In this episode, Chris Corbishley speaks with Jodok Betschart, co-founder and CEO of Cloover, one of BNVT Capital’s earliest investments. Cloover has announced a $1.2B financing commitment to scale a new kind of software-led renewable energy infrastructure across Europe. The conversation covers Cloover’s breakout year, including around 8x revenue growth while remaining profitable, and why energy independence is becoming a critical consumer need as grids strain and household costs rise.

Jodok explains Cloover’s mission to connect 1 billion people to renewable energy by making installations accessible through simple monthly payments and by empowering local SME installers, not replacing them. Chris and Jodok explore why climate and energy investing is regaining momentum, why many climate tech startups fail when software-style expectations collide with physical infrastructure, and how Cloover’s asset-light platform model reduces risk while accelerating adoption.

1. Why Cloover’s mission is energy independence at mass-market affordability
2. How local installers sit at the centre of the energy transition
3. What has shifted to unlock more institutional capital for clean energy in Europe
4. Why many climate tech startups fail when venture logic meets infrastructure reality
5. How an asset-light platform model enables faster, lower-risk scaling
6. Why culture, commitment, and execution matter as much as technology

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In this episode, Chris Corbishley speaks with Thomas Wolf, co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Hugging Face, the open-source AI platform now powering millions of models and researchers worldwide. Thomas shares the unlikely origins of the company from a teen chatbot to the central hub of the global machine learning community sparked by a research codebase for BERT and GPT-2 that unexpectedly went viral and reshaped the company’s trajectory.

He discusses how Hugging Face now incubates internal “mini-startups” across open science, small on-device models, robotics and AI for science, and how this mirrors his work angel-investing in over 100 AI companies. The conversation explores the cultural differences between European and US founders, the importance of mission and openness, the limitations of today’s large language models, and why Thomas believes multiple research paths, not just those pursued by frontier labs, are essential for the field’s long-term progress.

• How Hugging Face evolved from a teen chatbot into the backbone of the global open-source AI ecosystem
• Why an open-sourced research codebase for BERT and GPT-2 became the catalyst for a full company pivot
• How Hugging Face incubates internal “startups” such as BigScience, small on-device models, robotics, and AI for science
• Why Thomas believes mission, culture, and long-term orientation are essential and how they emerged over time rather than being predetermined
• How European founders can overcome self-censorship and think bigger, and why Thomas encourages a more American-style approach to ambition
• Why he sees AI as a dual-use technology, the limitations of current LLMs, and the importance of multiple research paths beyond today’s frontier labs
• How regulatory cycles swing between under- and over-correction, and why this matters for innovators
• Where Thomas sits on the spectrum between benevolent and disruptor—and how that shapes his work today

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👉 Check out more about Benevolent Disruption here: https://www.benevolentdisruptors.com/

In this episode, Rory speaks with Colin le Duc, Co-Founder and Partner at Generation Investment Management, the sustainability-focused investment firm created alongside former US Vice President Al Gore and David Blood of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Generation was founded on a bold premise: that sustainability and long-term financial performance reinforce each other rather than compete. Two decades later, the firm manages more than $40 billion and has become one of the most respected voices in mission-driven investing.

Colin shares Generation’s origin story, the serendipitous alignment that brought its founders together, and how the firm set out to integrate sustainability into every stage of investing. He reflects on building both public and private market strategies, the moments of luck and timing that accelerated their success, and what it means to stay mission-driven while scaling a global investment platform.

The pair also discuss the advantages mission-driven companies have, why founders with genuine purpose outperform, and how political headwinds shape (and fail to derail) climate and sustainability investing. Colin explains why resilient, long-term fundamentals still guide Generation’s approach and why this is an unusually compelling time to invest in sustainable solutions.

Key Takeaways

• How Generation Investment Management was founded on integrating sustainability into capital markets
• Why timing, luck, and early market conditions accelerated their first decade
• How mission and investment performance reinforce each other, not compete
• Why sustainability became a source of alpha long before the market recognised it
• How being mission-driven helps attract the best entrepreneurs, teams, and shareholders
• Why short-term political shifts don’t change long-term sustainable investing fundamentals
• How climate and sustainability cycles create opportunities for specialist investors
• Why Generation focuses on returning capital, not just raising it

👉 Subscribe to Benevolent Disruptors for more conversations with the founders and thinkers turning big problems into better business.

👉 Checkout more about Benevolent Disruption here https://www.benevolentdisruptors.com/

In this episode, Chris Corbishley speaks with Matt Oppenheimer, Co-Founder and CEO of Remitly - the global payments company reshaping how money moves across borders.

Matt shares how his time in Kenya sparked the idea for Remitly and how the company grew from a small startup in Seattle into a platform now trusted by millions. What began as a response to an unfair, outdated system of money transfers became a mission to make financial services more affordable, transparent, and human.

The pair talk about the highs and lows of entrepreneurship from the early “nerve-sited” days to running a listed company and what it means to stay mission-driven while scaling globally. Matt also reflects on why purpose has been Remitly’s biggest advantage, how regulation can build trust, and why AI and stablecoins could open up the next chapter of financial inclusion.

• How a frustrating personal experience in Kenya inspired Remitly’s founding idea
• The emotional rollercoaster of building a fintech from scratch
• Why being “too mission-driven” once scared investors, and why that’s now a strength
• How purpose creates resilience, attracts great teams, and builds better businesses
• What really allowed Remitly to challenge giants like Western Union
• Why regulation can be a competitive advantage, not a roadblock
• The opportunities AI and stablecoins bring to global finance
• Matt’s vision for serving the 300 million people still left out of fair financial systems

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To open this conversation, Rory Mounsey-Heysham sits down with Greg Jackson - founder and CEO of Octopus Energy - one of Europe’s most successful tech companies and a driving force in the energy transition. Greg shares how Octopus grew from humble beginnings into a global energy and technology leader, serving millions of customers and managing billions in renewable assets. From challenging incumbents to redefining regulation, Greg embodies the spirit of “benevolent disruption”: building big businesses that make the world better.

In this wide-ranging discussion, Greg reflects on his journey from Halifax to leading a multi-billion-dollar company, the philosophy behind Kraken (Octopus’s proprietary tech platform), the importance of capital and agility, and why he believes clean energy must be cheap, fast, and fair.

• Energy as a tech problem: Octopus was founded on the belief that modern software could transform an outdated, inefficient energy industry.
• Capital and resilience: Greg emphasizes raising funds before you need them - “no one ever went bust because they had too much cash.”
• Agility as a superpower: Proprietary technology allows Octopus to innovate faster and outpace incumbents in integrating renewables and new products.
• Purpose with pragmatism: Energy should be fairer, cheaper, cleaner but it must also deliver returns to scale impact.
• Regulation reform: Greg advocates for “refactoring” outdated regulation halving timelines and simplifying systems to unlock innovation.
• Energy transition politics: Clean energy must be reframed as a cost-reducing, prosperity-driving movement, not a cultural wedge issue.
• The benevolent disruptor mindset: “The Good Samaritan couldn’t have helped anyone if he didn’t have the cash.” Scale and success are prerequisites for meaningful good.

To open the series, Rory Mounsey-Heysham and Chris Corbishley are joined by Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify. Shopify is often seen as an e-commerce platform, but Harley describes it as something bigger: an entrepreneurship company. By lowering the barriers to starting and scaling a business, Shopify has helped millions of people turn ambition into independence.

In this conversation, Harley reflects on Shopify’s journey, why more entrepreneurs make the world stronger and more colourful, and how technology is reshaping what’s possible for founders. From lessons learned from iconic business leaders, to the right role for government, to the promise and pitfalls of artificial intelligence - this episode is full of ideas on how “big problems” can become “big business.”

• Why Shopify thinks of itself as an entrepreneurship company, not just a tech platform
• How reducing barriers to entry has changed who gets to build businesses
• Why small businesses, not large corporations, are the true drivers of economies
• The two forces behind entrepreneurship: passion and survival
• What Harley has learned from great founders across industries
• Why government should set “guardrails, not gates” for business
• How AI is giving entrepreneurs new tools and levelling the playing field

In this short teaser, hear the vision behind Benevolent Disruptors - a new podcast from BNVT Capital exploring how solving the world’s biggest problems can also deliver the biggest financial returns.

Hosted by managing partners Rory Mounsey-Heysham and Chris Corbishley, the series features candid conversations with founders, executives, and investors from leading companies, funds, and endowments. Together, they reveal how tackling systemic global challenges with lasting technological innovation transforms big problems into big business.

Subscribe now and be the first to hear full episodes when they drop.