Venture Founder (Sustainable Biofuel) - Singapore

Rainmaking APAC is seeking a Venture Founder for a sustainable biofuel project in Singapore. The role involves innovating in the marine biofuel sector, particularly using macroalgae. The founder will lead the venture, develop revenue streams, and build a team. Although the venture launches in Singapore, the base may be in EMEA, requiring significant travel during the establishment phase. Candidates should have experience in commodity value chains and agri/aquaculture projects.
Are you motivated by changing the energy space, specifically shipping, as we see it today? Are you a seasoned entrepreneur, using your skills to constantly innovate with the goal of having an outsized impact on the world? Do you want to build a venture from scratch, and are attracted to doing so in partnership with equally ambitious, entrepreneurial and dedicated partners? If so, you could be exactly who we are looking for!
This is a rare opportunity to found a venture that is at the optimum stage of the curve, and to do so supported by the IP, assets, investment and wider support systems to accelerate your pathway to success. You’ll play a critical role in changing the marine biofuel industry through macroalgae.
Please note that whilst venture will be launched in Singapore, the site base is being defined and is likely to be in EMEA. As the Founder you will travel a fair amount, especially at the early stages of the site establishment
About Rainmaking APAC Venture Studio :
We are a Venture Build Studio with more than a decade's experience of working with some of the world’s largest and most influential companies. We’ve built and launched over 60 ventures and worked with 80 of the Fortune 500. We combine the best of entrepreneurial capability and corporate assets to build high-impact and fast-scaling new ventures. Together with market-leading corporate partners and entrepreneurial founding teams, we build, launch and scale impactful new ventures.
Rainmaking is excited to be co-investing in building high impact ventures with a FTSE 250 heavy engineering company. They are the lead investor and strategic partner in the venture and will bring their deep industry expertise to drive the success of our projects, coupled with our entrepreneurial expertise. Together, we are on a mission to create, capture and deliver value in solving the biofuel shortage.
How will I have an impact? :
- As the Venture Founder, you'll be responsible for taking the venture forward, bringing Rainmaking's validation work to life (all whilst critically evaluating and validating it)
- You’ll deeply embed yourself in the marine biofuel space, working in partnership with our Chief Biologist to create fresh revenue streams. At the earlier stages of the venture this will include drop-in marine biocrude produced from macroalgae biomass
- Moving to later stages, you’ll unlock revenue opportunity from licensing the IP from the macroalgae biomass-to-biocrude process
- Success would mean a growing customer base of both producers of marine biofuel who are experiencing a biomass feedstock shortage (therefore limiting biofuel production) and shipping companies who are looking to secure their biofuel supply to meet regulatory requirements, sustainability goals etc.
- To do this, you’ll build a high impact team around you and find effective ways of unlocking all the assets available to you through the corporate partner and Rainmaking
Requirements :
- You will deeply understand value chain pain points, being able to effectively uncover them and translate them into IP that can be effectively offered in a digital solution
- You’ll have deep experience in commodity value chains and asset development, understanding problem statements effectively throughout that journey
- You’ll bring experience in agri and/or aquaculture projects, understanding how this space works and the associated challenges
- You’ll bring a baseline of engineering expertise and be able to speak this language, getting instant stakeholder buy in. Mega-sized projects won’t be alien to you, where you’ve had to navigate multiple stakeholder management scenarios and high profile situations
- You’ll bring entrepreneurial depth having built a number of businesses, either through the corporate route or ‘in the wild’. This could also be through launching and scaling multiple B2B products or new revenue lines with success
- You’ll bring strong business development experience required to secure all the partnerships to ensure the model operates effectively, with an appreciation for long, complex, international BD cycles
- You’ll be a top class leader who operates with integrity and is able to effectively build and engage teams on this journey
- You have deep problem-solving skills to tackle the macro and the micro. You’ll be skilled with lean startup and broader entrepreneurial methodologies, utilizing as appropriate
Key Traits :
- You’re deeply engaged and curious about solving problems within the renewable energy space, and nascent spaces in general, and will be energized by the opportunity at hand to have tangible impact through maximizing biocrude output
- You have a strong appreciation for the need to embrace risk in order to achieve the breakthroughs that solve the biggest challenges and an ability to navigate the complexity and pitfalls in doing so
- You’re highly credible, instantly holding your own in complex discussions with wid