There is more than one way to build a cleantech company. While the traditional founder-led startup is a familiar route, climate venture studios offer an alternative approach to creating and scaling companies that address pressing climate challenges.
But how does the venture studio model work in practice? What makes it different from traditional approaches to entrepreneurship, and what opportunities does it offer to researchers and aspiring founders?
Join us for an evening exploring different pathways to building cleantech ventures, bringing together perspectives from a cleantech founder and a climate venture studio.
Through their experiences of developing technologies, securing funding, creating companies and bringing climate solutions to market, our speakers will share practical insights into the challenges and opportunities of building cleantech businesses.
Our speakers
Shiladitya Ghosh – Co-founder & COO, Mission Zero Technologies
Shiladitya is co-founder and COO of Mission Zero Technologies, a pioneering UK direct air capture (DAC) company working to remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and enable a circular carbon economy. He has helped raise over £30 million in funding, commercialise the company’s technology internationally and build a world-class organisation.
Alongside an MBA, he holds a PhD in carbon capture and energy storage from Imperial College London and has been recognised by Forbes 30 Under 30, Meaningful Business, the IEEE and others.
Mica Taborga Claure, PhD – Principal, Head of Technology, Marble
Mica is Principal and Head of Technology at Marble, a climate venture studio that partners with scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to build companies addressing major climate challenges.
At Marble, she leads technology de-risking, development, scale-up and deployment, with work spanning opportunity research, company creation and portfolio support.
She brings 14 years of experience in the energy and cleantech sector, having previously worked at Repsol and ExxonMobil. At Repsol, she developed the scale-up roadmap for the company’s first direct air capture technology programme in South America. She holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Who should attend?
This event will be particularly relevant to researchers considering commercialising their work, aspiring founders, students interested in entrepreneurship, and anyone curious about alternative approaches to building cleantech companies.
Attendees will have the opportunity to hear both founder and venture studio perspectives, explore the challenges of bringing climate technologies to market, and connect with others interested in climate innovation.
Event details
Date: Tuesday 10 November 2026
Time: 5:00–7:30 pm
Location: Central Oxford (venue to be confirmed)
Register here
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The ZERO Institute (Zero-carbon Energy Research Oxford) brings together researchers from across the University of Oxford to tackle questions surrounding zero-carbon energy systems and accelerate multidisciplinary research on the zero-carbon transition.
