The climate crisis is one of the most pressing issues our world faces today. Many companies are rising to the challenge to build a more sustainable future.
While climate tech companies were slow to gain traction in the 2010s, more recently investors have been pouring money into climate teach companies, from solar development to clean energy, circular sustainability to carbon capture. According to a new Pitchbook report, climate tech companies now have the 6th best outlook for expected investor returns.
And that's just in the VC world. This week, the U.S. Energy Department announced $6 billion in federal funding to subsidize 33 industrial projects in 20 states to cut carbon emissions.
Many innovative climate tech companies are making a name for themselves and paving the way toward a greener future. Check out 34 companies, from big to small, that you should keep on your radar.
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Top Climate Tech Companies: Solar Development
GreenLancer
Founded in Detroit, GreenLancer is on a mission to make solar and EV charger design, engineering, and field service management simple for clean energy contractors. While climate tech still faces many barriers, GreenLancer is trying to help clear a path for contractors. It’s the only online marketplace for contractors to select service partners to fill gaps within their engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance processes. The company is growing in Detroit and across the country with its remote-first team.
PosiGen
Top climate tech company: PosiGen. Image source: PosiGen
PosiGen is a leading residential solar and energy efficiency provider. They are on a mission to Inspired to help the many underserved communities who couldn’t afford to participate in the rebuilding programs after Hurricane Katrina, PosiGen founders decided to bring solar to these communities by selling it in a fundamentally different way than anyone else: they base sales on savings. Now, they make solar energy affordable for homeowners of all income levels, while helping customers achieve greater fiscal autonomy and energy independence through lower utility bills. PosiGen is a Certified B Corp headquartered in Louisiana with remote positions available.
Raptor Maps
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Top climate tech company: Raptor Maps. Image courtesy of Raptor Maps
Raptor Maps is solar's leading asset health management platform, delivering the autonomous future of solar by harnessing robotics and AI to address critical challenges in the industry. Its software empowers solar owners and operators to recover power production loss, optimize operations, and protect financial returns. Raptor Maps’ suite of solutions gives the solar industry a unified playbook for scalability.
Aurora Solar
Aurora Solar is putting the power of data and technology into the hands of every solar professional to make solar adoption simple and predictable. The cloud-based platform uses data, automation, and AI to streamline workflows and grow solar businesses faster. More than 7,000 of the industry's top organizations rely on Aurora and over 10 million solar projects have been designed with the platform globally. Founded in San Francisco, Aurora Solar is fully remote.
APT Solar Solutions
APT Solar Solutions was founded in 2021 by Dr. Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti, a faculty member at the University of Michigan College of Engineering and the inventor of 3D solar modules. Led by Steve Annear, a seasoned executive with extensive experience leading a variety of enterprises including commercialization of new technologies, APT Solar Solutions is redefining the boundaries of solar energy with its pioneering three-dimensional (3D) solar module technology. Engineered to capture the sun’s rays from all directions, our unique vertical solar arrays ensure unparalleled efficiency in solar power generation, regardless of the space available.
QCells
Top climate tech company: QCells. Image source: QCells LinkedIn
Qcells is a renowned complete energy solutions provider in solar cell and module, energy storage, downstream project business and energy retail. It is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea (Global Executive HQ), Thalheim, Germany (Module Technology & Innovation HQ) and San Francisco, USA (Energy Storage/Inverter & Software HQ) with operations all over the world.
Omnidian
Top climate tech company: Omnidian. Image source: Omnidian
Omnidian is the all-in-one solution for commercial owners and operators, along with residential lease providers and investors. Headquartered in Seattle with remote flexibility, Omnidian was founded by solar industry vets and was launched in 2016. Today, Omnidian is responsible for the oversight of over 2GW of energy generation.
Top Climate Tech Companies: Clean Energy
Koloma
Top climate tech company: Koloma. Image source: The Ohio State University
Koloma is a geologic hydrogen startup headquartered in Denver. This Bill Gates-backed company, which only emerged from stealth mode last July, is leading the way in a new industry that's based on extracting carbon-free hydrogen from natural underground deposits. Recently, Koloma moved its research lab to Ohio State University’s new Energy Advancement and Innovation Center in Columbus, Ohio, led by the company’s CTO, Tom Darrah. In February, Koloma announced a Series B funding round of $245.7 million.
SkySpecs
Top climate tech company: SkySpecs. Image courtesy of SkySpecs.
A top startup in Ann Arbor, SkySpecs is simplifying renewable energy asset management by offering purpose-built technologies and services that help deliver industry-leading productivity, efficiency and returns. SkySpecs helps customers unlock the power of their data so they can make confident, informed decisions.
Palmetto
Top climate tech company: Palmetto. Image source: Palmetto.
Palmetto is on a mission to lead the world towards a clean energy future. Palmetto’s technology platform is accelerating and democratizing the mass adoption of clean energy by making it easier for homeowners to choose renewable energy sources, spur innovation by other businesses and clean tech entrepreneurs, and to drive environmental impact at scale. The company’s Clean Energy Operating Platform enables end-to-end sales, financing, fulfillment, permitting, energy intelligence insights and a superior customer experience. Palmetto believes that access to clean energy sources is for everyone, not just the wealthy few. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Palmetto has a distributed team across the country and hires remotely for many roles.
Walker-Miller Energy Services
Top climate tech company: Walker-Miller. Image source: Walker-Miller.
Walker-Miller Energy Services (Walker-Miller), one of the largest African American and woman owned energy efficiency companies in the United States, changes lives through energy. Led by top Michigan founder Carla Walker-Miller, Walker-Miller is Certified B Corporation and trusted partner with deep roots in the energy industry. They provide thought leadership around Energy Efficiency as equitable economic development; Advanced Energy Products & Services; Equitable Mobility Consulting & Installation; and Medium and High Voltage Equipment Sales to utilities, municipalities, businesses, and communities to drive the benefits of clean energy to all.
Top Climate Tech Companies: EV Development
Lucid Motors
Top climate tech company: Lucid Motors. Image source: Lucid Motors.
Lucid Motors is a Silicon Valley-based EV company. The company aims to create sustainable mobility without compromise. Its cars are intuitive, liberating, and designed for all the ways people get around — and highly efficient. Recently, the company announced it’s investing $10 million at a new engineering research and development center in metro Detroit.
Treehouse
Top climate tech company: Treehouse. Image source: Treehouse.
Treehouse is a startup delivering turnkey installations for home EV charging. To address the issue of widespread charging stations — or lack thereof — Treehouse is building an in-home charging solution that allows EV owners to get an estimate in under two minutes and bundle home charging installation with the purchase of the best charger for each individual's budget and needs. This unique pricing technology allows EV buyers to receive an instant, guaranteed quote for the price of home charging installation. Last year Treehouse announced $10 million in funding to expand the company's product offering to more than 30 states in the next year.
Natron Energy
Top climate tech company: Natron Energy. Image source: Natron Energy.
Natron Energy manufactures sodium-ion battery products based on a unique Prussian blue electrode chemistry for a wide variety of industrial power applications ranging from critical backup power systems to EV fast charging and system hybridization. Natron’s mission is to transform industrial and grid energy storage markets by providing customers with batteries that offer higher power density, faster recharge, and a significantly longer cycle life than incumbent technologies. Natron’s safe, sustainable products are UL 1973 listed, cannot be induced to thermal runaway, and do not use conflict minerals. With headquarters in California, Natron’s manufacturing facility is located in Holland, Michigan.
Battle Motors
Top climate tech company: Battle Motors. Image source: Battle Motors.
Ohio-based Battle Motors is the leader in the vocational truck industry, providing work-ready diesel, clean natural gas (CNG), and now EV chassis designed and manufactured in North America for the refuse and recycling markets. Battle Motor’s durable, dependable trucks are built to excel in many applications that now include middle- and last-mile delivery.
Optimal EV
Top climate tech company: Optimal EV. Image source: Optimal EV.
Optimal EV is the market leader in the design, engineering, and manufacturing of zero-emission electric low-floor shuttle buses and related mobility solutions. Headquartered in Metro Detroit with its manufacturing plant in Elkhart, Indiana, Optimal provides a suite of low-floor vehicle configurations and equipment options, which are quiet and ecologically efficient, for the seamless migration to a battery-electric fleet.
LIVAQ
Top climate tech company: LIVAQ. Image courtesy of LIVAQ.
LIVAQ, based out of the Newlab mobility hub in Corktown, is reinventing the ATV market with a sleek electric vehicle for eco-friendly off-road experiences, connecting riders to the outdoors. LIVAQ recently launched preorders for its EQUAD vehicle, set for delivery in Spring 2024.
Intermode
Top climate tech company: Intermode. Image source: Intermode LinkedIn.
Intermode designs and builds custom robotic platforms to democratize local delivery. Inspired by intermodal shipping, Intermode’s modular robotic platform can usher in that change to unlock the benefits of mobile robotics for the world. The automotive grade EV platform is built like a car with a high-capacity battery pack, independent 4WD, four-wheel Ackermann steering, full suspension, front & rear brakes. Modals are an efficient, cost-effective platform for perfecting your company's autonomy solution or specific robotic service. Intermode is based in Michigan.
ESSPI
Top climate tech company: ESSPI. Image source: ESSPI.
There are unique challenges of safely transporting, storing, and handling EV batteries for all-manner of automotive applications. ESSPI is an innovation company, diligently crafting a range of proprietary technologies aimed at enhancing safety standards across various industries, including the EV industry. These solutions are designed to mitigate risks, bolster security, and promote a safer environment.
Top Climate Tech Companies: Waste & Carbon Reduction
Pachama
Top climate tech company: Pachama. Image source: Pachama.
Remote-first climate tech company Pachama harnesses AI and satellite data to empower companies to confidently invest in nature. Using the latest technological advances, Pachama delivers continuous insight into how forests sequester carbon, protect wildlife, and benefit local communities. These insights enable leading companies to find the world’s best projects and track their impact over time while also helping land stewards earn an income with tools to develop carbon projects and secure funds.
JustAir
Top climate tech company: JustAir. Image courtesy of JustAir.
A top startup to watch in Detroit, JustAir believes that everyone has the right to breathe clean air. They are on a mission to protect the 20,000 breaths each person takes every day. JustAir puts air quality data into the hands of communities to increase well-being and drive positive, locally-led change. The technology provides accessible air quality insights and helps foster community-led action.
Sealed
Sealed is a climate tech company with a mission to stop home energy waste and electrify all homes. Sealed provides software and solutions to contractors, enabling them to install more home weatherization and electrification projects, grow their business, and make it easier for homeowners to have more comfort with less energy waste. Sealed's software, data, and analytics enable market-leading products, including a one-stop shop rebate solution, investment-grade energy savings predictions, and customer qualification and education tools. Sealed also serves as an aggregator of projects for utility and government incentives, handling all rebate processing and payment on behalf of contractors, enabling contractors to participate in measured savings, Virtual Power Plant (VPP), and other programs with minimal additional costs or friction. Sealed is based in New York City and has remote job opportunities available.
RoadRunner
Top climate tech company: RoadRunner. Image source: RoadRunner.
RoadRunner is a remote-flexible, Pittsburgh-based climate tech company on a mission to accelerate the road to Zero Waste. They aim to provide maximum value for customers and communities through efficient, cost-effective and sustainable waste operations. The team cares deeply about our planet and is dedicated to leveraging technology and innovation to modernize a vital industry with integrity, expertise and a passion for creating a future where waste is a problem of the past.
LuxWall
Top climate tech company: LuxWall. Image source: LuxWall.
Michigan-based LuxWall is focused on the product development, scaling and commercializing of innovative glass products and solutions for the built environment. LuxWall’s transparent insulation technology, Net Zero Glass, provides a step change in energy performance by significantly reducing convective, conductive and radiative heat gain and heat loss in buildings. Acting as a transparent thermos bottle for buildings, LuxWall has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by more than 0.5 gigaton per year with mass adoption. Net Zero Glass will forever change the way buildings are designed and constructed for the future sustainability of our planet.
Remora
Top climate tech company: Remote. Image source: Remora.
Remora is an emerging climate tech company based in Michigan on a mission to capture carbon from semi-trucks. They’re building a a device that mounts on the back of the truck, attached to its tailpipe, and filters the carbon emissions out of its exhaust. The driver will offload the captured, compressed CO2 while they refuel. Remora then sells the high-purity, liquid CO2 to end-users, or sell credits for permanently sequestering it underground in EPA-certified wells. To help the companies that use the device, Remora will share the revenue from the captured CO2 with its customers to create a new revenue stream for them while reducing their emissions.
Aeroseal
Based in Ohio, Aeroseal is a climate tech company on a mission to reduce the world's carbon emissions by 1 gigaton annually with their sealing technology. The ducts and walls in buildings are inadequately sealed by manual solutions. Aeroseal’s technologies inject a fog of sealant particles into these pressurized spaces. Software tracks the entire process, creating a certificate of completion showing before and after leakage. Aeroseal is one of the fastest-growing clean technology companies in the U.S. and currently has a presence in 27 countries and all 50 states across the U.S. Our technology has sealed nearly 200,000 projects and saved nearly $2 billion in wasted energy.
EnergyCap
Top climate tech company: EnergyCAP. Image source: EnergyCAP Facebook.
Pennsylvania-based EnergyCAP is a leading provider of energy and sustainability enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. With a proven track record of delivering exceptional value and results for over forty years, EnergyCAP helps thousands of public and private organizations optimize energy consumption, reduce costs, and enhance sustainability efforts. By providing robust data collection, analysis, and reporting capabilities, EnergyCAP empowers organizations to make informed decisions and achieve their energy management and sustainability goals. Recently EnergyCAP was recognized as a leader in the 2023 Verdantix Green Quadrant for Energy Management.
Aquora Biosystems Inc.
Top climate tech company: Aquora Biosystems. Image source: Tim Fairley-Wax LinkedIn
Developed out of University of Michigan's Environmental Biotechnology Lab, Aquora Biosystems harnesses biofilms to transform organic wastes into valuable products. Aquora-enabled projects can deliver carbon abatement of 100 to 300 g CO2/MJ. Aquora's core membrane biofiltration technology is the product of a decade of research conducted by Aquora co-founders. Through detailed comparison with state-of-the-art technologies and bench-scale studies treating organic wastes like food waste, wastewater sludge, brewery wastewater, and dairy wastewater, Aquora's technology was developed to overcome hurdles facing existing solutions.
Slipstream
Based in Wisconsin, Slipstream creates, tests, delivers, and scales the next generation of energy efficiency and renewable energy programs that move us farther, faster toward a clean energy economy. Slipstream partners with utilities, local and state governments, regulatory agencies and other organizations to inspire new solutions to big energy challenges. In addition to decarbonizing buildings, Slipstream’s technology helps improve access to clean energy benefits through financing, works to build a cleaner power gird, and builds up the next generation of climate tech workers.
Pearl Edison
Top climate tech company: Pearl Edison. Image courtesy of Pearl Edison.
Pearl Edison is an emerging Detroit company that is building software to accelerate the adoption of home electrification projects. The company's goal is to make it easier for homeowners to buy these systems and more profitable for contractors to install them, starting with home heating and cooling. In just 10 minutes, Pearl Concierge generates an instant system design and estimate, including applicable rebates and incentives. When the customer is ready to move forward, Pearl Edison fulfills the job via a network of vetted contractors. Pearl Edison is live in Michigan and ready to install new systems.
Top Climate Tech Companies: Sustainability
Corteva Agrisciece
Corteva is a publicly traded, global pure-play agriculture company that combines industry- leading innovation, high-touch customer engagement and operational execution to profitably deliver solutions for the world’s most pressing agriculture challenges. Based in Indianapolis, Corteva generates advantaged market preference through its unique distribution strategy, together with its balanced and globally diverse mix of seed, crop protection, and digital products and services.
Bowery Farming
Top climate tech company: Bowery. Image source: Bowery
Bowery is helping secure the future of food by growing smart produce that’s more reliable and less harmful—wherever it’s needed. Powered by BoweryOS, the company’s proprietary operating system, their network of indoor vertical farms are growing food smarter for more people in more places.
NFW
Top climate tech company: NFW. Image source: NFW LinkedIn
Based in Illinois, NFW is a circularity platform for plastic-free performance materials. While nearly everything in the built world relies on some type of plastic that began as crude oil and that will become plastic pollution, NFW is establishing a new material reality. They believe all materials should begin and end as nutrients, ready for the next growth cycle—true circularity. NFW technology embeds seamlessly into existing supply chains, enabling the world’s most iconic brands to design and scale products with high-performance, plastic-free materials. NFW makes global brands more sustainable, empowering them to create without plastics.
Verde Solutions
Top climate tech company: Verde Solutions. Image source: Verde Solutions Facebook
Verde Solutions is a full-service sustainable energy developer headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with in-house installation and construction capabilities. They partner with businesses, municipalities, non-profits, and educational organizations across the United States to develop comprehensive green energy solutions. With over 20 years of experience, the team has completed more than 2,000 clean energy projects across the United States. Verde Solutions offers customized sustainable energy plans that can incorporate solar energy, EV charging, commercial battery storage, LED lighting, building controls, HVAC solutions, and cogeneration.
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