6 Good Wins for Cohort Companies and the Planet
Welcome to For ClimateTalk – For ClimateTech’s monthly newsletter highlighting upcoming opportunities for climate innovators, thought leaders, and community connectors.
For ClimateTech Gets Ready for NYC Climate Week
The For ClimateTech teams will be converging on New York to join thousands of climate innovators and leaders in collaborating on the best ideas and solutions to move climate initiatives forward. The Venture For ClimateTech cohort companies will make their final program pitches to a closed group of investors at this year’s Innovation Showcase. Although this is a private event, you can still find the For ClimateTech team at several events across the city, including Newlab’s New Climate Futures, Climate Week NYC, and more!
Find Funding
Apply for the newest round of funding available from NYSERDA’s NextGen Buildings Innovation Challenges program, PON 3519!
For Round 7 of this solicitation, up to $18 million may be available for projects that target the following topics of interest:
- Building Envelope Systems and Components – Solutions for single-family and multifamily buildings that will substantially reduce heating and cooling costs, increase comfort, and modernize facades by introducing new materials and construction techniques.
- Ground Source Heat Pump Cost Compression – Solutions for residential and commercial buildings that reduce the system installation cost by 20% or greater through new heat pump equipment, ground loop technologies, and hybrid systems.
- Intelligent Buildings – Solutions for residential and commercial buildings that enable electrification without electric service upgrades, connect legacy and siloed energy systems, and maintain residents’ desired comfort while minimizing the building’s peak electricity demand, emissions, and impact on the grid.
- Thermal Storage – Solutions for residential and commercial buildings that integrate thermal storage with HVAC equipment to provide space conditioning as a single functional system and reduce overall heating peak loads.
NYSERDA is hosting a webinar on this round on Tuesday, August 22, 2023 from 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM EDT. You can register for the webinar here. Applications are due on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, at 3:00 PM EDT. Learn more and get started here.
Cohort News
Voltpost Closes $3.6M Seed Round For Electric Vehicle Curbside Charging Platform
Voltpost, a climate tech company democratizing access to electric vehicle (EV) charging by retrofitting lampposts with modular and upgradable EV charging solutions successfully closed its seed funding round at $3.6M. The round was led by RWE Energy Transition Investments, an investment vehicle of global renewable energy company RWE. Twynam Funds Management, Exelon Foundation, Good News Ventures, Climate Capital, and other mission aligned investors also participated in the round.
You can read the full exclusive story on TechCrunch+ and the full press release here.
Ecolectro Receives $1.08M in Demonstration Project from NYSERDA
Ecolectro, developer of membrane technology that enables cost-competitive green hydrogen, received an award to scale its chemistry and materials that reduce the cost of producing hydrogen through electrolysis and create a drop-in replacement for its current design. This project entails scaling laboratory-proven technologies with engineering and validation prototypes to build and test 10-kilowatt (kW) electrolysis units. The electrolyzer unit will be deployed in a pilot demonstration in partnership with Liberty Utilities in Massena, New York.
Read the fill announcement here.
Ateios Systems Receives a $400K Grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) and Next Level Manufacturing Institute LLC (NLMI).
The grant will be used to accelerate development of Ateios’ advanced materials and manufacturing process and further strengthen its domestic supply chains. The end goal is to help deploy a manufacturing process that can be further scaled at an even lower cost. Read the full announcement here.
Mars Materials and Ammobia Are Selected for Funding from CalTech’s Rocket Fund
Two Venture For ClimateTech companies, Mars Materials and Ammobia, received grant funding in Caltech’s Rocket Fund’s most recent list of awardees.
Mars Materials is commercializing NREL-developed nitrilation to produce acrylonitrile (AN) from captured CO2 and biomass. The award will enable the purchase, installation, and calibration of analytical equipment for product quality assurance in samples sent to AMD and CF manufacturers for commercial validation.
Ammobia leverages advances in materials science and catalysis to produce green ammonia at low cost. It will leverage the Rocket Fund to purchase essential parts and equipment to accelerate its technology towards an integrated tech demonstrator. Read the full list of awardees here.
Climatize Hits Million-Dollar Milestone of Renewable Energy Projects Invested Through its Platform
Climatize, a member of Cohort 1 of Venture For ClimateTech, offers an easy way to invest in renewable energy projects with as little as five dollars. Earlier this month, they passed a key milestone of $1,000,000 invested in renewable energy projects through its platform–just three short months since its launch.
The accomplishment speaks to the quickly growing community of empowered users taking part in the energy transition. Santa Cruz Works nicely summarizes the occasion, which you can find here.
If you want to learn more about Climatize and download the app, check out www.climatize.earth.
Amogy Hosts Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgadao in Headquarters in the Brooklyn Navy Yard
Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgadao made a stop at Amogy’s headquarters in the Brooklyn Navy Yard where they presented their ammonia powered drone, tractor, and semi truck. The Amogy team and the Lieutenant Governor further discussed the role of ammonia in the energy transition.
See photos from the visit and more here.
Founder Feature
Jeff Prosserman | Founder and CEO of Voltpost
What’s your elevator pitch?
The Voltpost mission is to decarbonize mobility by democratizing charging access. We reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution by rapidly deploying chargers that accelerate the electric mobility transition. Our goal is to empower people and communities to take climate action. Voltpost retrofits lampposts into a modular electric vehicle charging platform. This provides people with convenient and affordable charging access, while reducing the cost, timing, and footprint of chargers. Voltpost is a vision for the future of sustainable communities. Born in America. Built coast to coast.
What’s your motivation for your company?
The last decade was the hottest ever. People globally are enduring climate disasters. Our individual actions matter, and, together, we can turn the tide. However, we are running out of time. Current charging options are not good enough. This is why we are making charging scalable, convenient, and equitable.
Voltpost aims to be a transformative force in the climate movement by making charging as common as lampposts. Our platform enables a sustainable and equitable future for people and our planet. Our team is driven to leave this world better than when we started.
What are your top 3 go-to places to learn what’s happening in the climate tech space?
The For ClimateTech community has provided the Voltpost team incredible support as we scale the business. Three additional venues that are building important climate tech networks include CTVC, Climate Tech Cities, and Newlab.
Outside of VoltPost, what do you do for fun?
At this stage of my life, my center of gravity is my family. I love being a father to my two kids and small dog. I also run a couple times a week in the morning as a way to decompress or prepare for the day or week.
Do you have any advice for other founders on how to keep up with the mental stamina and demands of being a founder?
Genuinely don’t give up. Being an entrepreneur is hard. If you’re able to find purpose in building something that can truly make the world better with some vision on how it’ll work, you just can’t give up on that goal. You have to surround yourself with people who believe in the mission you believe in, like For ClimateTech. It can feel intimidating worrying that we’re not going to get to where we need to be, but it’s important to choose hope over fear.
Community
Register to Watch Innovation Ignited at the Luminate Finals 2023
Wednesday, September 27, 2023
See emerging technologies, including climate tech, coming out of the world’s largest accelerator for startups working on technology enabled by optics, photonics, and imaging. Find out which companies take home more than $2 million in follow-on funding, and vote live for your favorite startup and help them take home $10K. The free event offers virtual or in-person attendance at The Theatre at Innovation Square from Rochester, NY.
Learn more and register here.
Powering the Future Together: Join Stony Brook University in Advancing New York’s Energy Innovation Ecosystem
Stony Brook University (SBU) is thrilled to announce an exciting initiative aimed at accelerating partnerships with small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in New York State, particularly within the energy sector. The strategic outreach efforts are designed to foster innovation, drive commercial success for our partners, and contribute to the overall economic development of New York State and the region.
As a designated flagship research institution, SBU is developing world-leading climate solutions at Governors Island, known as the New York Climate Exchange. The university serves as the region’s hub for innovation and industry partnerships, collaborating with over 900 researchers, including its unique partnership with Brookhaven National Laboratory.
SBU encourages discovery calls with its Center Directors, providing an opportunity to delve into how a partnership with Stony Brook University can revolutionize your business operations within the ever-evolving market dynamics.
To learn more, reach out to david.hamilton@stonybrook.edu.
Program Update
See How Good Your Pitch is According to Venture For ClimateTech
Your business pitch sets a tone and directly communicates the potential you offer to an investor. That’s why a key phase of the Venture For ClimateTech curriculum focuses on helping each company develop an effective pitch. We
compiled our staff’s top 5 do’s and don’ts of crafting a pitch! Get all the pitching advice here.