligned with her passion for environmental impact and sustainable innovation.

Aligned Climate Fund’s Investment Thesis

As the venture arm of Aligned Climate Capital, the fund’s core mission is to accelerate the global clean energy transition. Mary describes a dual strategy: one team acquires large-scale solar and battery storage assets, while the venture side—where she sits—targets seed through Series B companies offering proven solutions in clean energy, resilient infrastructure, electric transportation, and sustainable land use. Their emphasis is on businesses capable of meaningful climate mitigation, adaptation, or resilience today.

Exploring Diverse Energy Solutions

Mary highlights the broad range of projects the fund pursues, from intermittent renewables like solar to base load solutions such as geothermal. The fund recently invested in XGS, a company developing large-scale, closed-loop geothermal projects, exemplifying their commitment to diversified, resilient energy sources. While noting the massive potential of nuclear energy, Mary clarifies that nuclear is outside their current mandate. Waste-to-fuel technologies are also on their radar, but tend to be too early-stage or capital-intensive for their check sizes at this time.

Power Electronics, Distributed Energy, and the Move Toward Resilience

Keeping a finger on the pulse of emerging tech, Mary has been delving into power electronics that could bolster capacity and grid resiliency—an area with clear incentives for utility adoption. The conversation turns to distributed decarbonization, microgrids, and point source carbon capture (like their investment in CarbonClip), which offer flexible, resilient alternatives to traditional power structures. The fund actively explores geothermal for heating and cooling, as well as affordable housing applications where localized carbon capture at combined heat and power facilities could drive meaningful sustainability.

How Venture Capital is Evolving

Looking ahead, Mary forecasts a transformation in venture capital driven by AI-powered due diligence, enabling faster, more thorough deal flow and pattern recognition. For climate VC in particular, she anticipates that maturing technologies will "come down the risk and cost curve" more rapidly, opening new investment opportunities. The abundance of data and automation in analysis will empower investors to spot trends, provide preliminary feedback, and facilitate even greater innovation across cleantech.

Notable Quotes from the Guest

Fun Facts or Interesting Tidbits

1. Mary’s Venture Origin Story: Mary’s journey into venture capital started with a college co-op at Hercules Capital, where a mentor sparked her curiosity for the clean tech space.
   

2. Geothermal and Beyond: Aligned Climate Fund recently invested in a large-scale, closed-loop geothermal company—highlighting their commitment to various clean energy sources, not just solar.
   

3. Mary Really Reads Her LinkedIn DMs: Mary admits she actually reads (and tries to respond to) all her LinkedIn direct messages—so it’s a legit way to contact her!

Episode Resource: Learning, Reading, and Listening

In the episode, Mary King shared various resources she is currently learning from, reading, or listening to. Here are those resources:

• Power electronics (Mary shared she is learning a lot about power electronics and solutions that increase capacity and resiliency for utilities.)
  

• Geothermal for heating and cooling (Mary mentioned she is looking into geothermal applications for heating and cooling.)
  

• CarbonClip (Mary mentioned an investment in a company called CarbonClip, which focuses on point source carbon capture. Learn more at https://www.carbonclip.com/ if available.)
  

• LinkedIn (Mary noted she actively reads her LinkedIn DMs, suggesting she uses LinkedIn as an ongoing resource for connection and information. https://www.linkedin.com/in/marybking/)

No specific podcasts, books, or articles were named in this episode, but these topics and resources reflect Mary King's current areas of focus and interest discussed in the conversation.

Featured Guest Bio

Mary King is a Vice President on Aligned Climate Capital’s venture strategy, Aligned Climate Fund (ACF), leading deal sourcing, due diligence, and investment execution. ACF invests in early-stage companies utilizing proven technologies across clean energy, efficient buildings, electric transport, and sustainable land use. Previously, Mary worked as an investor at Backcast Partners.

• LinkedIn

Fund Information

Aligned Climate Capital closed its $85M second venture fund, ACF2, doubling its first fund’s size. ACF2 invests in proven, scalable technologies in clean energy, infrastructure, electric transport, and sustainable land use, with backing from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and others. Aligned has raised $145M through its venture strategy.

• Aligned Climate Capital LinkedIn

• Aligned Climate Capital Website

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Best,
Barbara