Latest news with #climate tech
Forbes
5 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
6 Hard-Earned Fundraising Lessons From Climate Founders And Investors
Two men sit at a table during a meeting, one with a laptop, at the Creamery, a restaurant popular ... More with technology startup members and venture capitalist investors in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California, October 13, 2017. SoMa is known for having one of the highest concentrations of technology companies and startups of any region worldwide. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) Getty Images Climate tech innovation is evolving at breakneck speed—yet for founders, one challenge remains constant: raising capital. From deeptech carbon capture to circular economy startups, climate founders must navigate a landscape filled with mission-driven capital, AI hype-fuelled markets, and investors who may not know the underlying science or your market well enough to judge the validity of the idea. To cut through the noise, we asked climate tech founders and investors what really matters when it comes to raising funds. Here's what they said. 'Don't underestimate how little investors know about your space,' says Claire Gusko, Co-founder and CEO of AI-powered packaging startup . For deeptech and science-based ventures: assume nothing. Spell everything out. And when it comes to timing? Start early. 'Start conversations months before you open the round,' Gusko advises. Educate, don't assume Prep your numbers early Build investor relationships before you need them Across the board, investors emphasized one key theme: clarity about the idea and problem you are solving. 'Tech is critical, but if you can't articulate your customer's pain point, it's a red flag,' says Adrian Friederich from FoodLabs . For Karolina Lewandowska, Co-founder at Starbeam Capital , the best pitches strike a balance: 'They're ambitious, well-researched, and grounded in reality. Founders should balance technical details with a clear business case.' 'The most important thing for me is authenticity: the ideas and the problem they want to solve. Even if someone isn't good at pitching but has a great idea, it still matters,' says Jan Lozek, Managing Partner and Founder of Future Energy Ventures (FEV) . Ole Poppinga, Venture Architect at XPRESS Ventures , looks for grit: 'Investors in and users of your product will respect you if you've gone to sleep and woken up thinking about your market every day for the last ten years.' He adds, 'The bottom line is that founders' attitude is everything. Perhaps the ideal situation is having an unfair advantage in terms of market size, a scalable product and a very good founder team.' Jacob Tompkins, co-founder and CTO of The Water Retail Company , breaks it down even further: 'What investors are looking for is 50% team, 25% tech and 25% marketing and business plan and yet most tech companies think it's all about the tech. Be ambitious. Ensure that you talk about the business plan, the team, as well as the tech. The number of times you see investors' eyes glaze over when people talk about the tech too much…' He adds, 'You have to show progress, you have to show a pipeline, you have to show traction, and you have to show vision, and ultimately, how is the investor going to get their money back?' Quick Tips: Lead with traction or evidence Be commercially sharp Keep your pitch crisp and concrete 5. Avoid over-indexing on the science and skipping the business case One of the most common mistakes? Over-indexing on the science and skipping the business case. 'Spending 90% of your pitch on the tech is a mistake,' sustainable energy developer, investor and finance broker Anthony Agnew adds: 'Keep it simple, don't over complicate things. If you have too many words on an investment memorandum you're going to lose everyone.' Quick Tips: Research investors before you reach out Balance science with business Don't overpromise on timelines 6. Persist, stay close to the market, and don't fundraise alone Founders know that building a climate startup is never linear—especially when it comes to raising funds. 'There's just too much uncertainty—whether it's regulation, geopolitical events, or shifting investor trends,' says Johannes Scholz, Co-founder of ctrl+s . 'If you try to build a company based on these macro-level factors, you can lose sight of what actually matters. Instead, we focused on solving a real problem for real companies. Does our solution help them? Do they understand it? Are they willing to pay for it? That's what truly matters.' For Claire Hae-Min Gusko, the emotional toll of fundraising is just as real as the financial stakes. 'Fundraising has been the toughest challenge. It's an emotional and logistical challenge. I'm really grateful to have a co-founder. Having someone to share that load with makes all the difference. Fundraising is never just about the pitch — it's emotional, exhausting, and constant. You think your problem is obvious until you realise most investors have never looked at it closely.' Safia Qureshi, Founder of CLUBZERO , reflects on the power of persistence: 'Now we've got some great investors. But the one that is one of our favourites, we pitched to them three times. We only got it the third time. The first two times we were just so early in the market that they didn't understand or see the value in investing. You're not going to attract investment because people don't want you to burn away their investment before the market is ready for your product or service.' Quick Tips: Climate fundraising is a marathon Don't do it alone—lean on your team, work with brokers, tap your network Stay focused on your mission, not geopolitical noise Climate tech is unlike any other sector—it's where urgency, innovation, and impact collide. Founders navigating this space must be visionary yet grounded, technical yet commercially sharp, optimistic yet brutally realistic. And above all, they must keep going—even when the answer is 'not yet.'
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Trump's Immigration Policy Is a Nightmare for Climate Tech
The One Big Beautiful Bill has cut an estimated $500 billion in green spending, but the Trump administration policy that worries venture capitalist Vinod Khosla more for climate tech in the US is immigration. 'They will shut down the import of talent, which is the key to growth,' he told the Zero podcast on stage at the Bloomberg Green summit in Seattle, Washington last week.
Bloomberg
23-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Zero: US Immigration Crackdown Is Bad for Climate Tech
Everywhere you look, it seems like bad news for climate tech. Investments are down, the US government has cut incentives and startups are running out of cash. But venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is still bullish, even though the One Big Beautiful Bill has cut an estimated $500 billion in green spending. This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi speaks with Khosla to find out when we can expect to see fusion, whether he's reconsidering investing in the US and why he still thinks the best clean tech is yet to come.
Geek Wire
21-07-2025
- Business
- Geek Wire
Aquagga takes top prize at PNW Climate Week event for its battle against ‘forever chemicals'
Sustainability: News about the rapidly growing climate tech sector and other areas of innovation to protect our planet. SEE MORE Aquagga CEO Dhileep Sivam makes his winning pitch at a PNW Climate Week contest held in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback) Six early-stage climate and deep-tech startups faced off at a pitch contest and happy hour in Seattle as part of PNW Climate Week. Entrepreneurs, investors and climate tech enthusiasts packed the Thursday evening event at Stoup Brewing on Capitol Hill. The competing companies are tackling a variety of sustainability challenges, including solar panel recycling, deployment of residential heat pumps and AI-assisted ocean floor surveys. The panel of judges and the crowd both crowned Aquagga as the winner, awarding the startup $1,500 in prize money. The company is developing portable, modular units for destroying PFAS 'forever chemicals' that for years have been used in food packaging, carpets and fabrics, water-repellent clothing and non-stick pans. The chemicals are used to repel water, stains and grease, but they escape from products and contaminate drinking water across the U.S. and are even detected in breast milk. In his presentation, CEO Dhileep Sivam showcased how his startup's technology directly addresses customer pain points. Aquagga eliminates all forms of PFAS while treating wastewater contaminated with additional pollutants, offering a cost-effective onsite alternative to expensive transportation and incineration processes. The crowd and judges consider the top pitch at a PNW Climate Week event at Stoup Brewing. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback) 'We're building something that's going to be really attractive for our customers,' Sivam said. The CEO noted that Aquagga, which launched in 2019, is scaling operations for bigger cleanup projects. The company has secured new contracts with 3M and landed a three-year Colorado deal to process unwanted firefighting foam containing PFAS. The contest's judges were Rodrigo Prudencio, managing partner at Propeller VC; Gabriel Scheer, senior director of innovation for the investment nonprofit Elemental Impact; Dana Robinson, a member of the climate-focused, angel investment group E8; and Alex Young, senior associate at Energy Impact Partners. The event was hosted by E8 and Gliding Ant Ventures, an organization supporting startups pursuing low-carbon technologies. PNW Climate Week is a 10-day regional conference focused on the clean-energy transition with events held in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, Portland, Vancouver, B.C., and Bellingham. It runs until Friday. Read on to learn more about the startups, and find more of GeekWire's sustainability tech coverage here. The CEO of startups competing in a PNW Climate Week pitch contest from left: Heather Alvis of Electra; Dhileep Sivam of Aquagga; Alexander Gutierrez of L5 Automation; Jason Puracal of ZILA BioWorks; Victoria Price-Doucet of StrateSea; and Robert Benjamin of Aris Hydronics. On the right are Virginia Emery and Jared Silvia of Gliding Ant Ventures and co-hosts of the event. (GeekWire Photo / Brent Roraback) Business: Building devices that destroy costly, hard-to-treat PFAS chemicals. HQ: Tacoma, Wash. Leadership: CEO Sivam has held leadership roles at Intellectual Ventures and Breakthrough Energy, and served as entrepreneur-in-residence at the University of Washington's Clean Energy Institute. Business: Providing sustainable heating and cooling systems and water heaters in residential settings. The startup designs, sells and installs the systems and provides follow-up data and support. HQ: Milwaukie, Ore. Leadership: Robert Benjamin, founder and CEO, has been a startup advisor, a director and founder in marketing and film production, and studied mechanical engineering. Business: Offering solar panel recycling that includes partnerships with collection centers, transportation to certified recyclers, repurposing with nonprofits where possible, and tracking. HQ: Bellingham, Wash. Leadership: Heather Alvis, founder and CEO, was an operations specialist at Renew Solar, a California company offering solar panel recycling, and held leadership roles overseeing software engineers and business operations at multiple companies. Business: Developing agricultural robots as a service that can provide crop data from in the field and harvest produce, beginning with strawberries. HQ: Los Angeles area Leadership: Alexander Gutierrez, founder and CEO, co-founded the space robotics company Astrobotic Technology and was a research engineer at Lockheed Martin for nine years with a focus on robotics and process automation. Business: Engineering technology using AI to analyze vast quantities of undersea videos collected for offshore construction of wind power and laying cables, and naval surveys for detecting mines and other anomalies. HQ: Portland, Ore. Leadership: Victoria Price-Doucet, co-founder and CEO, was director of data and AI for Slalom; a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and private companies; and global supply chain director with Nike. Business: Developing plant-based resins and epoxies to replace high-carbon alternatives with an initial focus on equipment for skiing and snowboarding. HQ: Renton, Wash. Leadership: Jason Puracal, co-founder and CEO, was a leader in real estate and sustainable infrastructure in Nicaragua, and executive director of the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue, Wash.
Bloomberg
19-07-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Can Fried Chicken Help Save the World?
Hi, it's Kate Krader, your friendly London-based food editor, but I'm coming in hot from the West Coast of the US this week, on the occasion of the second annual Bloomberg Green Seattle. The event is simultaneously sobering and hopeful about the possibilities of saving the world at this late-in-the-game moment. Food was of course a big topic here: It's many people's 'gateway drug' to sustainability, as one clever attendee told me. And I would say that only one thing outshone this subject at the three-day event—which featured topics as diverse as whether we will ever see EV-style planes and what's in store for climate tech investments as covered by Khosla Ventures LLC Founder Vinod Khosla—and that was the one, the only Jane Fonda.
