Nature, Culture, Capital- Regenerating Economies & Re-imagining Cities Today
An Interactive Forum at London Climate Action Week 2025
This London Climate Action Week, join climate innovators, funders, policymakers, designers, and ecosystem builders as we collaborate to reimagine and regenerate two interconnected systems: nature and cities.
Curated by Concave, a Climate & Impact Investing Summit committed to building a net-positive future, in collaboration with Okhtapus, who will lead strategic matchmaking across a diverse and powerful network of innovators, funders, enablers, and ecosystem allies.
This forum is designed to accelerate collaboration and scale breakthrough climate solutions at the intersection of nature, cities, and systems change.
Why Now?
We’re at a tipping point. Climate action now demands radical collaboration—across sectors, disciplines, and geographies. Innovation alone isn’t enough. It’s time to connect nature, culture, technology, and finance in bold, regenerative ways.
Natural ecosystems and urban environments are deeply intertwined. To protect one, we must work across both. This is the moment to forge unlikely alliances—between startups, investors, enablers, policy makers, policy influencers, think tanks and academia.
Two Interconnected Focus Streams
🔹 Nature & Biodiversity
Explore regenerative bioeconomies and nature-based solutions spanning forests, farms, watersheds, and oceans. Discover scalable interventions that restore ecological health, strengthen rural livelihoods, and unlock finance for biodiversity.
🔹 Cities & the Built Environment
Reimagine how we shape and live in cities. This stream highlights innovations in circular construction, climate-resilient design, urban mobility, and nature-based urban adaptation—tools to build inclusive, regenerative cities for the future.
Cross-Cutting Themes
Across both streams, we’ll explore critical enablers of systemic change within a shifting geo-political landscape:
⚡️ Climate Financing - Nature + Urban 🌱 Jobs & Regenerative Economies 🌲 Biodiversity & Carbon Credits 🌍 Nature & Urban Data 💚 Climate Innovators & Solutions 📈 Climate-Tech Investing
Let’s not just sustain the future. Let’s regenerate it.
Sessions
FROM PILOT TO PLANET - MAKING URBAN INNOVATION STICK, SCALE & SPREAD
Cities are rich with innovation—but too often, breakthroughs get stuck at the pilot stage.
This session explores how to break down the barriers to replicating and scaling urban innovations across systems and borders. We’ll dive into what’s working, what’s missing, and how to better connect innovation ecosystems across public, private, and civic sectors. From local success stories to global pathways for deployment, we’ll unpack how cities and innovators can move faster, together.
Featuring:
Katie Adnams | Associate Director, Smart Places & Digital Infrastructure, Jacobs
Emily White | Senior Manager, City-Business Engagement, C40 Cities
Sandy Tung | Principal Policy Officer, Innovation and Technology Greater London Authority
Mehrnaz Ghojeh | Founder, CEO Okhtapus
HOW BIOREGIONAL FINANCING CAN PAVE THE WAY TO A REGENERATIVE ECONOMY
Bioregional Financing Facilities (BFFs) are a new type of financial institution designed to serve the growing bioregional movement.
By connecting integrated capital from various sources to portfolios of regenerative projects on the ground - BFFs can drive the decentralisation of financial resource governance, design of project portfolios for place-based systems change, and the transition to a regenerative economy.
Featuring:
Isabel Carlisle | Director, Bioregional Learning Centre
Justin Adams OBE | Co-founder, Ostara
Leon Seefeld | Bioregional Finance Lead, Dark Matter Labs
SCALING CLIMATE-TECH STARTUPS TO SERIES A+ - MEET THE FEMALE LEADERS & THE FUNDERS WHO BACKED THEM
This panel is about stages of funding for climate tech startups and where there are both hurdles and opportunities for women-led ventures.
The discussion will explore experiences and insights building and funding innovative companies to scale both for climate-positive impact and commercial success. We will also discuss what may contribute to ‘the gender issue’ in the context of scaling early stage climate tech innovation.
Featuring:
Julie Blane | Founding Partner, The Table
Illai Gescheit | Venture Partner, Systemiq Capital
Jade Cohen | Co-founder, CPO, Qualis Flow
Dimple Patel | CEO, Nature Metrics
Zoe Peden | Partner, Ananda Impact Ventures
Hugh Bartlett | Investment Principal, Green Angel Ventures
NATURE TECH 101 - HOW TO BUILD YOUR NATURE POSITIVE PATH TOMORROW
Discover how technology is revolutionizing nature restoration while creating sustainable business opportunities.
This session demystifies nature tech through an accessible framework: the Nature Tech Taxonomy and showcases pioneering case studies across different ecosystems and applications. Moderated by Paige, Nature Tech Collective.
Featuring:
Eilidh Forster | Head of Forest Carbon, Drax
Mansi Agrawal | Data Scientist, Kita
Yuya Toyoshima | Manager, Oji Holdings
CITIES IN THE LOOP - UNLOCKING URBAN DATA FOR CLIMATE ACTION
Behind every urban innovation is a messy, ambitious story of collaboration between those who build and those who back. In this session, innovators and enablers come together for an honest dialogue about what it takes to pilot, deploy, and scale transformative solutions in cities.
Explore what each side needs, where the frictions lie, and how we can bridge the gap between promise and widespread adoption. From early wins to global ambitions, we’ll unpack the real barriers to replication—and the strategies that help overcome them.
Featuring:
Carole Viaene | Strategic Partnerships Open Earth Foundation
Christina Last | Machine Learning Scientist / Tech Advisor Okhtapus
TESTED, PROVEN...NOW WHAT? UNLOCKING THE PATH FROM URBAN INNOVATION TO IMPLEMENTATION
Behind every urban innovation is a messy, ambitious story of collaboration between those who build and those who back. In this session, innovators and enablers come together for an honest dialogue about what it takes to pilot, deploy, and scale transformative solutions in cities. We’ll explore what each side needs, where the frictions lie, and how we can bridge the gap between promise and widespread adoption. From early wins to global ambitions, we’ll unpack the real barriers to replication—and the strategies that help overcome them.
Featuring:
Giacomo Magniani | Associate, Arup
Ben Wall | Co-Founder, Commercial Director, NUNA Studio
Victoria Burrows | Strategic Partnerships & Insight, Kompas VC
BLUEPRINTS & BUDGETS - GLOBAL PLAYBOOK FOR INCLUSIVE CLIMATE FINANCE
This session explores how cities structure themselves to receive, manage, and deploy finance—covering budgeting tools, innovative funding models, and strategies for replication.
Drawing from cities like London, Mexico City, Jakarta, Freetown, and Cape Town, we’ll examine how urban climate projects move from plans to pipelines, and ultimately, scale for impact. The conversation will unpack critical issues around replicability, affordability, and justice in climate finance—including how financing mechanisms can ensure resources reach the communities most affected by climate change.
Featuring:
Aris Moro | Head of Knowledge & Partnerships, C40 Cities
Mohamed Gaafar | CEO, Co-founder, GRYD
SEEING THE FOREST THROUGH THE TREES - HOW CARBON CREDITS CAN CATALYZE THE BIODIVERSITY MARKET
With over one million species at risk of extinction, biodiversity loss is a major threat to climate resilience. Carbon credits are one of our most effective tools to scale climate action, but they simply aren’t designed to deliver biodiversity outcomes. While carbon credits may not be nature’s silver bullet, they could still be part of the solution.
Explore how Ponterra plans to leverage carbon markets to jumpstart investment in biodiversity credits and drive ecological restoration at scale.
Featuring:
Leigh Madeira, CFA | Co-founder, Head of Investments, Ponterra
INNOVATING FOR IMPACT - LEVERAGING THE FULL CAPITAL SPECTRUM
This keynote will explore how the Global Innovation Fund leverages its investment approach to drive meaningful impact in climate adaptation and gender equity. Drawing on its diverse portfolio and recent blended finance vehicle, the session will highlight how GIF uses tailored capital structures—ranging from grants to risk capital—to strengthen urban and rural resilience in low- and middle-income countries.
Through concrete examples, it will showcase how to unlock innovative scalable solutions in fragile and underserved contexts.
Featuring:
Francesco Valente, | Investment Director, Global Innovation Fund (GIF)
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We look forward to hosting you at Concave Summit 2025.
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