Founder - Carbon Mineralisation
Job Description
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 deeptech companies that solve hard climate problems — slash industrial 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.
Hard Climate Problem: CO2 Mineralisation
Mineralisation occurs when certain rocks are exposed to CO2, which binds with calcium, magnesium or other elements to form carbonate minerals. This phenomenon naturally removes 1.1 gigaton of CO2 per year and could be enhanced to multi-gigaton scale by 2050. Mineralisation has three unique advantages: chemical reactions require no energy input, the reactive minerals are in almost unlimited supply, and sequestration into rocks ensure maximum permanence. However, the reaction rate is very slow, the distribution of optimal resources is poorly understood, and certain methods face other challenges across water use, safety, logistics scaleup, and carbon uptake measurement.
We are scoping opportunities to remove these bottlenecks and unlock the gigaton potential of carbon mineralisation. This impact area being relatively unexplored compared to other pathways, we believe that several whitespaces exist for radical improvement.
Potential opportunities:
- Efficient production of artificial, optimised alkaline materials
- Novel approaches for particle size reduction, either through thermal processes, electrochemistry, bioweathering, soniccation, etc
- Ex-situ mineralisation reactors that improve reaction kinetics and mass transfer
- Synergies with mining and industrial operations (carbonation and remediation of alkaline waste streams) or agriculture (enhanced rock weathering)
- Mapping existing alkaline resources: natural (basalts, peridotites, serpentinites) and human-made (mining and industrial waste)
- Hybrid applications: metal recovery, clean energy, CO2 utilisation, etc
- Scaleable logistics to handle very large material quantities
- Optimised in-situ mineralisation for CO2 storage
- Carbon-negative concrete
- Surprise us!
- Geochemistry and related (e.g. mineralogy, geobiology, other geosciences) with experience in rock weathering and/or CO2 mineralisation
- OR Process / chemical / mechanical engineering with experience in areas like CCUS, material processing (mining, cement, lime, ceramics, industrial waste), metal recovery, electrochemistry, reactor design, fluid flow in porous media
- OR Experience in mining, cement, industrial waste management
- OR Microbiology or biotechnology with experience in bioweathering or bioleaching
- OR Geospatial data modelling, machine learning
Nice to have: process optimisation, MRV, techno economic modelling, life cycle assessment, exposure to Direct Air Capture and CO2 storage
What We Offer
As a Founder-in-Residence, you will join stellar individuals who also believe in the need for deeptech solutions to solve hard climate problems.
Together, we would be scoping high potential approaches before converging on the most promising one and finding your future co-founders
We offer (among other things)
- A €2,500 monthly allowance during your participation in the programme
- 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 currently taking applications for the November 2023 cohort and we are interviewing on a rolling basis so we encourage you 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.