Eric, Cornelius, thank you so much for joining us.
Eric, this first question is for you.
Tell us a little bit about the work you're doing right now at Rondo.
Sure.
Well, at Rondo, the objective of the company is to take
intermittent renewable electricity and transform that
into base-load availability of industrial heat.
And the reason why we do that is--it's little known to most
people--but approximately 1/4 of global CO2 is due to industrial heat.
So industrial heat is just combusting fossil fuels on the
side of industrial processes to heat things up.
So that's the problem we're trying to solve.
In many areas of the world, intermittent renewable
electricity is the cheapest form of energy, and Rondo just makes
that--this intermittency--continuous, so it
could be used in industrial processes as steam heat or
combined heat power.
Expand on the challenges that are associated with financing
these green projects.
So, interesting question.
This area is projected to be something around a $3.5 trillion
infrastructure opportunity.
So it's it's one of the largest emerging classes of energy infrastructure.
The challenge of that is when you're developing
first-of-a-kind technology, you need to get from product and
technology development in the early stage to being able to
attract infrastructure, capital, and project finance.
And there's something in the industry called the "valley of death”.
And that's where, you know, startups that are venture backed
are not able to attract infrastructure finance or fund
their first-of-a-kind projects.
And Rondo was very lucky that we have a great relationship with
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which is a platform backed by
Bill Gates, and that Breakthrough Energy Ventures has
a fund called Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, which is
specifically focused on this.
And last year or, sorry, earlier this year, we announced that we
have three first-of-a-kind projects that are already
financed through this--through Breakthrough Energy
Catalyst--and through the European Investment Bank.
So that's a €75 million nondilutive investment in those
projects from these two entities that allows us to bridge that
valley of death and become project financeable.
Cornelius, what are the success factors for scale-ups?
Every situation is always a bit different and, and I think there
are a couple of patterns that I see emerge, you know, over the
discussions over the last few months and years.
One is I think, you know, don't go it alone.
You know, what could be partners, what could be
corporate partners, what could be, you know, other partners in
industry or associations or other networks. I mean,
breakthrough energy is probably a good example for that.
Don't go it alone.
The other one, what I oftentimes see happening, there's a shift
in mindset in priorities, etcetera, as you move from
technology development to commercial scaling up and
go to market.
And, on the commercial side, you know, to be laser focused on,
you know, what really matters commercially speaking, and to
kind of double down on that rather than, you know, being
tempted to chase after a bunch of, you know, shiny objects that
are always there.
And lastly, and I think again, that depends very much on the
industry or the sector, you know, spend time to understand
how the rules of the game are made and, you know, who defines
them, which are the groups, the tables, you know, where you want
to be sitting in terms of standard settings, in terms of,
you know, regulatory environment, in terms of market
mechanism, chain of custody, etcetera, etcetera. Because that
is typically, you know, where up and coming newer companies
aren't that well represented, but it's super important.
Eric, do you have anything to add?
You know, I, I think from the perspective of a company that's
moving across this chasm to first of a kind, the seriousness
of the challenge, I don't think it's to be underestimated.
So all the early-stage focus on product and technology
development is a challenge.
And once you get to this, it's more about company development.
So how do you build out construction management?
How do you build out supply chain?
How do you build out the legal functions of your company?
So this challenge of, you know, how to move from technology
company to infrastructure development company is as much a
company building exercise as it is about raising capital.
Thank you both so much.
Thank you.