1. Tell me a bit about yourself. What do you do?

I like to describe myself as a business student in the day, investor + trader by night, and hospitality photographer in between.

In terms of finance/investing, my journey started in 2015 when I dabbled in fixed income and commodities before shifting focus to forex, equities, and derivatives in 2020. That was right when the pandemic hit, and as you know, we saw one of the most significant dips — in fact, it was the single largest crash since the 2007/2008 Global Financial Crisis — but the market quickly bounced back faster than we’ve ever seen, and the rest is history. I think it was the perfect time to be exposed because you had to make big, bold bets. Many lost a lot of money, but those who took profits also won big.

After that, I joined a Web3/FinTech VC in 2022, where I got into DeFi. Since then, I’ve left to do angel investments in ClimateTech/Web3 and fulfil some other obligations. I now serve as an Advisor at 4WARD.VC, where I work with some of the best and brightest entrepreneurs to tackle the climate crisis.

One of the things I hold closest to my heart is sustainability, which is why it just made so much sense for me to join 4WARD.VC’s journey when the opportunity arose. These guys are tackling the issue at its roots, mobilising capital to empower under-financed early-stage climate startups often overlooked by the top dogs simply because of the economics of VC, where you have a certain amount of capital to deploy. But that leaves these smaller upstarts with solutions to very real problems struggling to raise.

Other than that, I run a creative agency where we’ve worked with some of the largest hospitality firms to redefine their story, I’m an avid traveller, and love playing golf.

2. What sparked your interest in green investing?

Those who know me will know that I dislike inefficiencies and am always thinking of better ways to do things, which is why when I noticed our world starting to change, from rising sea levels that will engulf low-lying islands like Kiribati in the Pacific to the more extreme weather conditions across the globe, I knew I had to do something and that there had to be a better way around this.

So that’s what I did. I started researching, reading, and speaking to different people about what could be done. And around that time, I came across a course on Sustainable Business Strategy by Harvard Business School’s Rebecca Henderson. That was the catalyst that showed me: “Hey, look, there is something we can actually do about this. There is a way out of this crisis. But to do it, we’re going to need purpose-driven leaders willing to act, willing to make big bets on our future.” I also realised that the system was broken — today’s capitalism is wildly out of whack, a lot of firms are getting away scot-free without paying for the damage they cause, and that is hardly fair.

Now, I’m an advocate for sustainability and play my small role by investing in businesses solving the sustainability crisis. The way I see it, it’s not even about taking risks at this point. We can entirely forget about business if we don’t have a planet. So, the answer as to what to do is obvious.

3. What are some green investments you’re most proud of?

I’ve stakes in a couple of ClimateTech startups and am proud of all the founders I work with; everyone is working on solutions to address pertinent challenges. One particularly memorable investment was in REplace Energy, which just completed its $500k pre-seed round with participation from Techstars.

In a nutshell, REplace helps developers find optimal sites to construct renewable energy projects like solar. You can think of it as a search engine of sorts for these developers to find suitable construction sites for renewable energy projects in a couple of clicks.

Traditionally, developers relied on what’s known as a Geographic Information System, or GIS in short. The GIS essentially supplies raw data on different data points needed to make a decision on the ideal construction site, like grid connection, land availability, and permits. But that’s where it stopped — they were left on their own to rank these plots. As a result, it’s an extremely fragmented, tedious, and inefficient process, and high failure rates are commonplace — something like 80% during the developmental stage — when developers eventually find out they can’t build due to the landscape or grid.

REplace, conversely, gives you clear and actionable ranks on optimal parcels after checking all possibilities with a predetermined set of parameters. The technology behind this is complex, but at a high level, REplace started working with publicly available data before eventually developing a proprietary algorithm that makes this possible.

I believe REplace’s work will revolutionise the industry; it’s going to help more developers see that renewable energy projects are feasible and jump on the bandwagon, which in turn will catalyse the shift away from fossil fuels and show that it’s actually possible. That’s the end goal, at least.

4. What are some techniques you use to evaluate the environmental impact of a potential investment?

I’ll be upfront: Evaluating the environmental impact of investments is not as straightforward as, say, evaluating traditional financial metrics. There is often a lot of subjectivity and discretion involved in the process.

That being said, there are tools and frameworks to help with this, like the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards. Personally, I look for companies with a strong sense of purpose ingrained in their culture, as I believe it all starts with what employees believe they’re here to do. There has been mounting research that purpose drives performance, and the most dynamic organisations have a strong sense of purpose. Lastly, I look for companies that have clear sustainability goals and reporting mechanisms in place.

Beyond evaluating the environmental impact, I also look at a founder’s track record and the startup’s traction when making investment decisions. These are pretty standard things for all VCs.

5. What is an example of a green business you believe has great potential but faces significant challenges?

Instead of talking about a specific business, I’ll share about a niche I think holds tremendous potential but currently faces some roadblocks.

I was recently doing some research into green financing and underwriting, in particular, looking at credit rating agencies specialising in measuring, underwriting, and assessing green loans. For those who don’t know, credit rating agencies assign scores rating a borrower’s ability to repay debt and assessing the likelihood of default.

And while I think this holds great potential, it’s hard for new players to scale as the industry is too commoditised and already dominated by prominent players like your Moody’s and S&P. Credit rating agencies typically have long sales cycles and earning trust with clients isn’t easy; they must first establish credibility, but this requires immense capital for brand building and so on — banks are likely to turn to players with an established reputation rather than a startup. Case in point, Grab, Southeast Asia’s first decacorn, previously tried to design its own credit scoring engine, but this was really tough.

Presently, most banks collect proprietary data for green financing. While this is a taxing process, it’s one that’s necessary. Banks are unlikely to outsource their underwriting process to a third-party solution since it’s the core of their business. A good analogy is like a VC firm outsourcing its deal sourcing and due diligence processes to a third-party provider. That’s just something that would never happen because finding deals and making the right investments is what VCs do for a living.

I say all this not to sound pessimistic, but rather, to caution that it isn’t going to be an easy ride. Nonetheless, I think this niche holds great potential and is something I’m keeping a close eye on. There are three things I’d say to builders in the space. First is to think very deliberately about your go-to-market, customer acquisition strategy, and how you will scale. The second is to keep in mind that you won’t be replacing a bank’s decision-making process. Instead, your solution will aid a bank’s underwriting process by supplying it with the data it needs. Last but not least is to consider how you’re going to be collecting data, whether via satellite or on the ground, and about the accuracy of this data you’re collecting.

6. How do you balance financial returns with making an environmental and social impact?

This is something I think about all the time. I’ll tackle this question from a firm’s point of view because if the firm does well, then investors are happy too.

There’s this widespread notion that being sustainable leads to increased costs, but the truth is that there are instances where that might not be the case — companies need to find the sweet spot where their strategies allow them to do both good and well; I call this profit with purpose. The reason many leaders are hesitant to integrate sustainable practices into their operations — and here I am talking about corporations that truly do good for the environment and our society, not greenwashing or a one-off PR stunt — is that doing so often involves the acceptance of lower returns in the short-term before gains are realised over the long run. And for many big firms accountable to shareholders, that’s hard to accept.

To do so, it’s my belief that we must fundamentally start with purpose, think about what the organisation is here to achieve, and have the guts to make the tough calls it takes to get there. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: mismanaged, disruption ruins firms, but handled well, it leads to sustained competitive advantages. It’s often hard for large firms to disrupt themselves as they typically aren’t as agile and, therefore, are uncomfortable with taking new risks that might not turn out to be successful. They’d rather sit contented with their current position, and why not, right? They’re earning healthy margins, the management team gets paid well, and shareholders get their dividends. But what they fail to realise is that there are other smaller players out there looking to steal market share; these are more agile competitors willing to make big bets on the future. Not going to name names, but that’s how incumbents eventually fall from dominance.

I could go on for hours talking about disruption and types of innovations, but let me end this off by saying that from what I’ve seen, the most successful organisations separate disruptive business models from their core business so these independent units can function autonomously without interference from the parent.

Let me shift the discussion back a little. With regards to specific strategies firms can take to do both good and well, I shan’t delve deep, but if you’re interested, I wrote a piece on the Economics of Sustainable Capitalism in which I outlined some of the problems we currently face and shared four business models we can look at this from. What we need is a paradigm shift, and the good news is we have already started to see early signs of changing perceptions from investors, businesses, and consumers alike. But that’s not enough. If we want a shot at making this work, we will have to accelerate change much faster.

7. What would you tell someone who wants to go into green investing as well?

Let me preface this by saying that it won’t be as easy or smooth sailing as you think it is. You’re going to face a lot of opposition and have to convince multiple stakeholders along the way. For VCs, these could be your LPs — it obviously helps to be selective about the capital you accept and ensure that your visions are aligned.

Having said that, I must say that it’s a rewarding journey seeing investments you make enact real change while repeating financial returns, so if you’re up for a challenge and this is something that you genuinely care about, then go for it! If anyone needs help getting started or would like to explore potential synergies, I’m always available on LinkedIn and down for a coffee chat.