​Ripple Hosts

​Alexandra Nilsson

​Virida Capital

​Bunmi Adekore

​Dawnbox

​TL;DR

​This session will focus on how to structure and successfully operate an ‘as-a-service’ business model for capex intense products, discussing current best practice, future developments, and how to avoid common mistakes and barriers.

​Topic overview

​Why is the topic relevant?

​We live in a time where pretty much everything is being offered “as-a-service”, from your washing machine to the charging of your EV. The -aaS model is becoming increasingly popular in climate tech, where new technologies are most often hardware based and may have large upfront capex. In this session we will discuss whether the as-a-service model is particularly suited for (asset-heavy) climate tech solutions and how to structure an -aaS contract which works in real life.

​What’s up for discussion?

​Amongst other things, we will look into:

• ​What types of products are best suited for ‘aaS’ structuring and key requirements;

• ​Servicing the customer needs - what end customers are actually looking for and the main pain points in an -aaS contract;

• ​Structuring long term cash flows from your climate product;

• ​How to finance the deployment, especially in the early stage.

​The conversation will be led by Alexandra Nilsson, managing partner at Virida Capital - an early stage fund focussing on capex intensive energy transition companies, and Bunmi Adekore, managing partner at Dawnbox - an early stage fund focussed on modular energy transition solutions that can be deployed in developing markets. We will draw upon Alex’s prior experience in the leadership team for green investment banking at Macquarie, such as structuring the first clean energy PPA’s for global companies like IKEA, and Bunmi’s learnings through his time as a general partner at Breakthrough Energy, where he led investments into several companies who are now category leaders and offering products as a service.

​Dream outcome

​Ideal outcomes include;

• ​Founders of capex heavy businesses are better equipped to build solutions that are more inherently scalable earlier on;

• ​Investors have an increased awareness of the different approaches to financing ‘aaS’ products and how to support companies looking to achieve this;

• ​Issues are highlighted with known possible approaches and areas are identified where more work needs to be done;

• ​Connections are made with others in the space to continue driving further innovation and create possible future partnerships.

​Who should attend?

​Founders looking to build companies with a capex component, folks interested in modular technologies and their deployment, other co-investors in capex heavy climate tech businesses, growth investors or future acquirers who have a view on what metrics they look for, and anyone interested in business models where the 'product of the product' is critical.