Climate Funding, Investments & Startups

Below is information on climate-related funding, investment, and startups to assist job seekers and entrepreneurs. This page is actively being updated - to suggest a resource send an e-mail to hello@greenjobs.net

Featured Resources

  • Climate Tech VC - Online resource tracking clean tech and climate investing
  • Climate Tech Rundown - From GreenBiz.com, covering policy, startups, and funding news.
  • Cleantech Group - Provides research, consulting services, and organizes events relating to clean tech innovation.
  • ClimateChangeBill.org - Contains information on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which contains the largest federal climate investment in U.S. history. A service of GJN.
  • Green VC - Blog published by GJN, focusing on innovation, investment, and impact.

Featured Funders / Accelerators / Incubators

AWS Clean Energy Accelerator - From Amazon

Google for Startups Accelerator for Climate Change in MENA - From Google

ACRE

ACRE is a business incubator that supports the growth of high-impact, early-stage venture companies positively impacting climate change. ACRE incubator companies receive business advisory services, marketing and design support, PR support, investor meeting preparation and introductions, access to mentors and channel partners, and office space in Downtown Brooklyn, New York. ACRE is located within the Urban Future Lab, a part of NYU's Tandon School of Engineering, and prefers companies work in house to take full advantage of the services they offer.

Arrowhead Technology Incubator (ATI)

Arrowhead Technology Incubator (ATI) at New Mexico State University (NMSU) gives scalable startups the team, tools, and resources they need to turn ideas into revenue-generating realities. ATI works in an environment that supports an entrepreneurial community, with regular business workshops, networking events, mentoring, assistance with capital sourcing and customer acquisition, and work-ready space. Most importantly, ATI helps entrepreneurs mitigate startup risk by assigning a business development partner to each company. This results in graduating companies with viable, sustainable businesses, serving real customers and generating revenue.

Austin Technology Incubator

The Austin Technology Incubator is the startup incubator of the University of Texas at Austin. A program of the University’s IC2 Institute, ATI has a 25-year track record of helping founding teams achieve success. Even though the Incubator is part of UT-Austin, any company can apply. There is no requirement that a startup needs to be based on UT technology, or have any other connection to UT, in order to be a member of ATI.

Center for Evaluation of Clean Energy Technology (CECET)

The Center for Evaluation of Clean Energy Technology (CECET) is an Intertek company dedicated to the advancement of clean energy technology, launched in partnership with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). CECET provides access to expert guidance, technical due diligence, and state-of-the-art laboratory testing facilities to speed up the commercialization of clean energy technology.

Clean Energy Accelerator

The Clean Energy Accelerator is a program through which the Metro region of the Clean Energy Resource Teams (Metro CERT), a program of the Great Plains Institute, is providing an opportunity to apply for assistance with getting community-based clean energy projects “off the ground” in 11 Minnesota counties, including Anoka, Carver, Chisago, Dakota, Hennepin, Isanti, Ramsey, Scott, Sherburne, Washington, and Wright.

Clean Energy Trust

Clean Energy Trust is a cleantech accelerator that fuels innovation to create a healthier environment and more prosperous future. The Trust launches, funds, and grows early stage clean energy businesses in the Midwest through direct investment, venture development, and advocacy.

Cleantech Open

The Cleantech Open is the world’s largest cleantech accelerator, providing entrepreneurs and corporate innovators the resources they need to launch and grow successful cleantech businesses. The Cleantech Open’s one-of-a-kind innovation ecosystem built over the last 10 years of programming spans key cleantech innovation hubs in the U.S., linking labs and universities, service providers, investors, corporations, governments, and other cleantech incubators and accelerators.

CLT Joules

Charlotte-based, not-for-profit incubator providing entrepreneurs with key connections and tools to develop successful clean energy companies. The Joules Accelerator Catalyst Program identifies, advises, and connects high potential cleantech startups with industry leading utilities, and their partners. Since its founding in 2013, the Joules Accelerator has evolved and grown from a purely Charlotte focused incubator, to become the southeast's preeminent energy accelerator with global reach.

Coalition: Energy

Coalition: Energy is a coworking hub of professionals in energy including companies working in clean tech, smart grid technology, energy consulting, and more. With regular events and a calendar full of energy-related events in the greater Chicago area, members are connected to the center of the energy movement in the Midwest.

Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

The Electric Power Research Institute, Inc. (EPRI) conducts research and development relating to the generation, delivery, and use of electricity for the benefit of the public in the United States and internationally. An independent, nonprofit organization, EPRI brings together its scientists and engineers as well as experts from academia and industry to help address challenges in electricity, including reliability, efficiency, affordability, health, safety, and the environment.

Elemental Excelerator

Elemental Excelerator is a nonprofit created in collaboration with Emerson Collective, an investment and philanthropic platform. Elemental Excelerator works collaboratively with Emerson Collective’s Elemental practice, which focuses on strengthening the relationship between humanity and nature through scalable, equitable, and innovative solutions. Companies Elemental Excelerator works with usually travel to Hawaii at least three or four times throughout the program. Elemental Excelerator can provide the most value when companies see Hawaii or Asia Pacific as strategic growth markets for their business.

Greentown Labs

Greentown Labs is a community of bold, passionate entrepreneurs creating game-changing energy technologies that transform the way we live, work and play. Located just outside of Boston in Somerville, MA, Greentown Labs is the largest cleantech incubator in the United States, operating a 40,000 sq. ft. facility that is home to more than 50 startup companies. Its mission is to foster and support startups that are solving the world’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Greentown Labs support startups by providing access to the space, resources and funding they need to thrive. Greentown Labs is unique in a variety of ways but notably for its focus on hardware-focused startups and its affordable, rent-based model.

Incubatenergy Network

The Incubatenergy Network is accelerating the transition to a sustainable economy through national coordination of incubator resources supporting entrepreneurs focused on clean energy innovation and deployment.

Innosphere

Colorado’s leading technology incubator, Innosphere is a high-tech incubator supporting entrepreneurs building high-growth companies in the industries of health innovation, life sciences, software & hardware, and energy & advanced materials. Innosphere’s incubation program focuses on ensuring companies are investor ready, connecting them with experienced advisors, and making introductions to corporate and strategic partners. Innosphere has physical locations in both Denver and Fort Collins, Colorado to better serve entrepreneurs.

Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI)

LACI is a nonprofit organization funded by the CRA/LA and the LADWP for the City of Los Angeles. In partnership with the city’s exceptional educational and research organizations – UCLA, USC, Caltech and Jet Propulsion Laboratory – LACI helps accelerate the commercialization of clean technologies in addition to accelerating new products developed by independent entrepreneurs. Part of the LACI mission is to grow the green economy via Los Angeles and help create jobs in Los Angeles. To bring the mighty LA cleantech ecosystem to the table to help, it must make sense for the company to grow (and hopefully stay) in LA.

NextEnergy

NextEnergy works with the most promising energy and transportation technology startups, established small companies, and university researchers to accelerate technology and business development. Primarily focused on supporting Michigan companies, the NextEnergy team assesses each company to identify their primary needs and constraints and match those with NextEnergy’s services, resources, and staff expertise.

NEXUS-NY

NEXUS-NY is a clean energy seed accelerator. Each year NEXUS-NY provides financial, business and educational support to around 10 entrepreneurial teams which are selected through a competitive application process. Program participants are eligible to receive approximately $50,000 of equity-free direct financial support. NEXUS-NY is open to researchers from throughout New York State who have completed basic research within the field of clean energy and who have yet to commercialize the resulting technology.

Oregon BEST

Oregon BEST supports great ideas from entrepreneurs, university researchers, and startups and focuses on growing ideas into thriving companies. For Oregon-based innovators developing proprietary, technology-based products, Oregon BEST provides access to early-stage gap funding, university research funding, and seven critical support channels.

Pecan Street

Unlike any other organization, Pecan Street is focused on advancing university research and accelerating innovation in water and energy. Pecan Street provides utilities, technology companies and university researchers access to the world’s best data on consumer energy and water consumption behavior, testing and verification of technology solutions, and commercialization services to help them bring their innovations to market faster.

PowerBridgeNY

PowerBridgeNY is an unprecedented collaboration between prominent downstate institutions leveraging clean energy innovations emerging from institutional research labs to create more and stronger energy businesses in New York State. PowerBridgeNY identifies promising early stage technologies and invests in translational work to advance these technologies towards technical validation, scalability, and transformational capacity. Projects must have disclosed their invention to one of the 6 partner institutions (Brookhaven National Lab, Cornell NYC Tech, Columbia University, CUNY, NYU, or Stony Brook).

Powerhouse

Powerhouse is the world’s only incubator and accelerator dedicated to intelligent energy technologies including solar, storage, demand response, and grid integration. Powerhouse houses the world's most ingenious intelligent energy software startups and invests in them. The Powerhouse Incubator houses over one hundred intelligent energy entrepreneurs and nineteen of the Bay Area's new energy startups and clean energy focused policy organizations. The collaborative co-working space grants mission-aligned entrepreneurs access to uptown Oakland, CA real-estate and introductions to some of best minds in the new energy industry.

Prospect Silicon Valley

Prospect Silicon Valley is a nonprofit urbantech innovation hub with the aim of solving the biggest challenges faced by cities. By supporting entrepreneurs and implementing community programs and projects, Prospect Silicon Valley drives the adoption of urbantech solutions in mobility, transportation, energy and the built environment. Born in San Jose, where Prospect Silicon Valley operates a Technology Demonstration Center, Prospect Silicon Valley is advancing the field of urbantech by developing a network to solve the significant challenges and pressures our cities face; helping the public sector, startups and corporations build and prove new solutions for the essential foundation of our cities — transportation & mobility, energy & buildings.

Rutgers EcoComplex

The Rutgers EcoComplex, is the state's clean energy and environmental research, outreach and business incubation center. It serves as a university-based resource hub and offers industry, academia and government access to applied research capabilities, unique facilities, business and technical expertise, and incubation services. The resources at the EcoComplex facilitate the commercialization of new technologies and business concepts that address pressing energy and environmental issues facing New Jersey and the nation.

Smart Grid Cluster

The Smart Grid Cluster supports economic growth for companies building the future of energy and the grid. Smart Grid Cluster offers a combination of business, technical and financing support services that leverages the Illinois region’s robust corporate and research assets and drives the continual economic growth of the energy innovation ecosystem.

SUNY Poly: Advancing Research & Commercialization (SPARC)

The SUNY Poly: Advancing Research & Commercialization Initiative features two incubators with an emphasis on different technologies: the iCLEAN Incubator, which is focused primarily on clean energy technology, and the Tech Valley Business Incubator, which is concentrated on nanotechnology and biotechnology. Funded primarily through the New York State Energy Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Empire State Development, SPARC works with small and start-up companies throughout New York, the Northeast, and the nation.

Sustainable Startups Lean Startup Incubator

A 12-week incubator program in Salt Lake City, Utah that provides both for-profit and non-profit entrepreneurs a chance to validate their concepts and learn the “lean startup” framework. The Sustainable Startups Lean Startup Incubator is based on the Quatere’s Foundry model of peer mentorship, teaches the importance of a sustainable business mindset, and how impact and purpose can create value and differentiation for startups.

Telluride Venture Accelerator

Telluride Venture Accelerator (TVA) hosts an annual competition seeking applications from entrepreneurs ready to accelerate their businesses. From the candidates, TVA selects up to six companies to attend a five-month, immersive program in Telluride, Colorado. TVA invests $30,000 in return for a 5% stake. The entrepreneurs work together at a dedicated co-working space and attend regular workshops. They also benefit from a host of perks including free and discounted products and services, from website development and hosting to legal and accounting. TVA is a partner in the success of each company and ensures that all receive the targeted assistance needed to take their businesses to the next level.

The Greenhouse

The Greenhouse is a business incubator, working with early-stage companies of today to become the powerhouses of tomorrow. Located in the heart of downtown Boise, Idaho, it offers entrepreneurs comprehensive services to build a strong foundation to take their company on to even greater success.

WERCBench Labs

  • WERCBench Labs is a 12-week immersive program located in Milwaukee, WI for technology innovators from anywhere around the country. WERCBench Labs looks for teams of engineers, scientists, and programmers across all funding stages. WERCBench Labs provides access to unique production capabilities, including high performance computing, rapid prototyping facilities and small scale production and testing equipment.

Crowdfunding

Additional Funders