ABOUT US

A team of investors and entrepreneurs committed to addressing humanity’s most significant challenges

OUR VISION

We are dedicated to nurturing our portfolio companies into industry front-runners, catalyzing global decarbonization efforts, mitigating climate risks, and fostering a sustainable economy and society.

OUR TEAM

  • Guy Cherni

    Co-Founder & Managing Partner

    Guy Cherni is a deep-tech founder and investor. Guy is the Co-Founder and the managing partner of Climate First, which supports deep-tech and Climatech startups. He invested in more than 30 companies disrupting the fields of...

    Guy Cherni is a deep-tech founder and investor. Guy is the Co-Founder and the managing partner of Climate First, which supports deep-tech and Climatech startups. He invested in more than 30 companies disrupting the fields of Energy, Materials, Food, Mobility, and more.

    Prior to CF, Guy Co-founded Atlas Dynamics, the leading European unmanned aerial systems (UAS) company that redefines the drone industry using autonomous swarms.

    Guy worked and lived in Israel, the U.S., China, Africa and is currently located in London.

    He holds a B.A. in PPE and an M.A. in International Development from Hebrew University, an M.Des in Industrial Design from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, and an MBA from the Chicago Booth School of Business.

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  • Nadav Steinmetz

    Co-Founder & Managing Partner

    Nadav Steinmetz is an early stage climate tech investor based in London, UK. Nadav is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Climate First. He focuses on backing disruptive climate technologies and developing them into highly...

    Nadav Steinmetz is an early stage climate tech investor based in London, UK. Nadav is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Climate First. He focuses on backing disruptive climate technologies and developing them into highly profitable and impactful enterprises.

    He is a former private equity investor with over a decade of experience in financial services, venture capital and real estate having worked at Blackstone and other institutions. He also serves as an advisor, mentor and board member to numerous companies and non-profit organizations.

    Nadav holds a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy from Columbia University.

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  • Eric Kohlmann

    Partner

    Eric Kohlmann is a seasoned technology investor and Partner at Climate First. With a background in physics and finance, he previously launched a quantitative hedge fund in New York, leveraging AI and machine learning for...

    Eric Kohlmann is a seasoned technology investor and Partner at Climate First. With a background in physics and finance, he previously launched a quantitative hedge fund in New York, leveraging AI and machine learning for algorithmic trading.

     As a deep tech investor in companies in the US, Europe and Israel, he also backed CTRL-Labs, a BMI startup acquired by Facebook for ~$1B in 2019 and Sania Therapeutics, a leading gene therapy company in the UK, among others. 

    He is fluent in several languages and passionate about classical music. Eric also co-founded Creatives Care, a non-profit supporting mental health access for artists.

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  • Arielle Evan

    Associate

    Arielle Evan serves as an Associate at Climate First. Previously, Arielle held positions in Marketing and Business Development at Israeli high-tech companies, including ironSource (acquired by Unity), Hilltop Technologies and...

    Arielle Evan serves as an Associate at Climate First.

    Previously, Arielle held positions in Marketing and Business Development at Israeli high-tech companies, including ironSource (acquired by Unity), Hilltop Technologies and Agri Tech company GroundWork BioAg.

    Arielle holds a B.A. in Economics and Entrepreneurship (with honors) from Reichman University.

    While pursuing her degree, she served as the Program Manager at GreenBiz and participated in the Zell Entrepreneurship Program.

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  • Pavel Radzivilosky

    Partner

    Pavel Radzivilosky is a physicist, exited founder and an angel investor. Pavel has a stellar track record as an angel investor, with over 49 deep tech investments and 9 successful exits to date including AcceloWeb, Medi Tate,...

    Pavel Radzivilosky is a physicist, exited founder and an angel investor.

    Pavel has a stellar track record as an angel investor, with over 49 deep tech investments and 9 successful exits to date including AcceloWeb, Medi Tate, REE, Cloud Endure.

    In 2003 he co-founded VisionMap, making high-end airborne mapping systems, which was acquired by Rafael and SK Group in 2013

    He is the head coach of the Israel physics youth olympics team and represented Israel at the International Physics Olympics in 1996, and won an H.M. award for Israel (Oslo, Norway) among other awards in mathematics.

    Pavel has a BSc in Physics with an excellence diploma from Tel Aviv University.

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  • Keren Amber Jason

    Head of Marketing & Comms

    Keren Amber Jason is a marketing and project management executive with extensive background in managing global teams and operations. Keren is the current head of growth and development at Nomea, a UK based climate tech fund,...

    Keren Amber Jason is a marketing and project management executive with extensive background in managing global teams and operations.

    Keren is the current head of growth and development at Nomea, a UK based climate tech fund, where she leads the firm’s business development, investor relations, marketing and Public Relations.

    Previously, Keren worked in several multinational corporations leading their international expansion, and overseeing their marketing and PR efforts across global networks.

    Keren holds a B.A in philosophy from Columbia university and an M.A in business management from UCL.

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  • Adam Tomassi-Russell

    Advisor

    Adam leads climate efforts at venture studio Deep Science Ventures (DSV), with a focus on reversing global heating through the application and scale-up of novel cleantech. Prior to DSV Adam has worked across multiple...

    Adam leads climate efforts at venture studio Deep Science Ventures (DSV), with a focus on reversing global heating through the application and scale-up of novel cleantech.

    Prior to DSV Adam has worked across multiple innovation-focused roles including: Chief Commercial Officer at venture-backed start-up LabGenius and Business Development and Innovation for UK Chemicals company Johnson Matthey.

    Adam holds a PhD and MSci in Chemistry from the University of Oxford and Imperial College London, respectively.

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  • Puja Balachander

    Venture Partner

    Puja is a recently exited founder using her product and commercial expertise to accelerate the just transition. She’s currently Director of Venture at Carbon13, where she supports pre-seed/seed stage climate tech startups...

    Puja is a recently exited founder using her product and commercial expertise to accelerate the just transition. She’s currently Director of Venture at Carbon13, where she supports pre-seed/seed stage climate tech startups to accelerate their progress.

     Before being a founder, Puja was in civic tech at the White House, World Bank, and City of Austin. Puja has an MBA from Oxford and a BA from American University.

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  • David Shayo

    Analyst

    David holds a degree in Business & Entrepreneurship from Reichman University. He has relevant experience in the venture capital industry and has been actively involved in Climate Tech through roles at Energy Innovation...

    David holds a degree in Business & Entrepreneurship from Reichman University. He has relevant experience in the venture capital industry and has been actively involved in Climate Tech through roles at Energy Innovation Capital, theDOCK, and Resycure.

    While pursuing his degree, David gained hands-on experience in various aspects of Climate Tech and venture capital. In addition to his professional expertise, David is fluent in Portuguese, further enriching the diverse skill set within the Climate First team.

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  • Linoy Amsalem

    Marketing Lead

    Before joining the team, Linoy gained experience as a content creator and served in the Intelligence Collection Corps of the IDF. She is a Student of Sustainability and Governance at Reichman University and speaks Japanese...

    Before joining the team, Linoy gained experience as a content creator and served in the Intelligence Collection Corps of the IDF.

    She is a Student of Sustainability and Governance at Reichman University and speaks Japanese fluently.

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