With international actions on halting climate change showing no signs of progress, the mission to save the planet and the environment has been left to startups, said Jana Budkovskaja, the head of Beamline Accelerator.
"That's why I'm here — because I truly believe that these are the only ones who can save, only startups. All the, in a good way, crazy guys who don't believe that something is impossible. They have passion. They have ideas. These are the scientists, these crazy scientists, the ones who argue with obvious things, the ones who argue with corporations who say, but we have done like this," Budkovskaja said in the episode.
Beamline is a Tallinn-headquartered accelerator working with pre-seed and seed-stage cleantech startups across Europe.
We covered a wide range of topics ranging from pandas and climate change to greenwashing.
What is cleantech? How does it differ from greentech?
Beamline invests in teams and provides them with a 3-6 month program and an alumni club.
Beamline's current batch is focused on deep tech and material science and uses non-equity money from Estonia's Ministry of Climate.
Jana shared her personal journey into the cleantech sector, starting from her love for nature and animals as a child.
In Kiikla, Mäetaguse abandoned mines are used as a renewable energy source for heating a village.
Beamline aims to be a bridge between the startups and the policymakers, governance, and corporates, who have a high level of inertia and resistance to change.
The future challenges with growing the fund, accelerator and the alumni club of Beamline.