CEV Welcomes New Investor, Max Werny

CEV Team Update! A warm welcome to Max Werny, PhD, our newest Investor in Europe. Max pairs early-stage climate VC experience with deep technical expertise, a combination that will expand our capabilities to identify high-impact investments and support our portfolio companies' growth across the region.

Over the past three years, Max has invested at the pre-seed and seed stages in deep tech and climate tech, first with Extantia Capital and then with Zero Carbon Capital. He sourced and led early diligence on deals in metal recovery, biomining, and direct air capture, led an investment in a sustainable aviation fuel company, and helped scale Zero Carbon's deal funnel and network across the DACH region, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

A PhD chemist, Max began his career at Heraeus Precious Metals, where he led development of a novel CO₂ methanation catalyst and built techno-economic analysis tools, learning to weigh a technology on both its chemistry and its unit economics.

He earned his PhD in Catalysis & Spectroscopy from Utrecht University, winning the Dutch Polymer Institute's 2024 Golden Thesis Award, and holds chemistry degrees from the Technical University of Munich.

"I am incredibly excited to join Clean Energy Ventures at a time when physical frontier technologies and AI are kicking off a new era of industrial transformation-and to back the founders turning that shift into gigaton-scale impact," said Max.

"Max adds real depth to our European team. He combines a chemist's grasp of the technology with a clear read on the market, which makes us both sharper at finding the right companies and more useful to the ones we've already backed," said Daniel Goldman, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Clean Energy Ventures.

Welcome, Max!