From skateboard decks to pitch decks: Hugo Rauch’s unconventional path into climate VC

Hugo, where did your journey begin?

I grew up in Bordeaux, in the southwest of France. Before anything else, I was a professional skateboarder for about 10 years. I was on the French team, travelling the world for competitions.

After that, I went to business school, and got my first job at Microsoft, including a 6-month stint at Climate Innovation Fund, their corporate VC arm for climate based in Washington.

And then you started a podcast. Why?

After my time in the US, I came back to Europe and wanted to contribute in a different way. Don’t get me wrong I loved Microsoft, it’s an amazing company, but I wanted a bigger sense of purpose.

I realised there weren’t enough climate VCs on podcasts. It was still an untapped niche. They also have inspiring stories to tell – and push back against this idea that climate isn’t financially attractive. They understand it is a huge economic opportunity.

That’s why I launched New Wave, where I interview investors from across Europe’s climate tech ecosystem. The community grew much faster than I expected. And here we are.

Why climate tech?

For me, it always comes back to combining purpose with profit.

Climate change is a humanitarian crisis, and helping to solve it in some way is really motivating.

But I’m also bullish on the economics. Climate applies to every single industry and many businesses will collapse if they don’t adapt fast enough. It’s a huge economic opportunity.

Climate tech is also a topic I could see myself working on for the next 40 years. It’s so diverse. You can work on power, food, carbon capture, deeptech, software – everything. The problems aren't going anywhere.

Do you think 'climate tech' as a label still makes sense?

Honestly, I don’t really care about the label.

What matters is reducing or removing emissions. I understand why labels help LPs, governments, and funders. But the most important thing is having companies where impact and revenue are completely interlocked – the more they grow, the more impact they have.

Was it your plan to go into climate investing?

Yes, from the beginning.

One reason I started New Wave was that I wanted to learn how climate VCs think because I wanted to become one myself.

The second reason was visibility. Climate is complex. We need specialised media to explain things like direct air capture in a way people can actually understand.

And the third reason was a bit more idealistic: I hoped people would listen and think, “I should put my money into climate.” Even if they don’t care about climate, as long as they invest in it.

And now you’ve just joined Climate Club. Tell me more about it

Yes, I just started as a VC investor.

Climate Club is a French fund started by two former entrepreneurs, Jeremy Charoy and Antoine Le Conte, who actually used to be competitors. They both sold their companies, started angel investing, and decided to build a climate fund together.

It works as a club. We have about 150 members – mostly climate experts and ex-entrepreneurs. They act as LPs and also as a real decision-making body. Every deal is sent to all members. They see the investment notes. They vote on deals. We need 75% approval to invest.

It’s a €10m vehicle, all private money. No institutional LPs. The founders also invested a lot of their own wealth.

What’s powerful is the diversity of people: unicorn founders, battery experts, impact investors, climate scientists. It gives us a really multidimensional view on startups. That’s why our portfolio is so geographically and thematically diverse – from Bangladesh to Singapore to the US.

So what happens to New Wave?

It'll keep running as usual and it stays independent of my work at Climate Club. I’ll keep having all VCs on the podcast – competitors included.

Finally – what’s your fika order?

A cappuccino and pain au chocolat.