The Drop 2025: Debut Climate Tech Conference for UpRoot in Malmo

Saunas and serendipity. Two words that perfectly encapsulate The Drop conference in Malmö this past week.

The side events were exceptional. From saunas to coffee chats, morning runs, and after parties, the relaxed environments created perfect conditions to pressure test the UpRoot Capital thesis with some of Europe's hottest climate tech VCs and as an aspiring emerging manager, these informal conversations proved invaluable.

We had some really productive discussions with teams from Deep Science Ventures, ARIA, ALMI, Streetlife Ventures, Morphosis, and others. It was also great to attend the junior impact VC gathering and meet other young, like-minded investors building in this space.

The highlight was cohosting a roundtable on climate adaptation technology with Ollie Potter from NatureTech Memos.

The discursive, conversational format framed by wooden pallet seats was the perfect blend of informality to juxtapose the seriousness of our topic: What is VC-backable in climate adaptation? Questions we aimed to tackled included:

• What barriers prevent VCs from exploring this space?

• How do we remove them?

• Where are the strongest VC-backable opportunities, and are there exits?

As someone looking to build a fund in the space, these were critical questions that have formed a large part of my early thinking on UpRoot. The more I think about the space, the more I’m coming to the realisation that in adaptation it’s beneficial to focus building a fund around solutions to one specific risk and owning that vertical. It’s crucial for getting in the best deals early, at good valuations and supporting founders through their journey.

PIB risk, although it sounds hyper specific, is already a broad enough thesis to take us across biological inputs in agriculture, robotics with biofouling solutions for shipping and logistics, and earth observation tech for seeing PIB risks from space! Suffice to say that for a micro fund this already enough breadth, adding deal coverage in water or wildfire risk would stretch us too thin and there are already funds out there focusing specifically on those risks.

Nevertheless, there's still significant work to do in elucidating the climate adaptation opportunity to the wider climate tech world. UpRoot's thesis and the solutions we're backing represent just one approach to this massive challenge.

Thank you to the organisers for putting together a comprehensive event, and to all the builders and investors who made it worthwhile.