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Hard Tech, Real Impact: Pangaea Ventures on What Comes Next

May 29, 2025 by Robert Lewis

At this year’s Web Summit Vancouver, CleanEnergy.ca caught up with Andrew Haughian, General Partner at Vancouver-based Pangaea Ventures, to dig into the firm’s just-released Hard Tech Report—a data-backed guide for investors and industry leaders navigating the complex intersection of science, sustainability, and scale.

Now in its 25th year, Pangaea has long focused on “hard tech”—deep innovations rooted in materials science, chemistry, and biology. With climate, health, and resource crises accelerating, Haughian says the moment has arrived for these real-world technologies to drive planetary change.

In this interview, he unpacks why hard tech is more urgent than ever, how Pangaea evaluates market readiness, and why companies like CarbonCure show what’s possible when science meets scalable deployment.

Pangaea Ventures has been around for 25 years – what prompted you to release the Hard Tech Report now?

AH: We’re at a pivotal moment. The world urgently needs solutions rooted in advanced materials, chemistry, and biology, what we call “hard tech”, to address climate, resource, and health challenges. With over two decades of experience investing in hard tech, we recognized a clear need for actionable, sector-specific insights that move beyond headlines and deliver meaningful guidance for investors and industry leaders.

What sets the Hard Tech Report apart from other industry analyses?

AH: Unlike broad market surveys we’ve seen, our report is grounded in our 25 years of hands-on investing and company building. The Hard Tech Report distills that extensive experience and our perspective into a practical guide for investors and corporate venture leaders alike. The other big difference is that we’re not just highlighting the technologies, but the market conditions, policy tailwinds, and adoption barriers that determine where and when hard tech can deliver industry transformation, planetary health gains, and of course, returns.

How does Pangaea define “hard tech,” and why is it so critical right now?

AH: We see hard tech as positioned at the nexus of innovation and necessity. It’s about solving real-world, urgent, physical problems like decarbonizing concrete, scaling biomanufacturing, or securing critical materials supply. These aren’t challenges that software can solve, though it may enable incremental improvements. We focus on companies leveraging breakthroughs in materials science, chemistry, and biology to address those challenges.

We firmly believe hard tech is as critical now as it ever has been, because the stakes have never been higher. Planetary health, industrial resilience, and even global competitiveness all depend on tangible innovation.

Your report emphasizes market readiness. What do you look for when evaluating a hard tech company’s potential?

AH: Product-market fit is everything. In hard tech, we look for companies that have moved beyond the lab and are demonstrating real traction in terms of first customers, offtake agreements, and early revenue. The difference between linear and exponential growth often comes down to the inflection point when every dollar invested in manufacturing or sales yields greater returns than the last. We typically invest at the Series A stage, when a company is poised to scale, and we’re happy to lead rounds and syndicate with like-minded investors.

Beyond that, we take a genuinely collaborative approach to investing. For us, numbers matter of course, but it’s not just about the numbers. We’re always looking to build strong, trusting relationships with founders. When we meet a prospective company, we’re asking ourselves if there’s real alignment, and can we support this team in the ways they’ll need as they grow? If we don’t believe we can add meaningful value, we’re honest about it. Ultimately, it’s about partnership and making sure we’re the right fit for each other.

Can you share an example of a portfolio company that illustrates the impact and potential of hard tech?

AH: Absolutely. Take CarbonCure Technologies, for example. They’ve developed a technology that injects captured CO₂ into concrete, reducing its carbon footprint while maintaining performance. What’s remarkable is how quickly they’ve scaled: their solution is now deployed at hundreds of plants worldwide, preventing millions of tons of CO₂ emissions. That’s the kind of tangible, scalable impact we look for.

What’s next for Pangaea Ventures and for the hard tech ecosystem?

AH: We’ll continue investing in and supporting companies at the intersection of science and planetary health. Looking ahead, we see hard tech as the engine powering the next industrial transformation, unlocking new levels of resilience and sustainability across industries. We’re excited to help build that future in partnership with the founders, investors, and global stakeholders who share our vision for a healthier planet and thriving society.

The Hard Tech Report is available to download at pangaeaventures.com.

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: Foresight Canada, Pangaea Ventures, Web Summit Vancouver

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