Key Takeaways
-
Discover 15 climate tech startups, offering deployable solutions ranging from direct air capture to zero-emission aviation and learn from their successes..
-
See how top AI for climate change companies are leveraging machine learning and geospatial data to bring critical transparency and risk modeling to the sector.
-
Understand the role of Big Tech in green technology, as major corporations increasingly fund and partner with early-stage founders to accelerate global decarbonization.
-
Explore how innovations in sustainable agriculture are moving beyond emission reductions to become vital tools for climate change adaptation.
-
Navigate the unique R&D and regulatory hurdles founders face, and identify the top venture capital firms providing the patient capital necessary to scale deep tech hardware.
Climate tech in 2026 looks different from what it used to. Capital still flows in, but it lands on fewer companies, later stages, and harder questions about commercial traction. US federal support has retreated since 2025, pulling non-dilutive capital off the table just as AI-driven electricity demand is forcing utilities, hyperscalers, and industrial buyers to place larger orders for clean energy, storage, and grid infrastructure. The startups raising this year are the ones with offtake agreements, credible manufacturing progress, and a specific answer to where their revenue comes from.
This article covers the 15 climate tech startups most worth a founder's attention, the investment data shaping the sector, a list of the top VCs investing in the space, and the structural challenges founders face as they move from pilot to commercial scale. The selection criteria, sources, and last-verified date appear in the methodology note at the end.
What Is a Climate Tech Startup?
A climate tech startup is a company that develops technology to reduce, remove, or adapt to greenhouse gas emissions and their effects. These companies work across clean energy, industrial decarbonization, carbon removal, sustainable agriculture, climate risk and adaptation, and critical minerals. They typically require longer capital cycles than software startups because most involve hardware, infrastructure, or physical deployment. Climate tech attracted $40.5 billion in global venture and growth investment in the last year.
How Are Climate Tech, Clean Tech, and Sustainability Startups Different?
Clean tech describes companies building lower-impact versions of existing industrial, energy, and transportation systems. Climate tech is broader and includes clean tech plus carbon removal, adaptation, climate risk analytics, and nature-based solutions. Sustainability startups sit further out, covering ESG reporting, the circular economy, and responsible consumer goods that may not directly impact emissions.
The Current Climate Tech Funding Landscape
Climate tech raised more capital year over year, but across fewer deals and with a sharp shift toward later-stage companies with revenue and customers. Global energy transition investment hit a record $2.3 trillion a figure that dwarfs the venture slice and reflects clean power, grid infrastructure, and the buildout required to meet AI-driven electricity demand. US private capital held up despite federal program cuts, while Europe led in new fund formation.
Which Climate Tech Sectors Are Attracting the Most Investment in 2026?
In early 2026, capital concentration intensified within specific climate tech sectors. Global equity funding reached approximately $21.5 billion in the first quarter, with North America alone capturing $10.1 billion. Energy continued to dominate the sector mix, carrying over its breakout momentum from the previous year. Driven heavily by AI-linked power demand, total energy investment in 2025 jumped 31% to a three-year high of $14.4 billion, capturing 36% of all climate tech funding. Capital in the energy sector concentrated in firm power mega-rounds, with nuclear fission and fusion accounting for 44% of that total.
Early-stage deal activity has contracted throughout 2025 and into 2026, while later-stage growth rounds are surging as investors prioritize commercial viability over experimentation. Breakout momentum is shifting toward long-duration energy storage and industrial decarbonization, as capital flows to infrastructure-ready companies with proven unit economics and secured offtake agreements. Transportation, historically a massive driver of climate funding, has leveled out, registering only a modest 4% overall increase as focus pivots toward grid flexibility and resilience.
How US Federal Policy Affected Climate Tech Funding
Federal support for climate tech has narrowed since 2025 due to reduced program funding, weaker research capacity, adverse permitting policies, and fewer tax incentives. Despite the public-program retreat, US private investment in the first half of 2025 reached $15.3 billion, up from $11.4 billion in the first half of 2024. Strategic US investors have responded by directing more capital into overseas deals, with overseas venture investment by US strategics reaching close to 60% of their activity in the first half of 2025. Climate tech operators have adjusted by tightening burn, and 52% of venture-backed climate tech companies reduced net burn year over year in 2025.
The Missing Middle Problem for Climate Tech Startups
The missing middle refers to the capital gap between a working technology at Series A and the first commercial-scale deployment that would unlock Series B and project finance. Series B deals fell 29%, while deal sizes also shrank by 28%. That gap hits hardware climate companies hardest, because most cannot reach first revenue without building a physical plant or fleet, which equity investors alone are rarely willing to fund. Founders bridging the middle in 2026 typically combine equity with debt, project finance, government grants, and offtake agreements with industrial buyers, in line with the trend toward non-dilutive capital.
Which Trends Are Shaping Climate Tech Startups in 2026?
Five trends define the category this year. AI-driven electricity demand is pulling capital into clean power and grid flexibility. Industrial heat electrification is moving from pilot to paid deployment. Carbon removal is consolidating around companies with real offtake. Climate adaptation has become the fastest-growing venture segment. Critical minerals reshoring is reshaping battery and magnet supply chains. The founders raising this year pitch at the intersection of at least two.
How Is AI Data Center Demand Reshaping Climate Tech in 2026?
AI workloads are the single biggest shift in climate tech demand since the Inflation Reduction Act. BloombergNEF estimates data center investment reached around $500 billion in 2025, more than total solar investment and large enough to tip capital flows in other regions toward low-carbon data center buildout. Sightline Climate reported energy investment grew 31% to $14.4 billion in 2025, its strongest level in three years, with fusion, fission, distributed energy resources, and storage capturing the bulk of mega-deal activity. Global electricity demand tied to AI is on track to quadruple within a decade, and the BNEF 2026 Pioneers competition drew a record 611 entries across data center infrastructure, grid flexibility, and heavy transport decarbonization.
For founders, this means hyperscaler offtake has become the most valuable commercial signal in the market. Form Energy announced a 300MW/30GWh iron-air battery deployment with Xcel Energy to help power a new Google data center in Minnesota in February 2026, which Form described as the largest battery energy storage system by energy capacity announced worldwide. Hyperscalers are also differentiating by firm versus intermittent power, location, and additionality. The conversation has shifted from headline megawatt-hours to bespoke offtake structures.
Industrial Decarbonization Moves From Pilot to Commercial
Industrial heat accounts for roughly a quarter of global fossil fuel use, and the category moved decisively from pilot to commercial deployment in 2025. Rondo Energy began commercial operation of a 100MWh heat battery at Holmes Western Oil in California in October 2025, which the company describes as the world's largest industrial heat battery, storing heat above 1,000°C at round-trip efficiency above 97%. Electrified Thermal Solutions brought its first commercial Joule Hive system online in San Antonio in early 2026 and closed a $19 million round in December 2025, led by Holcim, Vale, EDP, and Tupras. Sightline Climate reported that smart manufacturing investment rose close to 200% year over year in 2025.
These systems serve as dual-use assets, converting cheap, off-peak, clean electricity into industrial heat and steam while acting as flexible grid loads. The economics work where wholesale power markets are open to industrial buyers, which is why Texas and Europe are leading deployment geographies. Founders pitching in this category now compete on temperature range, round-trip efficiency, and bankable offtake rather than novelty.
Carbon Removal Consolidates Around Binding Offtake
Carbon removal has split into scale-stage companies with binding corporate offtake and early-stage companies competing for a consolidating buyer base. Heirloom is building two Louisiana direct air capture facilities with a $475 million capital commitment: the first 17,000-ton facility is expected to come online in 2026, and a larger facility is eligible for up to $600 million in federal Project Cypress funding. Microsoft's binding offtake for 622,500 tons of Sublime Systems cement and a 500,000-ton carbon removal purchase right with United Airlines Ventures show how anchor buyers now set the pace for commercial DAC.
On the voluntary market side, Sylvera reported that retirement volumes fell 4.5% to 168 million credits in 2025, but market value grew 6% to $1.04 billion as quality premiums expanded per its State of Carbon Credits 2025. Offtake deals announced in 2025 totaled $12.3 billion, up from $3.95 billion in 2024, delivering around 12 million credits annually through 2035 at a weighted average price of $180. Carbon Direct acquired Pachama in November 2025, one of the first significant consolidation moves in the sector.
Why Is Climate Adaptation the Fastest-Growing Segment?
Adaptation technology, covering climate risk analytics, extreme weather forecasting, water management, and nature-based solutions, grew 64% to $5.5 billion in 2025 per Net Zero Insights data cited by Trellis, outpacing every other climate tech vertical. Sightline Climate's broader nature tech and climate risk category jumped to 13.3% of total climate tech funding in 2025, up from around 5.5% in each of the four prior years. The shift tracks rising climate costs and regulatory disclosure demand from insurers, asset managers, and corporates filing TCFD and IFRS S2 reports.
Founders in this segment sell to insurance carriers, reinsurance, real estate, agriculture, and government procurement. The winners are building defensible data moats through proprietary weather sensors, satellite imagery, or high-resolution risk modeling rather than generic ESG dashboards. Adaptation is now an investable category in its own right rather than a sub-theme of mitigation.
Critical Minerals Reshoring Reshapes Battery and Magnet Supply Chains
Critical minerals reshoring has become a dual national security and climate tech thesis. The US Department of Energy announced $1 billion in 2025 funding targeting lithium, nickel, rare earths, gallium, and graphite, and the Export-Import Bank issued multiple billion-dollar letters of interest for US lithium and rare earth projects. J.P. Morgan Global Research forecasts global lithium demand will grow 16% year-over-year in 2026, with 58% of incremental demand coming from EVs and 30% from energy storage systems.
Direct lithium extraction is the most-funded new process. Lilac Solutions closed a 50,000-tonne lithium offtake with Trayxs in January 2026, ahead of its 5,000-tonne Great Salt Lake facility coming online late 2026. Processing and recycling are the next bottleneck, and the ability to name a domestic downstream customer is now required for DOE award eligibility.
Top 15 Climate Tech Startups to Watch in 2026
Antora Energy
- About: Antora Energy develops thermal batteries that heat blocks of solid carbon with renewable electricity, then deliver high-temperature heat and power on demand for industrial manufacturing.
- Sector: Industrial decarbonization and thermal energy storage.
- Year founded: 2018.
- HQ: Sunnyvale, California.
- Funding: More than $230 million raised, Series B led by Decarbonization Partners announced in February 2024 and later supplemented by a $14.5 million ARPA-E SCALEUP award, per Antora's announcement.
- Lead investors: Decarbonization Partners (BlackRock and Temasek), Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Shell Ventures, BHP Ventures, The Nature Conservancy.
- Why watch in 2026: Antora's commercial unit at Wellhead Electric near Fresno is the first thermal battery to deliver 24/7 industrial heat and power from renewables in an operating setting, per MIT Energy Initiative, and its thermophotovoltaic cell line is the largest TPV production facility in the world. The company's heat-as-a-service model converts industrial buyers from natural-gas purchasers into long-term renewable-power offtakers without the interconnection wait times.
BeZero Carbon
- About: BeZero Carbon is a carbon ratings agency that produces independent risk-based assessments of carbon credits across voluntary and compliance markets.
- Sector: Carbon markets infrastructure.
- Year founded: 2020.
- HQ: London, United Kingdom, with subsidiaries in New York and Singapore.
- Funding: $109 million raised across five rounds, including a $32 million Series C led by GenZero in January 2025 per BeZero.
- Lead investors: GenZero, Japan Airlines, Translink Innovation Fund, Hitachi Ventures, Molten Ventures, EDF Pulse Ventures, Intercontinental Exchange.
- Why watch in 2026: BeZero's ratings now command an average 40% price premium per rating notch on its 8-point scale, and platform coverage includes more than 480 projects across Bloomberg and 40 other data platforms. With 100-plus corporate subscribers including UBS, Sumitomo, Equinor, and Woodside, BeZero is positioned as CORSIA Phase 1 compliance demand begins to converge with voluntary market demand.
CarbonCure Technologies
- About: CarbonCure Technologies retrofits concrete plants with CO2 mineralization equipment that permanently embeds captured carbon into fresh concrete, reducing cement intensity and generating carbon credits.
- Sector: Industrial decarbonization and carbon utilization.
- Year founded: 2007.
- HQ: Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
- Funding: $169 million raised across 12 rounds per Tracxn, most recently a Series F in July 2023 led by Blue Earth Capital.
- Lead investors: Blue Earth Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Samsung Ventures, Carbon Direct, Mitsubishi Corporation.
- Why watch in 2026: CarbonCure was named Climate Technology Company of the Year at the 2026 CleanTech Breakthrough Awards after crossing 10 million truckloads of low-carbon concrete delivered and roughly 750,000 metric tons of CO2 permanently utilized. With interim CEO Kristal Kaye now leading, the company is one of the few carbon utilization players with both a deployed hardware footprint and a high-value carbon credit revenue stream.
ChargerHelp!
- About: ChargerHelp! provides data-driven operations, maintenance, and reliability services for public EV charging infrastructure across fleet, site host, and network customers.
- Sector: EV infrastructure and charging reliability.
- Year founded: 2020.
- HQ: Los Angeles, California.
- Funding: $30.6 million raised across multiple rounds per PitchBook, including a $17.5 million round in 2025.
- Lead investors: GM Ventures, Exelon Foundation, Kapor Capital, JFF, Trucks Venture Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Elemental Excelerator.
- Why watch in 2026: ChargerHelp! launched a formal Partner Program in February 2026 and has built a 300-million data point base that powers ML-driven diagnostics across 45 states and Canada, per Charged EVs. Co-founded by Kameale Terry and Evette Ellis as a Black female-led workforce development play, the company is one of the few firms positioned to help networks meet NEVI's 97% uptime requirement.
Crusoe
- About: Crusoe is a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider that designs, builds, and operates AI data center campuses with behind-the-meter clean power.
- Sector: Clean power data centers.
- Year founded: 2018.
- HQ: Denver, Colorado and San Francisco, California.
- Funding: Series D of $600 million at a $2.8 billion valuation in December 2024 per Carbon Credits, followed by a $1.375 billion Series E above a $10 billion valuation per Crusoe.
- Lead investors: Founders Fund, NVIDIA, Fidelity, Valor Equity Partners, G2 Venture Partners, Mubadala.
- Why watch in 2026: Crusoe's 1.2 gigawatt Abilene campus was named 2025 North American Data Center Project of the Year by Data Center Dynamics, and the company announced a separate 900MW campus to support Microsoft AI workloads, bringing Abilene to roughly 2.1GW. Crusoe is the clearest intersection of the AI electricity demand thesis and clean power deployment in the current climate tech cohort.
Electric Hydrogen
- About: Electric Hydrogen manufactures 100MW fully integrated PEM electrolyzer systems that produce green hydrogen from water and renewable electricity at industrial scale.
- Sector: Green hydrogen production.
- Year founded: 2020.
- HQ: Natick, Massachusetts with operations in San Carlos, California.
- Funding: $603 million raised across six rounds per Tracxn, reached unicorn status with $380 million Series C in October 2023.
- Lead investors: Fortescue, Fifth Wall, Energy Impact Partners, BP Ventures, Temasek, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, United Airlines Sustainable Flight Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
- Why watch in 2026: Electric Hydrogen is one of the first electrolyzer companies to ship its HYPRPlant 100MW systems to paying customers, with Infinium deploying units at its Texas eSAF facility. With a 1.2GW Massachusetts factory in operation and reservations covering more than 5GW of capacity, the company is a test of whether green hydrogen can reach cost parity against fossil alternatives in the current policy environment.
Form Energy
- About: Form Energy manufactures iron-air batteries that store electricity for 100 hours at system costs the company positions as competitive with legacy power plants.
- Sector: Long-duration energy storage.
- Year founded: 2017.
- HQ: Somerville, Massachusetts with manufacturing in Weirton, West Virginia.
- Funding: More than $1.2 billion raised per Canary Media, including a $405 million Series F in October 2024 and a $150 million DOE grant.
- Lead investors: GE Vernova, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, T. Rowe Price, TPG Rise Climate, ArcelorMittal.
- Why watch in 2026: Form announced a 300MW/30GWh deployment with Xcel Energy to help power a Google data center in Minnesota in February 2026, which Form describes as the largest battery energy storage system by energy capacity ever announced. Form Factory 1 in Weirton reached commercial production in 2025, and the company's pipeline exceeds 14GWh across utility and data center customers.
Heirloom
- About: Heirloom builds direct air capture facilities that use limestone to pull CO2 from the atmosphere and permanently store it underground.
- Sector: Carbon removal.
- Year founded: 2020.
- HQ: San Francisco, California with facilities in Tracy, California and Shreveport, Louisiana.
- Funding: $475 million capital commitment for Louisiana facilities per Louisiana Economic Development, Project Cypress eligible for up to $600 million in federal support.
- Lead investors: Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Carbon Direct Capital, Siam Commercial Bank, Ahren Innovation Capital.
- Why watch in 2026: Heirloom operates North America's first commercial DAC facility and will bring its first 17,000-ton Louisiana facility online in 2026, with a larger 300,000-ton facility phased in through 2027 per Heirloom. United Airlines Ventures secured the right to purchase up to 500,000 tons of carbon removal in November 2025, positioning Heirloom as a key SAF-adjacent anchor supplier.
Lilac Solutions
- About: Lilac Solutions develops ion exchange technology that extracts lithium from brine resources faster and with less water than conventional evaporation or alumina sorbent methods.
- Sector: Critical minerals and direct lithium extraction.
- Year founded: 2016.
- HQ: Oakland, California.
- Funding: $318 million raised across eight rounds per Tracxn, including a $145 million Series C in February 2024.
- Lead investors: T. Rowe Price, Mercuria, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Emerson Collective, BMW i Ventures.
- Why watch in 2026: Lilac signed a 50,000-tonne lithium offtake with Trayxs North America in January 2026 and is on track to complete a 5,000-tonne Great Salt Lake facility in late 2026, set to become North America's largest DLE production site. The Gen 5 Lilac IX platform is already deployed across pilots in Chile, Argentina, Utah, and Germany, giving the company the most diverse commercial reference set in DLE.
Quaise Energy
- About: Quaise Energy is developing millimeter-wave drilling technology that uses gyrotrons to ablate rock and access superhot geothermal energy at commercial-scale depths.
- Sector: Clean firm power and deep geothermal.
- Year founded: 2018.
- HQ: Houston, Texas, MIT spinout.
- Funding: Approximately $95 million total, including a $21 million Series A1 in 2024 per Wikipedia.
- Lead investors: Safar Partners, Prelude Ventures, Engine Ventures, Collaborative Fund, Mitsubishi Corporation.
- Why watch in 2026: Quaise reached 118 meters of millimeter wave drilling in granite in September 2025 at its Central Texas field site, per MIT Energy Initiative, and is building Project Obsidian in Central Oregon targeting a 50MW initial pilot with commercial operation by 2030. If the technology scales, Quaise opens clean firm baseload power in locations where conventional geothermal does not work.
Rondo Energy
- About: Rondo Energy manufactures brick-based heat batteries that store clean electricity as high-temperature industrial heat and steam for customers in the cement, chemicals, and food and beverage industries.
- Sector: Industrial decarbonization and thermal energy storage.
- Year founded: 2020.
- HQ: Alameda, California.
- Funding: $162.4 million total raised across three rounds.
- Lead investors: Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, European Investment Bank, 2150, Aramco Ventures, SABIC, BMW i Ventures.
- Why watch in 2026: Rondo began commercial operation of the world's largest 100MWh industrial heat battery at Holmes Western Oil in October 2025, per Rondo, and followed with deployments at SCG Cement in Thailand, Covestro in Germany, and a 100MWh Heineken project. Rondo now has more than 200MWh of announced projects and 3GWh in partnership, making it the furthest-commercialized industrial heat battery company.
Sublime Systems
- About: Sublime Systems uses an electrochemical process to produce low-carbon cement without fossil-fueled kilns or limestone feedstock, as a drop-in replacement for ordinary portland cement.
- Sector: Industrial decarbonization.
- Year founded: 2020.
- HQ: Somerville, Massachusetts.
- Funding: More than $200 million raised per Holcim announcement, including $75 million from CRH and Holcim in September 2024.
- Lead investors: CRH, Holcim, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Siam Cement Group, Energy Impact Partners, GVP Climate.
- Why watch in 2026: Sublime holds a binding Microsoft offtake for up to 622,500 tons of low-carbon cement, the largest corporate cement purchase of its kind. The company paused its Holyoke demonstration plant and reduced staff by 10% in December 2025 after the Department of Energy rescinded an $87 million OCED award per S&P Global. Sublime is a direct measure of how founders are navigating federal policy retrenchment with strategic capital and offtake commitments.
Sylvera
- About: Sylvera is a carbon credit ratings and market data platform that provides independent assessments of carbon project quality across voluntary and compliance markets.
- Sector: Carbon markets infrastructure.
- Year founded: 2020.
- HQ: London, United Kingdom.
- Funding: Approximately $96 million raised across multiple rounds, most recently a Series B of $57 million in 2023.
- Lead investors: Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, Fifth Down Capital.
- Why watch in 2026: Sylvera published its State of Carbon Credits 2025 in February 2026 reporting that market value grew 6% to $1.04 billion even as retirement volumes fell 4.5%, with offtake deals totaling $12.3 billion up from $3.95 billion in 2024. The platform's Q1 2026 data tracked investment-grade credits at $20.10 average price versus $5.69 market-wide, positioning Sylvera at the center of the quality premium thesis reshaping the sector.
Twelve
- About: Twelve uses CO2 electrolysis to convert captured carbon dioxide, water, and renewable electricity into sustainable aviation fuel and industrial chemicals.
- Sector: Carbon transformation and sustainable aviation fuel.
- Year founded: 2015.
- HQ: Berkeley, California.
- Funding: More than $730 million raised, including a $645 million September 2024 round led by TPG Rise Climate per TPG, plus an $83 million follow-on in February 2025 per ESG Today.
- Lead investors: TPG Rise Climate, SMBC, Pulse Fund, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Mitsui, Development Bank of Japan, Japan Hydrogen Fund, Coca-Cola Sustainability Fund.
- Why watch in 2026: Twelve's AirPlant One in Moses Lake, Washington is scheduled to begin production in 2026 and will be the first commercial facility to make E-Jet fuel at scale per Twelve. With binding purchase interest from Alaska Airlines, IAG (parent of British Airways), Microsoft, and the US Air Force, Twelve offers one of the few paths to fossil-free liquid fuels that does not depend on biomass.
ZeroAvia
- About: ZeroAvia develops hydrogen-electric propulsion systems for commercial and defense aviation, with fuel cell powertrains for existing aircraft segments and modular SuperStack Flex systems for eVTOL, UAV, and defense applications.
- Sector: Sustainable aviation.
- Year founded: 2017.
- HQ: Kemble, United Kingdom and Everett, Washington.
- Funding: More than $350 million raised, most recently a December 2025 round that extended runway by two years, plus a €21.4 million EU Innovation Fund grant in November 2025.
- Lead investors: Barclays Climate Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Horizons Ventures, Summa Equity, AP Ventures, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines.
- Why watch in 2026: ZeroAvia received Design Organisation Approval from the UK CAA in late 2025 and has its ZA600 engine in active certification with the FAA and CAA, while the €21.4 million Norway grant funds the retrofit of 15 Cessna Caravans starting 2028. The company's dual commercial-defense strategy has positioned it as one of the few zero-emission aviation players with both in-progress airworthiness credentials and near-term revenue from defense and UAV system sales.
10 Venture Capital Firms Investing in Climate Tech Startups
Securing the right funding is a crucial step for any climate tech startup aiming to scale its operations and bring innovative solutions to market. With growing global interest in sustainable technologies, more venture capital firms are focusing exclusively on companies addressing critical environmental challenges. For founders, partnering with the right VC means gaining not just financial runway, but also strategic guidance, regulatory expertise, and deep industry connections.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Backed by Bill Gates, Breakthrough Energy Ventures is one of the most influential players in the space, investing in early-stage companies focused on aggressive global decarbonization across energy storage, agriculture, and transportation.
- Location: Kirkland, Washington
- Investment Range: Seed to Series B
Lowercarbon Capital
Lowercarbon Capital is a venture firm focused exclusively on startups that are buying us time by actively reducing carbon emissions. They invest heavily in carbon capture, next-gen energy storage, and clean energy tech.
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Investment Range: Seed to Growth
Energy Impact Partners (EIP)
EIP partners directly with major utility companies and large energy consumers to invest in startups leading the transition to a clean energy future, heavily favoring grid modernization and electrification.
- Location: New York, New York
- Investment Range: Series A and beyond
Congruent Ventures
Congruent Ventures is a leading firm supporting early-stage founders operating at the complex intersection of software, sustainability, and physical green technology.
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Investment Range: Seed to Series B
Fifth Wall
Fifth Wall is a prominent investor specializing in sustainable real estate and physical infrastructure. They back companies addressing the built environment’s massive carbon footprint.
- Location: Los Angeles, California
- Investment Range: Seed to Series C
Prelude Ventures
Prelude Ventures has a famously long-term investment horizon, providing the patient capital necessary to back early-stage founders building breakthrough, hardware-heavy climate technologies.
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Investment Range: Seed to Series B
Chrysalix Venture Capital
Chrysalix focuses on startups developing technologies for resource efficiency and heavy industrial innovation, bringing advanced materials and clean digitalization to legacy sectors.
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
- Investment Range: Series A to Growth
Obvious Ventures
Obvious Ventures targets founders building highly profitable solutions for a healthier planet, focusing strictly on clean energy, the circular economy, and sustainable food systems.
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Investment Range: Seed, Series C, and Growth
Elemental Excelerator
Elemental is a global climate tech accelerator with a unique model that combines direct venture investment with intense, hands-on operational support to help early-stage companies deploy in the real world.
- Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
- Investment Range: Seed to Series A
Schematic Ventures
Schematic is a seed-stage firm that zeros in on the supply chain and logistics sectors, funding startups dedicated to decarbonizing heavy industrial processes through tech innovation.
- Location: San Francisco, California
- Investment Range: Seed Stage
What Challenges Do Climate Tech Startups Face in 2026?
The companies on this list cleared one of the hardest filters in climate tech: they raised, built, and shipped during a year when most founders got squeezed. The challenges below reflect the current operating environment, not a hypothetical one. Every category here has materially worsened since 2024 and directly shapes how founders are fundraising, hiring, and pricing offtake.
Why Is the Commercial Valley of Death the Biggest Challenge in 2026?
The commercial valley of death, also called the missing middle or first-of-a-kind (FOAK) financing gap, is now the sharpest bottleneck in climate tech. A 2025 CTVC investor survey cited by Climate and Capital Media found that 51% of respondents named first commercial-stage facilities as the toughest stage to finance in 2025 and 2026, and 69% expect FOAK funding to shrink through 2026. This is the stage where companies move from pilot to first commercial plant, typically requiring $50 million to $500 million in project capital that neither early-stage venture funds nor infrastructure funds are sized to provide.
The problem is structural. Fund mechanics and ownership math cap early-stage VCs from leading $100 million+ rounds. Infrastructure funds want project-finance risk profiles that FOAK projects cannot provide. New vehicles are trying to close the gap, including the All Aboard Coalition's $300 million initiative backed by Breakthrough Energy, DCVC, Prelude Ventures, and Galvanize, and Climactic's Material Scale hybrid debt-equity vehicle. For founders, FOAK capital has to be planned, structured, and de-risked from Series A forward, not improvised at Series C.
How Do Federal Policy Changes Affect Climate Tech Fundraising?
US federal climate policy has shifted materially since 2024, and climate tech operators are feeling it directly. More than 50 federal actions have created headwinds for climate tech since early 2024, including reduced program funding, weaker research capacity, and fewer tax incentives. The Department of Energy's Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations rescinded 24 grants totaling $3.7 billion in May 2025, forcing companies, including Sublime Systems, to pause commercial projects and reduce headcount.
The practical effect for founders is that federal grants can no longer be modeled as base-case capital. SVB reported that 52% of venture-backed climate tech companies reduced net burn year over year in 2025 in response to policy uncertainty. Founders now need to show that unit economics work without grant support and that commercial offtake can carry the business through any remaining policy transitions.
Why Is Capital Intensity Harder for Climate Tech Than Software Startups?
Climate tech companies produce physical things: electrolyzers, batteries, thermal systems, DAC units, and cement. Moving from prototype to commercial production requires capital orders of magnitude greater than what software companies need, and the US venture capital stack was built for digital innovation. A software startup can serve one million users with modest infrastructure investment. A climate tech startup making its first commercial unit often needs $20 million to $200 million in capex before it ships meaningful revenue.
The timeline math is equally uneven. Most climate tech companies need seven to twelve years from founding to first commercial plant, compared with three to five for software. Founders addressing this structure are either selecting lighter-capex business models (climate software, ratings platforms, marketplaces) or building hybrid capital stacks that pair venture equity with project debt, tax equity, and corporate offtake prepayments.
How Do Founders Secure Anchor Customers and Offtake in 2026?
Signed offtake has become the single most valuable asset a climate tech startup can show investors. Hyperscalers have become the category's most important anchor buyers. Microsoft's binding offtake of 622,500 tons of low-carbon cement from Sublime Systems and Google's 300MW/30GWh iron-air battery deployment with Form Energy and Xcel Energy are two 2025 and 2026 examples of anchor offtake reshaping a company's fundability. Stripe's early 2020 DAC commitment to Climeworks catalyzed follow-ons from Microsoft, SAP, and JPMorgan that took Climeworks past $1 billion in equity.
The pattern is simple. Founders who can lock in one Fortune 500 anchor customer, at volume, with a take-or-pay or milestone-based structure, unlock project finance and follow-on equity that other founders cannot. Founders who cannot are increasingly being asked to secure letters of intent during the Series A raise rather than after. Enterprise sales motion now matters as much as engineering in climate tech.
What Talent Gaps Are Climate Tech Startups Facing?
The hardest seats to fill in climate tech are the ones that move a company from prototype to plant: project managers, heads of construction, heads of engineering, and operators with first-of-a-kind experience. Breakthrough Energy Catalyst's Mario Fernandez and EIP's Ashwin Shashindranath both told TechCrunch that most startups they invest in have never built a large project before. The result is a structural mismatch between an early-stage team that looks like a software startup and a capital-raising story that requires industrial execution.
Founders who hire a project or construction lead at Series A, not Series C, close FOAK rounds faster and with better terms. That hire typically comes from oil and gas, utilities, chemicals, or infrastructure, rather than from other climate tech startups, and commands a compensation premium. The companies that built their scale teams early in 2024 and 2025, including Form Energy, Heirloom, and Twelve, are among those now shipping at commercial scale.
How Do Climate Tech Founders Raise Capital From Climate VCs?
Raising from climate VCs looks different from raising generalist venture capital. The timelines are longer, the diligence is deeper, the signals investors care about are different, and the relationship-management burden is heavier because syndicates are larger. The guidance below reflects how climate VCs are actually evaluating Pre-Seed through Series B founders in 2026, not how decks were pitched in 2021.
What Do Climate VCs Look for in Founders and Companies?
Climate VCs evaluate technical defensibility, commercial readiness, and capital efficiency against a credible path to project finance. Technical defensibility means either real IP depth or a manufactured cost advantage that incumbents cannot match. Commercial readiness means signed pilots or LOIs with paying customers, ideally anchor buyers who can later convert to offtake. Capital efficiency means a founder who can model the full capital stack from Series A through the FOAK plant, not just the next round.
Climate VCs also weigh founding team experience heavily, because most climate tech companies require industrial execution that first-time founders have never managed. Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and EIP both flag team gap as a central diligence concern, and founders who bring at least one co-founder or early executive with experience in manufacturing, project management, or infrastructure close rounds faster. The strongest positioning pairs a deep-technical founder with a commercially fluent second-in who can lead enterprise sales, fundraising, and, later, project finance.
What Are Typical Check Sizes and Stages for Climate VCs in 2026?
Climate VCs write checks of different sizes at different stages, and founders need to build target lists that match the round they are actually raising. At the Pre-Seed and Seed stages, Climate Capital writes seed checks averaging $4.7 million and Series A checks averaging $18.9 million, with 203 seed investments across 330 portfolio companies. Lowercarbon Capital's average seed check is $9.86 million, with Series A averaging $48.7 million and Series B averaging $209 million.
At Series A and Series B, Energy Impact Partners writes $2 million to $30 million checks with a strong utility LP network that can become commercial customers, and Breakthrough Energy Ventures led 25 new investments in 2025 across Seed, Series A, and Series B. At the growth stage, TPG Rise Climate and Galvanize Climate Solutions operate in the $25 million to $100 million range and are increasingly active in FOAK project equity. Founders should match their round size to the quartile of their target VCs' stated check range rather than the midpoint, because climate VCs are writing fewer larger checks in 2026.
How Should Founders Build Their Climate VC Target List?
The best climate VC target lists are built on stage fit, sector fit, and proven co-investor patterns, in that order. Stage fit matters first because a $1.5 million Pre-Seed pitch to a fund that writes $20 million Series A checks wastes time on both sides. Sector fit matters second because climate VCs specialize. Lowercarbon leans into carbon removal and deep tech; EIP leans into grid- and utility-adjacent technologies; BEV leans into first-of-their-kind breakthroughs across energy, industry, agriculture, and materials. Read the last 10 portfolio additions on each target fund's website and map your own company against those patterns.
Co-investor patterns matter third because climate syndicates repeat. Lowercarbon and Y Combinator co-invest frequently, BEV and EIP syndicate regularly on grid and storage deals, and Prelude Ventures and Congruent Ventures anchor many Seed-to-Series-A bridges in the sector. A founder raising with BEV as lead should target EIP, Prelude, and Congruent as strong likely participants. A founder raising with Lowercarbon should look at Climate Capital, Y Combinator, and Amazon Climate Pledge Fund. Published portfolio lists on Tracxn, PitchBook, and each fund's website are the fastest way to confirm these patterns before outreach.
What Should a Climate Tech Pitch Deck Include?
A climate tech deck in 2026 needs to answer three things that a 2021 deck did not: unit economics without green premium, commercial readiness evidence, and the path to project finance. Unit economics means showing that the product undercuts fossil alternatives on cost, not just carbon intensity, at the scale the company plans to reach. Commercial readiness means naming customers under LOI or contract, not just hypothetical TAM. The path to project finance means mapping how the company bridges from Series B equity to $100 million-plus FOAK capital, including which corporate offtakes, loan programs, or infrastructure partners close that gap.
The deck should also include a clear answer to the question every climate VC asks: what breaks first when federal policy or grant support shrinks further. Founders who can show that base-case unit economics work without grants, and that bonus scenarios exist if grants return, are raising this year. Founders who can't are. A conventional 12- to 15-slide structure still works, but the technical defensibility, commercial pipeline, and capital-stack slides now carry the most weight.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Did Climate Tech Raise in 2025?
Climate tech startups raised $40.5 billion in global venture and growth funding in 2025, an 8% increase over 2024. That figure sits within a broader $2.3 trillion in global energy transition investment. The 2025 increase came despite a 29% drop in Series B deal count, indicating capital was concentrated on fewer, larger rounds into companies with revenue or signed offtake agreements.
Are Climate Tech Startups Profitable?
Most climate tech startups are not yet profitable because they require 7 to 12 years from founding to the first commercial plant, compared with 3 to 5 years for software. Scale-stage climate companies like Crusoe, Form Energy, and Rondo Energy have begun generating revenue from commercial deployments, but most of the category remains pre-profit. Investors evaluate climate tech primarily on unit economics at target scale and signed offtake, not on near-term profitability.
What Is the Difference Between Climate Tech and ESG?
Climate tech is a sector of companies building technologies that reduce, remove, or help adapt to greenhouse gas emissions. ESG (environmental, social, and governance) is a framework that corporates, investors, and asset managers use to evaluate any company against a set of sustainability, ethics, and governance criteria. Climate tech companies are often subject to ESG evaluation, but ESG itself is not a product category or startup vertical.
Which Climate Tech Sector Is Growing Fastest in 2026?
Climate adaptation is the fastest-growing climate tech sector in 2026, up 64% to $5.5 billion in 2025. The segment covers climate risk analytics, extreme weather forecasting, water management, and nature-based solutions, with most revenue coming from customers in insurance, reinsurance, real estate, agriculture, and government procurement. AI-linked clean power and industrial-heat electrification are the other two fastest-growing verticals in terms of capital inflow.
What Counts as a Climate Tech Startup Versus a Clean Tech Startup?
Clean tech refers to companies building lower-impact versions of existing industrial, energy, and transportation systems, including renewables, EVs, and energy efficiency. Climate tech is broader and encompasses clean tech, carbon removal, climate adaptation, climate risk analytics, nature-based solutions, and critical minerals. In 2026, most investors and operators use climate tech as the default umbrella term because the carbon removal and adaptation categories have grown beyond the traditional clean tech definition.
How Do I Find Climate Tech Investors for My Startup?
Start by matching stage, sector, and co-investor patterns rather than chasing brand-name funds. Stage fit means targeting funds whose stated check sizes match your round; sector fit means finding funds whose last 10 portfolio additions look like your company; and co-investor patterns mean identifying which funds routinely syndicate together, so you can build a full round target list. Published portfolio data on Tracxn, PitchBook, fund websites, and tools like Visible make this mapping work achievable within a few hours of research before any outreach.
