Launching your own business is always a good idea, even more so if it not only generates earnings but also has a positive impact on the planet. That’s what lots of climate tech startups thought before bringing their idea to life.
There are so many fields in which these kinds of companies operate, such as renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids, carbon capture and storage, climate analytics, green building technologies, climate-friendly consumer products, and so on. Many startups fall in an intersection of multiple fields, showcasing the interdisciplinary nature of climate tech innovation.
In other words, the mission of climate change startups is not only to create environmentally friendly products and services but also to drive systemic change in industries traditionally associated with significant environmental footprints.
Top Climate Tech Startups to Keep in Your Radar
Climate tech startups look pretty good, but have you ever thought about their road to success?
Before entering the business world, climate tech companies definitely go through lots of steps such as clearly setting their goals, vision, and values, conducting thorough market research, engaging stakeholders, and so on.
If you’re also a business and startup enthusiast, and don’t know where to start, we have a little extra information for you. By using AI Market Research Assistant, you can get a major headstart. This tool analyzes thousands of reviews and comments of competitors and gives comprehensive information about customer feedback.
Turns out you can find your competitors, understand their weaknesses, and discover their customers’ pain points. And this tool can solve the tasks within a minute! Great, right? Now you can make data-driven decisions and increase your chances of success. And, who knows, maybe the second edition of this article can highlight your business. As for now, let’s explore top 10 climate startups that have a great impact on our planet.
Klima
Year Founded: 2013
Headquarters: Berling, Germany
Total raised: $27.5 M
What they do: Some climate tech companies offer free services, tools, and applications for those who want to have a positive impact on climate yet don’t know how. One of these climate change startups is called Klima, whose team ensures that every human being can have a significant impact on the environment.
The company found out that 72% of CO2 emissions are because of human behavior. Deciding to reduce that number, Klima has launched its application, which allows its users to calculate their personal carbon footprint, understand the consequences of their lifestyle, fund science-based climate solutions in order to remove carbon emissions, gain a deep understanding of their emissions by watching some educational videos and following specifically designed reduction guides.
What makes it even more interesting is the opportunity to share this app with your friends, so that you start to gain the important knowledge together and make it easier and much more fun to follow the steps provided.
And let’s be honest. Not all climate technology companies have collaborators such as Forbes, TechCrunch, Wired, and Fast Company. But due to its original and unique approach, Klima does.
011h
Year Founded: 2020
Headquarters: Barcelona, Spain
Total raised: $36.8 M
What they do: 011h utilizes timber, sustainable design methods, and software to rapidly construct affordable and eco-friendly homes.
Scientific studies have shown that the built environment is responsible for 40% of yearly carbon emissions, encompassing both the energy used during a building’s operation and the emissions generated in the production of building materials. Consequently, sustainable housing is often associated with higher costs, impeding scalability and making the sector challenging to decarbonize.
011h addresses this challenge comprehensively by uniting suppliers, builders, planners, and developers on a unified platform. This integrated approach streamlines the building process, reduces project management time, and enables the measurement of end-to-end embodied carbon in new constructions. Using several programs, they have reduced the time wasted on the design of the house.
Notably, after designing, the program shows the approximate carbon footprint it’ll have by the end of the project. This positions 011h favorably, especially within the context of climate tech startups.
Redwood Materials
Year Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Nevada, USA
Total raised: $1B
What they do: Redwood Materials, one of the top climate startups, is on a mission to build a circular supply chain that not only powers a sustainable world but also accelerates the reduction of fossil fuels. The company focuses on making batteries both sustainable and affordable by closing the loop at the end of their life cycle.
Redwood is localizing a global battery supply chain, producing anode and cathode components in the U.S. for the first time, utilizing recycled batteries. It is creating a closed-loop, domestic supply chain for lithium-ion batteries, covering the collection, refurbishment, recycling, refining, and remanufacturing of sustainable battery materials.
The team has also shared some of their predictions and goals. By 2025, Redwood plans to produce enough anode and cathode for one million electric vehicles annually, representing 100 GWh. 5 years later, the goal is to scale up production to provide enough anode and cathode for five million electric vehicles annually, amounting to 500 GWh.
Infarm
Year Founded: 2013
Headquarters: Berlin, Germany
Total raised: $200 M
What they do: At Infarm, the team is redefining the future of agriculture with its advanced farming system that prioritizes sustainability, efficiency, and environmental friendliness.
The innovative approach aims to decouple food production from negative impacts on ecosystems, creating a foundation for a more sustainable and eco-friendly food system. Each of their farms functions as a climate machine, designed to create optimal conditions for the crops they host.
Unaffected by floods or droughts, its advanced farming system ensures a consistent and reliable food supply.The team has also concentrated on the idea of vertical growth, which allows them to save significant amounts of land—over 205,000 sqm saved to date.
Considered one of the best climate tech startups, this company concentrates its efforts on problems such as greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water scarcity, chemical pesticides, biodiversity loss, and so on. Infarm finds that these kinds of challenges can be solved by choosing the least harmful packages, reducing water waste, and farming vertically in order to save space.
Oneka Technologies
Year Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Quebec, Canada
Total raised: $12.5 M
What they do: Oneka Technologies transforms seawater into freshwater using innovative and sustainable methods powered by wave energy.
Throughout the years, they have cultivated extensive expertise in harnessing wave energy, enabling them to deliver patented solutions that are both high-performing and reliable. Oneka ensures that its water quality aligns with the standards set by the World Health Organization and/or local water regulatory bodies.
Being one of the biggest climate tech startups, it collaborates with innovators, trailblazers, and entities committed to sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. Their versatile desalination buoys cater to a range of entities, including cities, hotels, resorts, private islands, industries, irrigation projects, municipalities, public services, tourism, and emergency relief efforts.
The company actively engages with associations and communities that share their values, believing that collective efforts can address humanity’s most significant challenges.
Impossible Foods
Year Founded: 2016
Headquarters: California, USA
Total raised: $2 B
What they do: Who said that climate companies always have to deal with solar systems, technology, and solar panels? There are companies fighting climate change through the reduction of the usage of meat.
One of the best examples of that kind of climate tech startups is Impossible Foods, which finds that animal agriculture uses lots of natural resources that could’ve been used in other spheres.
Considering the fact that meat production requires approximately half of the land and is responsible for at least 15% of global greenhouse gas and 25% of the world’s freshwater, this company has decided to change the rules of the game by using a small amount of energy, water and land to “create” meat from plants.
And so, firstly, the team behind Impossible Foods decided to produce a burger made of plants. Top scientists have been working on the idea of recreating meat, dairy, and fish using plants. This team’s mission is to transform the global food system in order to reduce carbon footprint.
Universal Hydrogen
Year Founded: 2020
Headquarters: California, USA
Total raised: $82.5 M
What they do: It’s not a secret that the biggest climate tech companies mostly concentrate on the reduction of carbon footprint as nowadays it’s an immediate problem.
Similar to many other climate tech startups, Universal Hydrogen has also focused on that problem yet in a very interesting way. It offers near-term, scalable, and true zero-carbon fuel for aviation. How is it possible? Easily! Hydrogen is made of water and consequently, its emission is only water which makes it safer than jet fuel. That makes hydrogen much safer.
Not only the safety but also its affordability is a remarkable factor. Starting in 2025, this company’s product will have the same cost as jet fuel, with a decreasing tendency. It’s also more lightweight and contains 3 times as much energy per weight as jet fuel, ensuring longer flights and battery power.
As for the airplanes, there’s no need to have additional infrastructure, because the team behind one of the top climate tech startups is working on the development of conversion kits to upgrade the current fleet with a hydrogen fuel cell system.
Aerones
Year Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Riga, Latvia
Total raised: $38.9 M
What they do: Aerones, a key player in the realm of climate tech startups, is revolutionizing wind turbine blade maintenance with a dedicated team of over 240 professionals. Their hub is rapidly expanding to provide comprehensive services such as robotic inspections, cleaning, coating, and repairs for wind turbine blades.
Patented and certified robotic technology, compactly transported in a single van, is operated by three skilled Aerones technicians under the supervision of the client’s technician.
Aerones enhances human work rather than replacing it. The precision and efficiency of their robotic tools result in a remarkable 4-6 times reduction in downtime and a 5-10 times decrease in idle stay. The innovative inspection technology sets Aerones apart, providing next-generation visual inspections for wind turbine blades, both internally and externally. This approach helps avoid unnecessary downtime and allows for more strategic planning of repairs.
Aclima
Year Founded: 2007
Headquarters: California, USA
Total raised: $40 M
What they do: Aclima is one of the best climate tech startups that has taken action to diagnose the health of our air and track climate-changing pollution. The analytics software, also known as Aclima Pro, helps its users understand which parts of the neighborhood are mostly polluted and where decision-makers can take some actions to reduce emissions.
By reducing costs and increasing efficiency, Aclima Pro provides verifiable data and gives comprehensive information about block-by-block air pollution and greenhouse gases. It can be used not only as a measurement tool but also as an intelligence and knowledge source. Their huge library provides you with all the necessary information about nature, pollution exposures, climate impacts, socioeconomic factors influencing nature, and more.
Standing out from many climate tech startups, Aclima’s true multipass methodology enables faster and more efficient leak identification and repairs, combining science and AI for verified results in the field. It also ensures multipollutant screening, including ethane at ppb concentrations, eliminates interference from other methane sources and provides accurate leak lifecycle visibility.
Polarium
Year Founded: 2015
Headquarters: Stockholm, Sweden
Total raised: $224 M
What they do: Polarium stands as one of the greatest climate tech companies that work on the development of energy storage. These kinds of climate startups specialize in crafting cutting-edge energy storage and optimization solutions rooted in lithium-ion battery technology.
Since its establishment in 2015, Polarium has been dedicated to providing safe, smart, and sustainable energy storage solutions for businesses worldwide, spanning telecom, commercial, industrial, and residential sectors.
Aiming to shift from 80% fossil dependencies to 90% renewables by 2050, Polarium positions energy storage as the crucial missing link in achieving a clean energy transition.
As a frontrunner in the industry, Polarium continues to invest in cutting-edge technology through its newly inaugurated Research and Development (R&D) center. This ensures the company remains at the forefront of developing state-of-the-art sustainable energy storage and optimization solutions.
FAQ
Are there common misconceptions about starting a business in the climate tech sector, and how can they be addressed?
Certainly, there are many misconceptions regarding business in the climate tech sectors. Here are some common ones and ways to address them:
- It’s only for environmentalists: While a passion for environmental sustainability is valuable, the climate tech sector is not exclusive to environmentalists. It welcomes a diverse range of professionals, including engineers, technologists, business strategists, and more.
- Only renewable energy matters: While accepting the fact that renewable energy plays a crucial role in the climate tech sector, you should remember that there are many other solutions such as carbon capture, sustainable agriculture, circular economy practices, energy efficiency, and more.
- It’s overly complex: While climate tech challenges can be complex, this sector also thrives on simplicity and practical solutions. Entrepreneurs should focus on solving specific problems with clear value propositions and collaborate with experts.
What are the essential steps for developing a sustainable business model in the climate tech space?
Developing a sustainable business model in the climate tech space requires a thorough and well-designed approach. It means that a person who wants to start a business should identify the environmental challenge, conduct market research, define a value proposition, embrace sustainability across the value chain, leverage technology and innovation, engage stakeholders, calculate and communicate impact, and stay adaptive and resilient.
What are the key challenges that entrepreneurs might face when launching a climate-focused business?
Launching a climate-focused business may be tough for entrepreneurs as they should prepare themselves for challenges such as high initial costs, competitiveness, market acceptance, technological risks, global complexity, consumer education, policy and political factors, and access to funding.
Conclusion
In summary, climate tech startups tend to pioneer transformative solutions across renewable energy, sustainable construction, and environmental monitoring. Trying to stand out from other climate technology companies, they follow innovative approaches to address environmental challenges and redefine industries traditionally associated with high carbon footprints. By embracing sustainability, leveraging technology, and navigating challenges, these startups contribute significantly to a more eco-friendly future.
The top climate tech startups highlighted here exemplify the potential for positive change, offering inspiration for others to follow suit in building a sustainable and climate-friendly world.
