SF Climate Week 2025: How Pulse Fund is Redefining Climate Investing

San Francisco Climate Week 2025 showcased the future of climate technology and investment. Pulse Fund was proud to host and participate in three pivotal events that demonstrated our core investment thesis: climate solutions work best when they break down traditional silos. Here's what we learned from each conversation.

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Beyond Silos: Exploring Food, Agriculture & Energy Solutions

Co-hosted with The Good Food Institute, Plantible Foods, and Latitude Media

Our week began with an event that embodied Pulse Fund's core investment philosophy: climate solutions must work across interconnected systems. The panel explored how food, agriculture, and energy sectors intersect to create scalable climate impact.

The discussion revealed powerful connections:

• The Energy-Food Nexus: "Food systems account for 34% of global emissions, but they're also among the most vulnerable to climate disruption," shared Tenzin Seldon, Pulse Fund founder and managing partner. "Solutions must address both production and the energy required for processing, transport, and storage."
• Alternative Proteins as Climate Solutions: Plantible Foods' Xandra van Alebeek demonstrated how their Lemna-based protein reduces both land use and energy consumption while providing food security in a changing climate.
• Vertical Integration Opportunities: The panel explored how companies addressing multiple points in the food-energy value chain create more resilient business models and greater climate impact.

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Shayna Fertig from The Good Food Institute emphasized how alternative proteins represent one of the most effective climate interventions, requiring significantly less energy and resources than traditional animal agriculture.

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AI Innovations for Business Resilience

Co-hosted with Unravel Carbon, 9Zero, AWS, and Singapore Global Network

Our second event explored how artificial intelligence is becoming essential infrastructure for climate resilience. At 9Zero's Climate Innovation Hub, we brought together leaders from the public and private sectors to discuss AI's role in building more resilient businesses and cities.

Tenzin joined a panel with SF Environment Department Director Tyrone Jue and AWS Climate Tech Lead Patti Carroll to explore how AI enables unprecedented climate adaptation strategies. Key insights included:

• Predictive Analytics for the Future: "We can no longer use patterns of the past to predict the future," Tenzin noted. "AI gives us the tools to model scenarios we've never experienced before."
• Cross-Sector Resilience: The panel revealed how AI solutions create resilience across multiple systems simultaneously, from supply chain optimization to extreme weather prediction.
• Early-Stage Innovation: As venture investment in early-stage companies continues to decline, the need for patient capital supporting AI-powered climate solutions becomes even more critical.

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The event featured a live demonstration of Unravel Carbon's AI agents for business sustainability, showing how their platform helps companies "decarbonize the AI value chain"—a perfect example of solutions addressing multiple climate challenges.

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Getting Creative to Finance Nature-based Solutions

Featuring Mast Reforestation, KPMG, Rubicon Carbon, CrossBoundary

Our final event for the week tackled one of climate finance's biggest challenges: scaling capital for nature-based carbon removal. The panel brought together leading investors and project developers to explore innovative financing models.

Tenzin was joined by Grant Canary (CEO, Mast Reforestation), Kate Wharton (CrossBoundary), Sandip Keswani (KPMG), and Zander Sebenius (Rubicon Carbon) for a discussion moderated by Axios reporter Katie Fehrenbacher.

Critical themes emerged:

• Beyond Traditional Carbon Credits: The panel explored how nature-based solutions are evolving from simple offset models to comprehensive ecosystem restoration projects.
• Risk and Permanence: "Investors are increasingly sophisticated about evaluating permanence and reversal risks," Tenzin explained. "Technologies like those developed by Mast are improving both additionality and measurement, reporting, and verification."
• Market Evolution: The shift from avoidance to removal-focused projects is creating new opportunities for patient capital and innovative financing structures.

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The discussion highlighted how Pulse's portfolio company Mast Reforestation exemplifies next-generation nature-based solutions—using technology to restore forests faster and more resiliently while producing high-quality carbon removal credits.

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Three Takeaways Shaping Our Investment Strategy

Across these events, several themes reinforced Pulse Fund's horizontal investment approach:

1. AI as a Climate Force Multiplier: Artificial intelligence isn't just optimizing existing solutions—it's enabling entirely new approaches to climate resilience across all sectors.

2. Nature + Technology = Scale: The convergence of nature-based solutions with advanced technology (as demonstrated by Mast Reforestation) creates investable opportunities with both climate impact and financial returns.

3. Interconnected Solutions Win: The most successful climate companies address challenges across multiple systems. Whether it's Unravel Carbon decarbonizing AI infrastructure or Plantible Foods revolutionizing protein production, horizontal solutions create larger markets and greater impact.

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Looking Forward

Throughout SF Climate Week 2025, the philosophy that Pulse has long held permeated: the future of climate investing lies in recognizing connections, not categories. Our portfolio companies—from Unravel Carbon's AI-powered sustainability platform to Mast Reforestation's tech-enabled forest restoration to Plantible Foods' revolutionary protein—demonstrate this thesis in action.

As we continue building our portfolio and supporting founders, these conversations reinforce our commitment to:

• Investing horizontally across climate verticals
• Supporting technologies that enable systemic change
• Building for a century, not just for quick returns

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The challenges we face are interconnected. Our solutions must be too.

Join us in building the future of climate investing. Follow Pulse Fund for updates on our portfolio companies and investment insights.

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