Member Spotlight: Atmos Financial
This week, I spoke to Ravi Mikkelsen, co-founder and CEO of Atmos Financial, a digital financial solution wholly dedicated to funding the rapid transition to the clean economy. We discussed banking’s connection to fossil fuel extraction, Ravi’s near 25 years of experience in the industry, and the line of hope and fear that he walks today.
Will Hespe: So the first thing I want to ask—what’s new at Atmos?
Ravi Mikkelsen: We just launched our business savings account. Everybody who's working on climate, those startups and funds, shouldn't have their money working against them. That's one of the reasons we started Atmos. We're working on climate every day, but if we have our money in one of the large national banks—it's funding fossil fuel extraction and combustion. So you can open a personal or business savings account with us and have your money distributed in clean energy and electrification. Where do you bank, Will?
Will Hespe: I'm at Wells Fargo.
Ravi Mikkelsen: Wells Fargo, it's the number five funder of fossil fuel extraction in the world.
Will Hespe: Really? I did not know that. Wow.
Ravi Mikkelsen: We are a technology company, but we work in the banking space. I've been in the clean energy space for almost two and a half decades. My co-founder’s [been in for] slightly less than that. He comes from the banking side, I come from the engineering and deployment side, and our goal is that all 60,000 banks and credit unions globally will shift some of their money. We don't need Chase to go 100% climate positive. We don't need Atmos, which is one hundred percent climate positive, to become as large as Chase. We need all 60,000 banks and credit unions to do some, and if they're all doing some, that means we're going to reach that goal of six trillion dollars a year of financing for clean energy and electrification. So that is what Atmos does, that is our mission. To help the world achieve that by unlocking those banks and credit unions.
Will Hespe: You said you've been in the space for two and a half decades. Is there a moment from within that span that feels emblematic of climate tech or of Atmos?
Ravi Mikkelsen: Everything is cyclical, right? A lot of startups focused on technologies that we tried in the aughts are coming back. Carbon footprints are in vogue again. It's now, “what is your personal and business carbon accounting?” We call it accounting instead of a footprint, but it's the exact same thing. The energy modeling we had to do, which was much more difficult back in 08’, 09’—getting people's utility data, or permit data. Now, cities, counties, states, the US government all have APIs for their data. So what's striking, rather than a particular moment of then versus now, is that 75% of the people that are working in climate have come in since 2018 or 2019. At least in the US. It is this true hockey stick explosion of interest and commitment to this movement around the transition, and that's a leading indicator for technology, development, and adoption. We're not yet fully at the escape velocity for EV, and solar, and all these other technologies, but we're almost there, and now you have more and more people coming into climate, or incorporating it into their non-climate business. How does a law firm integrate climate into their work? How do Google or Microsoft integrate it into their work? All of these people coming in are going to provide that last bit of momentum to really push us into that exponential growth. And that gives me tremendous hope. In the last couple of days, or maybe at the end of last week, New Delhi was 127 degrees Fahrenheit. 52.9 degrees Centigrade, absolutely deadly temperatures. So you get these dire warnings, but then you see this exponential shift in work in this space, so it gives me hope. It's getting bad, but we're rising to the challenge. More people come in, across political lines, across national lines—yesterday, the new president of Mexico, an IPCC climate scientist and energy engineer. She's their first female president, and a badass climate warrior, and she's going to absolutely push for transition in Mexico. They're going to lead a lot of other countries to do so as well.
Will Hespe: That is very exciting. You were speaking on a lot of new people entering the space. And so in that vein, do you have any advice for people looking to get into climate tech, or who are getting into climate tech?
Ravi Mikkelsen: Find community. 9Zero’s an amazing space for that. Just before the pandemic, I was actually looking at starting an incubator and coworking space in West Oakland. We need community, we need a central gathering space, and this is what 9Zero is. I've restarted my meetup series ClimateLink, which will be hosted at 9Zero. We've got June and July booked. We're going to go further, faster, together. Learn from those that have come before. Be humble and open to keep learning, and partner up. That super secret idea that you're working on? Somebody else is probably doing it as well. Somebody has probably tried it before and failed. So don't be scared about sharing your ideas, and come to the community with open arms.
