Robin Turlings, managing partner of Zero Emissions Fund, traces an unconventional path from childhood hustling (collecting bottles in France, later earning up to €350 an hour as a teenage street musician in the Netherlands) through a public policy degree, corporate stints at Accenture and ING, and a life-changing 1997 trip to China. After relocating to Singapore, he co-founded a financial planning app that failed due to Asia's referral-fee culture, then built Startup Buddy to help founders who couldn't access top accelerators. Inspired by a Mark Carney podcast during Covid, Turlings and his wife launched Zero Emissions Fund, a family fund investing in climate tech and decarbonization startups worldwide. Now based in Bulgaria, the fund runs a free, three-stage global cohort, backed by a network of 55 co-investors, that took 130 applicants down toward five to ten finalists for direct investment. Turlings pushes back on narratives that US policy shifts are stalling climate tech, arguing capital and talent are simply redistributing globally, and shares his five-year vision for the fund's first exit and a worldwide community of climate-focused founders and mentors.
From €350-an-hour street busker to failed startup founder to climate VC funding the world's overlooked founders.
Can you tell people about Zero Emissions Fund and what you're working on there?
We started Zero Emissions Fund during Covid after hearing a podcast speaker say you should put your money where your mouth is. I'd been investing for a long time, so it made sense. It's a family fund I run with my wife, investing in climate tech and decarbonization startups around the world. We run an active program to find the companies we think are the best in that space.
You made your first money at six collecting bottles in France. What did that teach you?
There was no deliberate plan. I was bored in the mornings while my parents slept, so I'd collect bottles people left after partying at the campsite and turn them in for cash. I made around 80 gilders, which felt like a huge amount at the time, and I used it to buy a fishing pole. I suppose that was my first venture.
By 17 you were making €350 an hour as a street musician. What was driving that?
I read a book about a homeless guy in Paris making money as a street musician and decided to try it during Kings Day in the Netherlands. I made 12 gilders in an hour playing recorder and kept going, upgrading from the local shopping center to the city center. On average I made 10 to 15 gilders an hour, but one Christmas I hit the equivalent of €350.
Walk me through the moment you knew your first startup was over.
We were having lunch, myself and my two co-founders, and they basically said they didn't think it was going to work and were getting out. I could either continue alone or not. I already knew it in the back of my head for a long time but kept thinking maybe next week it would work. Eventually we just had to give up.
What was the core mistake building a financial planning app in Asia?
In Europe, regulation prevents advisors from taking referral fees, so customers pay directly and it feels transparent. I assumed that model was better. But in Singapore the entire market ran on referral fees, so customers perceived financial advice as free even though they were paying a percentage indirectly. We simply couldn't compete with that perception.
You're betting the US has less impact on global climate tech than people think. What's the consensus missing?
Many of the best ideas and entrepreneurs are still in the US, but a lot of them are now considering expanding elsewhere because the environment there isn't friendly at the moment. That downturn in attention and investment seems primarily a US phenomenon. In China, Asia, and Europe that trend isn't there at all, if anything the climate tech space is getting more active.
Your cohorts are free and open to anyone. Why does that math work for you when it wouldn't for most VCs?
We invest our own money and time, and we get the upside through our network of about 55 co-investors specialized in or interested in climate tech. We plan to invest around 75,000 euros ourselves in one to three companies at the end of the program, but if our network puts in a 3 million dollar ticket in the same company, we've already earned it back.
Five years out, what does success look like for Zero Emissions Fund?
I hope we'll have our first exit from this year's investment and have run four or five cohorts since we start a new one every October. We've already had 200 entrepreneurs apply, with 130 in our first cohort's opening phase. In five years I'd love a worldwide community of dedicated mentors, investors, and startups working on climate tech and decarbonization problems.
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