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 deeptech companies that can solve hard climate problems, and reshape multi-billion $ industries.
Together, we co-create radical solutions that slash emissions in hard-to-abate sectors, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and cool the planet. We shape the most promising ideas into new companies, funded by Marble.
We're proud to be backed by leading climate investors across Europe and the US.
Hard Climate Problem: DAC and CCUS
Engineered carbon cycles will be crucial for net zero, across negative emissions and solutions for hard-to-abate industries. Among ways to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, Direct Air Capture has many strengths: low physical footprint, easy to measure, and flexible co-location with storage or CO2 utilisation.
Getting DAC below $100/ton will be hard, but doable. However, its massive energy penalty could hinder scaleability on meaningful timescales. The falling cost of renewables only offer a partial answer: energy efficiency must be built in at the core.
We are exploring novel DAC designs that could slash both final cost and energy use.
Potential opportunities:
- Sorbents innovations to drastically reduce capex costs in a way that does not lead to huge increase in opex energy (e.g. no calcination)
- Next-generation processes with high energy efficiency. We are particular interested in novel ideas in electrochemistry, moisture swing, and TVSA
- Other ideas we’re interested in:
- Working with moderately dilute CO2 streams
- Bio-hybrid DAC: using biological agents to optimise end-to-end processes
- Supply chains that promote learning curves and faster downcosting
- Novel reactor designs and heat management systems
- Integration of CO2 capture with sequestration or conversion
We are actively looking for new Founders in Residence to join us, either:
- As First Founders to scope entirely new approaches
- As Co-Founders for projects in development within Marble
Ideal Background(s)
If you are a mission-driven individual with deep expertise in one of the areas below, or any adjacent field, we would love to hear from you!
- Materials science, physical chemistry or related, with experience in the design and optimisaton of materials for CO2 capture (e.g. molecular sieves, zeolites, metal-organic frameworks, alkali metals, carbon-based materials, etc.)
- OR Chemical engineering, or related with experience in CCUS, DAC, or more broadly in gas ad/desorption cycles. Exposure to novel contactors, reactor designs, or alternative processes (electrochemistry, moisture swing, pressure swing, etc) is a plus!
- OR Experienced deeptech operator or industry professional, ideally with scaleup experience in CCUS, oil and gas, electrochemical systems, or clean energy
Nice to have: process optimisation, waste heat recovery, CO2 storage, techno economic modelling, life cycle assessment.
Who We Are Looking For
We encourage you to apply even if you feel you don’t meet all requirements. We know that some skills can be learned while you are building.
We value intelligence, creativity and Founder Potential:
- You dream of founding your own company and building a stellar team.
- You are a pragmatic optimist with a driving motivation to mitigate climate change.
- You know how to communicate about deeply technical subjects in a way that speaks to non-technical individuals to spark their interest
- You are self-motivated, outcome-focused, and action-oriented. You enjoy working on multiple project areas with an interdisciplinary team, in a fast-paced environment.
- You are naturally inquisitive and curious, able to quickly grasp key concepts, and go deep enough to surface non-obvious insights.
- You approach radically new ideas with an open mind. You get to the salient questions quickly, and your first instinct is to ask how they scale.
- You understand that innovation starts with people. You enjoy building collaborations within a team and with external partners.
What We Offer
As a Founder-in-Residence, you’ll be joining like-minded individuals who also believe in the need for deeptech solutions to fight climate change.
- For First Founder opportunities, you would be scoping entirely new approaches together with us, before we go on to find your future co-founders.
- For Co-Founder opportunities, you would be partnering with a Founder in Residence who has already been developing a great idea within Marble. You will have the opportunity to meet her/him before making any big commitment — to learn more about the idea and evaluate how well you’d be working together!
In both cases, we offer (among other things)
- A €2500 monthly allowance during your participation in the programme
- A €250,000 pre-seed investment on startup creation, if you are 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 economic modelling, roadmap and scaleup strategy, sourcing your future co-founders and advisors, and more
- Access to an unparalleled network across science, industry, talent, investors, mentors, and other climate deeptech founders
- Access to our research insights, knowledge base and curated 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 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 currently taking applications for the April 2023 cohort:
We believe that a diverse group of minds is key to solving the climate crisis. We strongly encourage women and people of colour to apply.
Studies have shown that under-represented candidates are less likely to apply for a role unless they feel they meet every single qualification.
We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and mission-driven cohort. If you’re excited about the programme but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with what you read on our website, we encourage you to apply anyways!
FAQs
For a full list of FAQs, please visit our website.