clean-tech
(11)
Steve Huang
Steve Huang is the founder and CEO of KiWi New Energy, a Taiwan-born, San Mateo-based startup building what he calls an operating system for global renewable energy. A serial green entrepreneur with more than 15 years across the semiconductor and solar value chain, Huang went from NVIDIA and public silicon-wafer ventures to a near-total collapse when Chinese rivals undercut his micro-inverter business, then rebuilt around an AI-driven energy datacenter that matches clean supply with retail and small-business demand in real time.
David Mather
David Mather is the CEO and Chairman of NxLite, a clean-tech company making nano-thin, air-stable energy and solar control coatings for glass, acrylic and polycarbonate windows. Appointed in February 2024 to lead the former 3E Nano through commercialization, he brings decades of executive experience across technology and clean-tech companies including Alegion, MTPV Power Corporation, Hoovers, Hewlett Packard and Compaq. Under his leadership NxLite launched its L80 low-E sputter coating, opened a 45,000-square-foot manufacturing center in Canton, Michigan, and raised a Series A that expanded to $13.1 million to scale production of coatings aimed at cutting the energy lost through windows.
Ian Lowe
Ian Lowe is the founder and CEO of Arduro Sustainable Rubber, a clean-technology company turning end-of-life tires and waste rubber back into high-value raw materials. A former JPMorgan financial controller and Piper Jaffray project-finance banker, Lowe spotted a University of Louisville research project posted online and built it into a company commercializing a patented chloramine devulcanization process that recovers rubber, carbon black and processing oils at a roughly 95% reuse rate. Arduro's first product, ELDARIX r1000 recovered carbon black, is aimed at tire and rubber manufacturers looking to cut carbon footprints while keeping performance.
James Metropoulos
James (Jim) Metropoulos is the founder and CEO of Blue Box Air, a Dallas-based clean tech company that has built a patented, bio-automated way to clean and restore the heat-transfer coils inside commercial HVAC systems. He founded the company in 2016 in Southern California and moved its headquarters to Deep Ellum, Dallas in 2020. His enzyme-based process tackles a century-old problem in the HVAC industry - coils that were never truly cleanable - and in doing so cuts building energy use, improves indoor air quality, and lowers carbon emissions. Blue Box counts clients such as MGM Resorts, UC Berkeley, General Motors, LA Children's Hospital and the Golden State Warriors, and reports having restored tens of thousands of coils while saving hundreds of millions of kilowatt-hours.
Dan Cook
Dan Cook is the CEO, Co-founder, and Investor at Lyten Inc, a San Jose-based deep-tech company pioneering 3D Graphene supermaterial and next-generation lithium-sulfur batteries. With over three decades spanning General Motors, NeXT Computer (under Steve Jobs), Bay Networks/Nortel, and private equity at Cerberus Capital, Cook pivoted to found Lyten in 2015 around a serendipitous discovery: trying to turn methane into clean hydrogen, the team accidentally created a revolutionary 3D graphene material. Under his leadership, Lyten has raised over $1.2 billion, shipped lithium-sulfur A-samples to automotive and military customers, announced the world's first lithium-sulfur gigafactory in Reno, Nevada, and in 2025-2026 acquired significant Northvolt assets across Europe to become one of the largest battery manufacturers on the continent.
Chris Griffin
Chris Griffin is the co-founder and CEO of Hover Energy, a Dallas company that builds patented Wind-Powered Microgrids - arrays of 36kW rooftop turbines paired with solar and storage that let commercial buildings make their own clean power. An aerospace engineer turned Wall Street financier turned clean-energy entrepreneur, Griffin spent roughly two decades chasing the same idea before one of his rooftop systems rode out 105 mph gusts during Hurricane Ian. He has since taken the technology international, with a Royal Navy installation in Liverpool and a joint venture to scale deployments for blue-chip clients.
Eric Faurot
Eric Faurot is the long-serving CEO of Trellis Group (formerly GreenBiz Group), a B2B media company headquartered in Oakland, California that runs flagship sustainability conferences including VERGE, BLOOM, GreenFin, and Circularity. Over 14 years at the helm, he built GreenBiz into a leading platform for sustainability professionals - combining editorial media, peer networks, and live events - before transitioning to a Growth Leader role in July 2024 when Hana Kajimura succeeded him as CEO. His career traces an arc from tech media event production (COMDEX, INTEROP, Black Hat) to climate and sustainability, making him a rare figure who bridged Silicon Valley-era conference culture with the emerging sustainability economy.
Sanchali Pal
Sanchali Pal is the Founder and CEO of Commons (formerly Joro), an Oakland-based climate action app that connects personal spending data to carbon footprints and rewards users for making sustainable choices. A Princeton and Harvard Business School alumna who spent six years tracking her own carbon footprint in a spreadsheet before building the app to scale that insight for everyone, she has grown Commons to 450,000+ community members, raised $14.7M including a $10M Series A backed by Sequoia Capital and Jay-Z's Arrive, earned a TIME100 Most Influential Companies listing, and is on a mission to prove that climate action and financial wellbeing are the same thing.
Sampriti Bhattacharyya
Sampriti Bhattacharyya is the founder and CEO of Navier, the company building America's first all-electric hydrofoiling boat. She grew up in Kolkata, India, arrived in the US at 20 with $200, and went on to earn a PhD in mechanical engineering from MIT. After her first venture — Hydroswarm, an underwater drone startup — she co-founded Navier in 2020 with MIT engineer Reo Baird. Their flagship product, the N30, is a 30-foot, eight-passenger electric foiling yacht that glides four feet above the water at 35 knots, runs 10 times more efficiently than gas-powered boats, and delivered its first customer unit in October 2024. Navier's investors include Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Android co-founder Rich Miner.
Ted McKlveen
Ted McKlveen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Verne, a San Francisco-based clean energy company pioneering cryo-compressed hydrogen (CcH2) technology to decarbonize heavy-duty transportation and off-grid power. He graduated summa cum laude in Chemistry from Harvard and earned an MBA from Stanford GSB (2021), where he co-founded Verne. Under his leadership, Verne unveiled the world's first CcH2 Class 8 heavy-duty truck, secured backing from Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund and United Airlines Ventures, raised $15.5M total, and expanded into a new Pennsylvania manufacturing facility creating 61 jobs.
Steven Lee
Steven Lee is a Venture Partner and founding member of Draper Athena (DFJ Athena), where he focuses on deep-tech investments spanning agricultural productivity, biomanufacturing, and automation. An MIT-trained electrical engineer with a US patent in internet-based audio transmission, he bridges the worlds of hands-on technology and venture capital. Before co-founding Draper Athena, he led US investments for STIC International, a global VC fund operating across the US, China, and Korea, and worked at Athena Technology Ventures, Chromatic Research, and InVision Interactive. With over 13 years of engineering and startup experience before entering venture, Steven brings rare technical depth to the table at one of Silicon Valley's most storied VC lineages.