'Accelerating Innovations: From Seed to IPO' - Insights from Green Finance Leaders on the Innovation Zero World Main Stage

“There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly” – R. Buckminster Fuller

On April 29, 2025, the Innovation Zero Congress in London hosted a panel discussion titled “Accelerating Innovations: From Seed to IPO,” moderated by Charles Perry (Director, Sustainable Future for All). The session brought together leading voices in sustainable finance and industry to explore how early-stage climate innovations can scale from ideas to successful enterprises. Panellists included Dr. Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE (Chief Executive, Green Finance Institute); Irina Gorbounova (Vice President M&A and Head of XCarb Innovation Fund, ArcelorMittal); Marisa Drew (Chief Sustainability Officer, Standard Chartered); and Uday Khemka (Vice-Chairman, SUN Group).

Finance as a 'Facilitator' in the Low-Carbon Transition

Our Moderator Charles Perry opened this afternoons session; Accelerating Innovations: From Seed to IPO, with a quote from R. Buckminster Fuller. The metaphor captures how visionary procurement and sustainable investment can nurture early-stage innovations into transformative outcomes, a theme reflected by our panel of green finance leaders.

We heard from Dr Rhian Mari Thomas OBE, CEO of the Green Finance Institute who described this role of finance as a “facilitator” of the low carbon transition, able to scale climate-positive solutions across industries and markets. However, she made it clear that isolated finance cannot catalyse change at the pace required. Instead, a collaborative relationship between finance and policy is essential. Policy acts as the “enabler”, creating the regulatory frameworks, incentives, and long-term strategy needed to unlock capital flows. This alignment is especially crucial in hard-to-abate sectors, where private investment may be hesitant without a supportive policy environment.

Focusing on ‘Frontier’ Markets

Marisa Drew and Uday Khemka brought global perspectives to the conversation, highlighting the importance of investing in innovation at the earliest stages, particularly in undercapitalised and emerging markets. Drew encouraged a shift in focus toward what she called “frontier markets”- regions and sectors that are often overlooked but hold significant potential for scalable, high-impact solutions.

In doing so, Drew offered a quiet challenge to the opening quote from R. Buckminster Fuller. While Fuller suggested that you can’t tell a caterpillar will become a butterfly, Drew implied that with the right lens – one informed by experience, local insight, and a willingness to invest early – you can begin to recognise the butterfly in the making. Her framing of frontier markets invites investors to look more closely and more optimistically at these early-stage opportunities, not as risky unknowns, but as essential parts of the global climate solution.

A great example of this came from Khemka, who described in his bus electric venture in India - an example of how innovation in emerging markets can address local challenges while contributing to global decarbonisation. Both panellists advocated for more inclusive financing strategies that consider the needs of smaller-scale innovators operating in developing economies. Their insights made it clear: frontier markets are not peripheral to the net-zero transition – they are central to it.

Reframing ‘Hard to Abate’

Irina Gorbounova drew attention to the challenge and opportunity of decarbonising “hard to abate” sectors. She noted that industries like steel, cement, and chemicals, often labelled hard to abate, collectively account for roughly 30% of global emissions. Gorbounova reframed the term “hard to abate” as “hard to ignore,” stressing that the significant carbon footprint of these industries makes them a top priority for innovation and investment rather than something to be sidelined.

Gorbounova went on to share how ArcelorMittal’s XCarb Innovation Fund is channelling finance into breakthrough technologies for heavy industry – from green steel production to carbon capture – to demonstrate the tangible impact that targeted funding can have. Her point reinforced that decarbonising high-emission industries is a substantial part of the climate solution, one that investors and policymakers cannot afford to overlook if global climate goals are to be met.

Conclusion: From Seed to IPO through Collaboration

Enabling early-stage innovation from seed to IPO, requires a concerted blend of finance, policy alignment, and cross-sector collaboration. Each panellist, from finance leaders to industry innovators, echoed that no single player can drive this kind of transformative change alone. Instead, public-private partnerships, innovative funding mechanisms, and knowledge-sharing across sectors were repeatedly cited as keys to de-risking nascent technologies and introducing a “blended” approach to finance.

This vision lies at the heart of Innovation Zero’s mission: to connect innovators, policymakers, investors, and corporates in accelerating the commercialisation and deployment of solutions for a low carbon future. By convening diverse stakeholders and creating a platform for collaboration, Innovation Zero plays an essential role in turning bold ideas into real-world impact. The themes explored in this panel reflect the ecosystem Innovation Zero seeks to strengthen: one that fosters climate innovation not in silos, but through joined-up action across the value chain. It is only through this collective effort that early-stage climate technologies can move beyond prototypes and pilots to become the scalable, investable solutions our net-zero transition demands.