Hard Tech Ideas and Voices from the Ecosystem: Pangaea’s Year in Review (Part 2)
From analysis to action across the hard tech landscape
If Part 1 of our year in review captured the capital and team behind Pangaea’s work, Part 2 is about the conversations, ideas, and community‑building that defined 2025. The Pangaea team and our partners helped put language, and urgency, around how hard tech can move the needle on planetary health and investor value.
Insight into Hard Tech from Pangaea
Pangaea’s 2025 content dug into where science‑driven innovation is most urgently needed, pairing high‑level theses with examples from the portfolio and broader ecosystem. Here’s some of our top articles from the year:
“Hard Tech’s Unique Transformation Potential” framed why step‑change physical technologies, not incremental software alone, are essential to decarbonization and resilience.
“The Data Center Cooling Revolution” (Part 1 and Part 2) explored how thermal management and advanced materials are becoming core enablers of AI infrastructure and sustainable computing.
“Next‑Generation Battery Materials” (Part 1 and Part 2) unpacked the forces behind the battery revolution and the emerging chemistries that could redefine mobility and grid storage.
The “Hard Tech Enablers” (Part 1 and Part 2) semiconductor series highlighted technologies that are quietly reshaping chip manufacturing, from materials to thermal solutions.
“How AI Is Powering the Next Wave of Hard Tech Innovation” drew a line between digital advances and physical systems, spotlighting companies using AI to accelerate materials discovery and industrial deployment.
25th anniversary interviews and community stories
2025 was a big year for us, as we celebrated 25 years of investing at the frontier of hard tech. To mark this rare milestone, Pangaea brought together voices from across our network; founders, strategic partners, and investors, to reflect on what it takes to build durable companies in difficult categories.
Conversations with leaders like Glenn Bindley (Redlen Technologies) and Erica Nemser (Ardent) surfaced stories about scaling, simplicity, pivots, and resilience in hard tech.
Interviews with strategic partners, including Tony Sun of GC Ventures and Yuki Furuta from Tosoh, highlighted how corporate VCs and industrial leaders can collaborate with venture funds and startups to unlock new platforms.
Events that brought the ecosystem together
In 2025, Pangaea intentionally created spaces, both in‑person and virtual, for founders, corporates, and investors to connect around shared challenges and opportunities in hard tech.
The Hard Tech Webinar, “Insights from 25 years at the frontier,” brought Pangaea’s co‑founders together to share lessons from two and a half decades of investing in materials, chemistry, and biology, aligned with the release of the Hard Tech Report.
Pangaea Ventures Partner, Sarah Applebaum (L) announces Pangaea’s participation in Membrion’s $20 million series B1 funding alongside Membrion CEO Greg Newbloom, and fellow investor, Kevin Chen, Ph.D. (Managing Director, Lam Capital and Corporate Development at Lam Research).
The Semicon West Startup Social, co‑hosted with the Arizona Commerce Authority, convened semiconductor leaders and showcased founders working on water, energy, and advanced materials, anchored by the announcement of Pangaea’s participation in Membrion’s $20M Series B1.
Showing up where hard tech happens
In 2025, Pangaea team members were on stage around the world, sharing how hard tech, venture capital, and corporate partners can work together to drive planetary health. These touchpoints helped connect founders, investors, and strategics who are building the next generation of materials, climate, and semiconductor solutions. Here’s just a few highlights:
Venture Summit West – David Weekes joined a VC panel to discuss early‑stage hard tech investing and what founders need to scale from lab to market.
GPEC Climate Technology Ambassador Gathering – Chris Erickson helped spotlight the growing hard tech and climate ecosystem in Arizona and how regional collaboration accelerates adoption.
Flinn Foundation Bio Capital Conference – Janelle Goulard participated in a candid discussion on how VCs and LPs evaluate emerging science platforms and partner with founders over the long term.
Cleantech Group Tokyo – Sayuri Nonaka represented Pangaea on a panel focused on how global VCs and Japanese corporates can collaborate to support hard tech startups and deepen cross‑border innovation.
Taking the hard tech story on the road
Pangaea’s partners and team members also spent more time behind the microphone in 2025, helping translate hard tech topics for broader audiences of founders, LPs, and operators.
On the Sound Investments podcast, Sarah Applebaum discussed what it means to back deeply technical founders at the earliest stages.
Sarah joined The Innovators & Investors Podcast to share how Pangaea evaluates opportunities across materials, chemistry, and biology.
On the Leaders on a Mission podcast, Andrew Haughian discussed how hard tech can cut through climate‑tech hype and where venture capital can have the greatest leverage on decarbonization and resilience.
Andrew also joined the NeuroConversant Leadership podcast to share why he thinks engineers make some of the best hard tech innovators.
Together, these touchpoints made 2025 a year where Pangaea’s hard tech thesis was not just deployed in capital, but shared, debated, and refined out in the open with the founders and partners building the future.