Alumnus Mark Cupta started his career in a variety of research, engineering, product development, and business strategy roles at Fortune 500 companies. Cupta is a double Jacket, having earned a bachelor’s in chemical and biomolecular engineering in 2004 and a master’s in 2006. Now he’s a managing director at Prelude Ventures, a climate venture capital firm. 

1. Why did you choose Georgia Tech? 

Georgia Tech was the only school I applied to coming out of high school. Looking back, it does feel a bit naïve or risky, but I was determined. Ever since I can remember, I wanted to be a scientist or engineer. Growing up in Georgia with one of the best engineering schools in the world in my backyard just felt like too big of an opportunity to pass up.

5. What kinds of technologies do you want to invest in? 

My specialty is investing at the intersection of frontier technology and climate. I look for companies that solve problems in ways that demonstrate a step-change improvement in their markets. I also gravitate toward technological innovations that leverage macro trends to do something that previously seemed impossible. Companies applying recent advancements in fields like material science, biology, robotics, and artificial intelligence to climate problems will almost always get my attention. 

6. What qualities do you look for in a promising climate startup? 

I do not differentiate a promising climate startup from any other venture capital startup. As an early-stage investor, we are evaluating similar characteristics in companies: the quality of the team, the transformational nature of the technology or business model, and the size of the market opportunity, for example. The difference is that I also screen investments based on their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Then, I assess whether the business has the potential to become a category-defining company in its sector.

7. How did your Georgia Tech education prepare you for this work? 

Georgia Tech engineers are trained to break down difficult problems into digestible parts to come up with viable solutions. That skill set is drilled into you in nearly all aspects of your education. A venture capitalist’s most important skill is their ability to climb a steep learning curve in a wide range of market sectors, technologies, and business models. I see hundreds of companies each year, but I only make investments in a few. My engineering background provides me with a toolkit that is essential for my decision-making process. 

8. What are some of the most exciting climate-related technologies you see coming in the near future? 

One theme that we are particularly excited about at our firm is the “electrification of everything.” We continue to make great progress on decarbonizing our electrical grid, and that enables us to use renewable electrons to decarbonize other industries. The obvious example is electric vehicles, but we are seeing exciting technologies that will use renewable energy to decarbonize heavy industries like steel, cement, fertilizer, and hydrogen production. With that in mind, we also need to continue to invest in the future of zero-carbon energy production and grid stability. This includes long-duration, grid-scale batteries and moonshot ideas in geothermal and fusion power.

9. Have you learned something from your work that’s changed your own choices or behavior to reduce your climate impact? 

The average U.S. citizen is responsible for just under 100 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions per day. That disheartened me when I first thought about how to reduce that number in my own life. I have done obvious things like using an electric vehicle for my daily commute and replacing an old natural gas heater with an electric heat pump. I’ve come to realize that the most important thing I can do to reduce my climate impact is vote with the climate in mind. Effective policies that will help drive change in the large emitting industries and infrastructure is the biggest lever we have as a society. 

10. What makes you most hopeful about our ability to mitigate the effects of climate change? 

It’s easy to feel the gloom and doom of climate. We are seeing record-setting weather events with devastating effects more frequently all over the planet. My hope lies with the people working in this field. I’ve been involved in climate investing for over a decade, and I can honestly say that the quality and quantity of people dedicating their careers to climate is accelerating. There is real momentum in this sector, and I’m excited to see what we can do together over the next decade.