Software will not solve the climate crisis: investments in advanced technologies are needed

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In 2011, Marc Andreessen wrote that "software is eating the world", predicting that software companies would disrupt nearly every industry. His prescient projection has proven true over the past decade. Software has had a pervasive impact, paving the way for dramatic efficiencies in business, transforming healthcare, and introducing countless conveniences into our daily lives.

However, while software has provided undeniable benefits, it is not a panacea for society's greatest challenges, including the greatest of all: the current climate crisis. Software alone will never solve the myriad of problems that contribute to the dire state of our planet. Hardware solutions and engineering-driven innovations in deep technology will enable some of the most important climate actions.

The most exciting aspect of today's deep tech climate innovations is that they are no longer science fiction or research experiments. Many of the most game-changing climate solutions are close to commercialization. Here's a look at how the deep tech ecosystem can seize the opportunity to solve our greatest collective challenge.

Switch to deep climate technology

It is not easy to overstate the critical importance of deep technology in accelerating solutions for global decarbonization and renewable energy. Much of the carbon capture and clean energy technologies coming to market are hardware products with deep technological innovations. We see companies developing new ways to extract lithium from brines to power electric vehicles, turn fast carbon into slow carbon with ocean buoys, and even inject captured CO2 into concrete for permanent storage.

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It is perhaps unsurprising for a fund focusing on deep technology that one of our company's first investments in the market was focused on hardware in the form of advanced lithium-ion batteries developed by SunMobility. These replaceable batteries enable “pay-as-you-go” EV power that could make e-vehicles financially viable for the first time in markets such as India.

Looking at these technological advances, there is no doubt that to overcome the many challenges threatening our planet, both the public and private sectors must turn to climate solutions that include both atoms and em>pieces. But the question remains: what precise role can the venture capital community play in seeding the disruption of climate change by cutting-edge technologies?

Moving from a superficial state of mind to a deep state of mind

While Andreeson's software prediction has played out in nearly every corner of the business world, software investments have far exceeded committed capital in Silicon Valley and beyond for hardware innovations that initially gave its name to the mecca of technology.

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