Dan Whaley, Climos. Courtesy SF Chronicle

Sustainable Industries caught up with Dan Whaley, CEO of ocean iron fertilization (OIF) startup Climos, at the company’s San Francisco headquarters, in late April, shortly after the company closed a $3.5 million Series A funding round that included investments from Braemar Energy Ventures and Silicon Valley investor Elon Musk.

However, no sooner had we walked away from the company’s SoMa offices than Climos decided it was ready for seconds. In May, the company announced its aim to close an $8 to $10 million Series B round by first quarter 2009. It has been widely reported that the recent UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which put the brakes on ocean iron fertilization projects, could present an obstacle for Climos in its current fundraising. However, the recommendations adopted by the UN (see sidebar) have been in place since November 2007, and Climos has long professed its support for developing scientific consensus.

Unlike the company’s former competitor, Planktos, which closed up shop earlier this year, Climos has expressed no hurry in getting its proposed climate change solution to market; both its recent round of funding and its current search for capital are aimed at scientific assessment and evaluation. And, more than most, Whaley seems keenly aware of the role public opinion will play in making or breaking his company’s success. “It’s about science first, but it’s also about perception, and people have to really trust that you’re trying to do this in the right way,” he notes. “Part of how they think about science has to do with how they feel about the way you’re going about things.”

Whaley himself has a near-perfect background for promoting the company’s image: a dotcom success—with a lucrative exit in 2000—and oceanography in his genes. Dr. Margaret Leinen, Climos’ chief science officer, was formerly the assistant Director for Geosciences at the National Science Foundation, and, as Whaley puts it, “She also happens to be my mother. “I basically grew up in oceanography,” he says. “All the key people we need to talk to, I grew up with. I worked in labs when I was 12 and 13; I’ve been on two research crews when I was younger. It’s something I feel like I’m finally able to use and do something with that’s potentially meaningful.”

SI: Can you tell us a bit about how and why Climos started?

DW: Climos was founded to look at research around the concept of ocean iron fertilization. Our thinking is that climate change goes above and beyond reducing emissions. We need to look at everything in parallel—reduce emissions and find new technologies at the same time. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s something that can be done as part of the full suite of actions we need to take.