ROCHESTER, N.Y., May 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Venture For ClimateTech has selected the next 20 early-stage startups to join its accelerator program dedicated to the scaling and commercialization of impactful climate-abating technologies. The companies were selected based on their high-potential solutions and ability to bring innovations to scale. Each team in Cohort 4 will receive up to $50,000 in funding and hands-on support to ready their technologies for customers, pilot runs, and additional investment.
The 20 companies were selected from a pool of 327 applicants across 45 different countries. Applicants undergo a rigorous technical evaluation and vetting process, culminating in a pitch to a distinguished screening committee. The companies were part of forty top companies chosen from the applicant pool which participated in the Venture For ClimateTech Bootcamp, a week of educational programming and exercises to experience what the program is like while simultaneously being evaluated on their work, materials, and engagement.
The 20 companies were then selected for Cohort 4 joining the ranks of emerging Venture for ClimateTech “companies to watch”. Venture for ClimateTech has helped 39 companies, since the program’s inception. The 39 companies have raised more than $62 million in follow-on funding, averaging $1.5 million per company, 51% include a female founder and 53% include founders from disadvantaged communities and BIPOC founders on average, each team has doubled its size since the beginning of the program in 2020, creating 85 jobs.
“Each year we are seeing a higher number of climate tech companies that are more competitive and raising funds earlier and faster,” said Venture For ClimateTech Managing Director, Jack Baron. “Cohort 4’s companies cover a wide breadth of sectors targeted through the New York State Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, and the technologies focus on both near-term and long-term impact. Our goal is to expedite the companies’ impacts on industry and the planet in the next few years and for decades to come.”
Richard Bourgeois, Program Manager for Technology to Market, NYSERDA said, “With this cohort selection, Venture for ClimateTech is bringing on a strong group of innovative companies to help address some of our toughest challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. We welcome them to the program and look forward to their success in bringing scalable solutions to New York’s thriving innovation ecosystem.”
The three-phase accelerator program kicked off in mid-May with support and mentorship on customer discovery, investor pitching, business validation, building a team, and pathways to scale. The following companies will participate:
Adena Power – Provides energy storage using U.S. raw materials and manufacturing to deliver sodium batteries at grid scale (Lewis Center, OH).
Arbour Group LLC – Produces the Liquid Wall, a prefabricated building enclosure system made with fiber-reinforced, ultra-high-performance concrete (New York, NY).
Arculus Solutions, Inc. – Retrofits natural gas transmission pipelines for safe hydrogen transportation, both pure and as a blend, to faster reach net zero by 2050 (Rockville, MD).
BladeBUG Limited – Develops robots to perform detailed contact inspections and proactive repairs to wind turbine blades without having to use any rope access technicians (London, UK).
BladeX Technologies – Offers a new mass-manufacturing method for composite parts to revolutionize lightweight component production for applications in hydrogen systems (Palos Verdes Estates, CA).
Calectra, Inc. – Offers thermal storage technology to store off-peak, low-cost electricity as heat in patent-pending bricks, and use that heat to decarbonize the highest-temperature industrial processes, such as cement and glass, at costs competitive with fossil fuel (Oakland, CA).
CO2L Tech – Offers technologies to transform carbon dioxide emissions into valuable chemicals and products, like formic acid, formate salts and desiccants, contributing to carbon recycling and sustainability efforts (Kingston, Canada).
Cycleau – Offers a compact water reuse system that can be retrofitted into buildings to recycle up to 80% of greywater while recovering over 30% of lost heat from wastewater (Brooklyn, New York).
Freshean Corp. – Offers a unique and ultra-efficient nano-engineered Direct Air Capture (DAC) sorbent that utilizes a proprietary “Nano-in-Nano” platform for a 10x increase in CO2 capture efficiency and a 10x capture cost reduction over existing technologies. (Scottsdale, AZ).
GarboCarbo – Develops a carbon utilization process that cheaply and cleanly converts CO2 and gypsum into calcium carbonate and sulfuric acid to be used in the paper manufacturing industry (Palatine, IL).
HeatPath Solutions, LLC – Provides plant-derived, sustainable platform chemicals to the specialty chemicals and consumer packaged goods markets, without the green premium (Lewis Center, Ohio).
Helix Power – Develops a high-power kinetic battery system capable of attenuating large power imbalance conditions (Somerville, MA).
Perseus Materials – Develops new manufacturing processes for oversized structural fiber-reinforced composites for use in infrastructure (Knoxville, TN).
Plantaer – Creates nature-based carbon negative materials that support biodiversity and improve the environmental health of the built environment (Brooklyn, NY).
REEgen – Offers clean, biological processes to recover and purify rare earth elements from industrial byproducts (Ithaca, NY).
RETRN Bioworks Inc. – Develops platform biotechnologies to upcycle abundant agro-industrial plant wastes into an array of tunable, functionalizable, and fully compostable biopolymers for fiber-based packaging manufacturers to meet emerging markets in sustainability (Syracuse, NY).
SilisiumTech, Inc. – Offers ability to rebuild the US solar supply chain to lower costs and decarbon the silicon wafer portion of a solar panel while producing wafers in the US (Pittsburgh, PA).
Solid State Power LLC – Develops patented technology that replaces legacy electromechanical grid devices, such as distribution transformers, volt regulators and capacitor banks, for high-voltage applications (Dallas, TX).
SpadXTech – Employs the power of microbes and synthetic biology to produce high performance, circular materials to significantly reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions (Worcester, MA).
Tereform – Recycles textiles using air, providing brands with high-quality, recycled products that have a better environmental footprint than virgin materials while being cost-competitive (Denver, CO).
For more information, visit Venture For ClimateTech. To follow these companies’ progress, and the impacts made by others in the program, subscribe to the For ClimateTech monthly newsletter (HERE).
About Venture For ClimateTech
Venture For ClimateTech is a non-profit global venture studio + accelerator program. It sources the most promising climate tech innovators from around the world and offers them hands-on support until they are ready for first customers, pilot runs, and investment. Venture For ClimateTech is supported by NYSERDA and administered by NextCorps and SecondMuse.
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