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PNW Climate Week: State of Climate Tech VC in the PNW Round Table
Episode summary: Five Pacific Northwest climate tech investors — recorded live at Pacific Northwest Climate Week 2026 — break down where climate tech venture capital is actually flowing this year, why Seattle still trails Silicon Valley on VC dollars, and what they're really evaluating when a founder walks into the room. The conversation applies directly to anyone raising capital, building a company, or job searching in a market where AI has made it easy to look good on paper and harder to stand out. Guest bios: Gabriel Scheer is Senior Director, Investments and Innovation, at Elemental Impact. Gabriel leads the transportation, energy, built environment and water portfolios - supporting 76 companies across those verticals. In addition to pipeline development and due diligence, he has directly overseen over 40 new and follow-on investments, deploying more than $30M in catalytic capital. He serves as a board observer for Artyc PBC, Mythos AI, Dimensional Energy, and Found Energy and has helped to co-design and manage more than 30 first-of-a-kind and early commercial projects in communities in Africa, Europe, and North America. Previously, Gabriel was on the founding team of Lime, where he led global data policy and transit partnerships and developed go-to-market strategies in North America. As the founder of two companies, he also contributed to the book "Smart Cities, Smart Mobility." Ben Shwab Eidelson is a co-founder and partner at Stepchange Ventures, an early-stage venture fund backing companies building software to accelerate energy abundance and upgrade critical infrastructure. Ben also co-hosts the Stepchange Show, a long-form podcast that tells the stories of human progress through the lens of transformative technologies, systems, and infrastructure. The Stepchange Show recently covered the history of data centers and the power grid, and has had over 250,000 downloads. Prior to Stepchange, Ben was a product leader and repeat founder, building two software companies—one acquired by Google and the second by Stripe. When not nerding out on infrastructure, Ben can be found with his wife chasing their 3 kids around local Seattle playgrounds. Susan Su is a climate tech investor and capital formation advisor to companies and funds across the energy transition. She built Toba Capital's climate investment practice from the ground up, spanning direct deals, fund-of-funds commitments, and co-investments, and currently serves as an advisor to the fund. She is a founding board member of the Carbon Business Council and serves on the Mission Alignment Committee at Prime Coalition, where she reviews catalytic capital investments for mission integrity. Susan is also the founder of Climate Money, a newsletter and podcast covering the business of decarbonization. Jonathan Azoff spent 20 years in silicon valley building rapid growth startups, including multiple exits to the likes of Zillow and Disney. He served as a fractional CTO to public companies (TNY.AX), and formerly led engineering teams at growth stage fintechs like Carta, Cardless and Pomelo. In his second act, he transitioned to the investor side of the table, joining the board of climate tech incubator Sweet Farm, and starting the deep tech venture firm SNØCAP with his two founding partners. He is one of the main individual investors behind The 9Zero Climate Innovation Hub, and is responsible for bringing the club to Seattle, where he lives now. He's an uncompromising advocate of great storytelling, having fun while doing good, and not taking himself seriously. Dr. Christine E. Boyle is General Partner at Burnt Island Ventures, a water-specialist venture capital fund, where she works with innovators to bring the next generation of water technologies to market. She was the CEO and founder of Valor Water, which sold to Xylem in 2018. At Xylem she served as VP of Digital Product Development following the acquisition. She serves on the boards of Aclarity Water, Subeca, Previsico, EPOCH Blue, and Waterly.  Dr. Boyle is also a member of the Cal-Nevada American Water Works Association Board and a trustee of the American Water Works Association Management and Leadership Division. In Dr. Boyle’s free time she plays league tennis, boats, and travels to post-socialist nations. What you'll learn: How the 2026 climate tech VC numbers break down nationally — and why concentration in a handful of mega-deals is squeezing the middle of the funding stack Why Seattle ranks #6 nationally in VC dollars despite sitting on some of the country's deepest personal wealth What investors are actually screening for beyond the pitch deck, from response time to how a founder treats their own team How the hyperscaler-driven data center and energy boom is reshaping where capital flows, and what history (the 1970s WPPSS nuclear default) suggests about the risk Why human referral has become the deciding factor in both fundraising and hiring now that AI has made outreach nearly free What's missing from the Pacific Northwest climate tech ecosystem, according to the people funding it Key moments: The panel debates whether nuclear, batteries, and data centers are "sucking up" regional capital or building a foundation the rest of the ecosystem can draw from Susan Su asks the other panelists to describe how their investment committees actually make decisions, not what they tell founders in a rejection email Christine Boyle and Ben Eidelson describe the informal signals — professionalism, stress response, pace of learning — that shape a funding decision The group discusses AI-generated pitch decks and why differentiation now matters more than polish Resources mentioned: CTVC/Currence H1 2026 funding report Silicon Valley Bank, 2025 climate tech report PNW Battery Collaborative E8 Angels 9Zero (Seattle climate tech community hub) and its "Give, Get, Get" investor-list program Elemental Impact's Data Center Innovation Initiative (with Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft) Climate Surge, an initiative from Climate Solutions "Climate Money" podcast (Susan Su) The Stepchange Show podcast (Ben Eidelson)
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