About Marble
Marble is a climate tech venture studio. Our north star is to erase billions of tons from annual greenhouse gas emissions and create a thriving future.
We partner with scientists, engineers and operators to create new deep tech companies that solve hard climate problems — slash emissions, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and cool the planet — while reshaping multi-billion $ industries.
We're proud to be backed by leading climate investors across Europe and the US.
Engineering Proteins for Agriculture Adaptation
Climate change presents a wide range of challenges to global supply chains, and most critical of these is the agricultural and food sector. As extreme weather events become more intense and frequent, the world needs novel solutions to ensure food security.
Within the agriculture adaptation space, much attention has been devoted to farming practices and crop engineering for climate resilience. However, there seems to be a scarcity of solutions to systematically mitigate the impacts of severe droughts, disrupted rainfall patterns, and late frost events, to name a few.
We believe that protein engineering could unlock a novel solution category to address these challenges. AI and computational techniques now offer the ability systematically engineer novel protein designs, targeting applications not possible just a few years ago.
The Opportunity
We are building a protein engineering platform focused on the properties of water, creating a new category of high leverage climate solutions. By controlling how water freezes, we can help the agricultural sector to mitigate extreme weather events and prevent food losses.
We are developing a novel set of products that will be first-in-class for their ability to mitigate hail and late frost damage in agriculture. Moreover, the same technologies allow us to expand into energy efficient food preservation, and potentially cloud seeding to stimulate rainfall in parts of the globe affected by increasing droughts. Overall, this technology has the potential to boost global food production by $10-20 billion / year.
We have pinpointed essential proteins for engineering, guided by rigorous technical roadmaps. We are in the process of securing patents for our proprietary methodologies, and positioning ourselves as market leaders in this space. Now all we need is… you!
We are looking for a CEO and Co-Founder. Your role will be broad, across product, sales, partnership development, operations, fundraising (equity, non-dilutive), team building, supplier management, scale up, and much more. The best candidate will have the creativity, discipline and motivation to evaluate multiple approaches in order to maximise impact.
You will join a stellar CSO and Co-Founder, a PhD in biochemical engineering with extensive background spanning across synthetic biology, bioinfomatics, and chemical engineering. A pioneer in the field of directed evolution - having helped invent some of the most widespread techniques being used today - he’s also an creative thinker, interdisciplinary scientist - and one of the most genuine and caring individuals you’ll ever meet.
Skills & Profile
We are looking for an entrepreneurial individual with a passion for biotech, protein engineering and a driving motivation to mitigate climate change.
Must have: experience in some of the leadership-relevant activities listed above, exposure in climate tech, good science literacy, and intrinsic customer focus.
Example of relevant backgrounds:
- Former startup founder / operator / VC in biotech, deeptech, bioinformatics, computational biology protein engineering. Experience with protein production and purification at pilot scale and exposure to generative AI tools is a plus
- OR Industry experience in agriculture / biotech / climate with deep scientific curiosity, and ideally prior exposure to synthetic biology applied to agriculture
We encourage you to apply even if you don’t feel you meet all requirements. Above all, we value intelligence, creativity and Founder Potential.
Especially if you recognise yourself below:
- You can’t wait to start your own company (or your next one)
- You are a pragmatic optimist on a mission to tackle climate change
- You are outcome focused and action oriented - you make things happen
- You are a great communicator - you can convince others to follow you
- You love to break down ambitious goals into actionable milestones
- You understand that innovation starts with people - not ideas
What We Offer
As CEO and Co-Founder, you will partner with a Marble Founder in Residence who has been developing this project and will be CSO of the new company. You will have the opportunity to meet him before making any big commitment of course!
We offer (among other things)
- A €3,000 monthly allowance during your participation in the program
- A €250,000 pre-seed investment on startup creation if you’re successful. You and your team will own 80% of the company at pre-seed.
- Full-stack support in our venture creation programme
- Mentorship and guidance at every step of the way
- Hands on support across technology and market research, landing interviews with experts and customers, techno economics, roadmap and scale up strategy, IP strategy, team building, advisor sourcing, and more
- Access to an unparalleled network across science, industry, talent, investors, mentors, climate tech founders, curated vendors and suppliers
- Access to our research insights, knowledge base and resources
- Weekly check-ins, work sessions in our Paris HQ (or remote) and continuous peer learning with other programme participants
- Seed Fundraising support after the programme. Introductions to the best seed investors from our network and help with term sheet negotiation.
- Founder Visa sponsorship if you wish to relocate to France. Remote participation is possible, preferably from Europe and with regular in-person meetings.
How to Apply
We are looking for the best candidate - so you are welcome to apply as soon as possible.
We believe that a diverse group of minds is key to solving the climate crisis. We encourage women and people of colour to apply.
Studies have shown that under-represented candidates are less likely to apply unless they feel they meet every single qualification. If you are excited about the opportunity but your experience does not align perfectly - we encourage you to apply anyways.
We are committed to a diverse, inclusive and mission-driven Founder community.
FAQs
For a full list of FAQs, please visit our website.