A Spook-tacular Month for Climate Tech Founders and New Opportunities
Welcome to For ClimateTalk – For ClimateTech’s monthly newsletter highlighting upcoming opportunities for climate innovators, thought leaders, and community connectors.
Come Meet the For ClimateTech Team at VERGE Next Week
Join For ClimateTech at VERGE 23, the leading climate tech event accelerating solutions to the most pressing challenges of our time. The conference is the center of gravity for the climate community, convening more than 5,000 leaders from business, government, solution providers, and startups who are working to address the climate crisis.
Find our team at the Startup Pavilion to learn about upcoming opportunities and to meet companies from our past Venture For ClimateTech and Scale For ClimateTech cohorts.
Find Funding
Governor Hochul Announces Launch of a $10 Million Empire Technology Prize to Advance Tall-Building, Low-Carbon, Heating System Retrofits
The Empire Technology Prize is focused on finding groundbreaking solutions to tackle the greatest single source of GHG emissions from New York’s tall buildings – heating. This is a competitive opportunity for global solution providers that are focused on advancing building technologies for low-carbon heating system retrofits in tall commercial and multifamily buildings located in New York State. Applicants will be eligible to receive up to $1 million each; $250,000 on acceptance as a Finalist, and up to $750,000 in milestone payments given when progressing their solution. In addition, a total of $2 million will be available to help finalists offset the costs of installing solutions, such as pilot programs or demonstration projects in eligible buildings.
Learn more and apply here.
PagerDuty.org and Women of Color Collective in Sustainability are Collaborating to offer Four $25K Grants to Support Women of Color Founders in Climate Tech.
Ideal applicants will be at a growth stage beyond ideation, are working to address a major environmental problem with the potential for measurable impact, and have clearly defined impact goals. The deadline to apply is October 31, 2023 with winners being informed by November 30, 2023. Learn more and apply here.
Cohort News
Enerpoly Receives $600,000 Grant from Vinnova to Advance Zin-Ion Battery Production
Enerpoly, maker of zinc-ion battery cells and packs, was awarded a two-year grant of $600,000 from Vinnova, the Swedish Governmental Agency of Innovation Systems. The grant will enable Enerpoly to further industrialize the production of its breakthrough zinc-ion battery technology. Enerpoly participated in cohort 4 of Scale For ClimateTech.
Read the full press release here or the full story on tech.eu.
Olokun Minerals Accepted into Breakthrough Energy Fellows Program
Lacey Reddix, CEO and Founder of Olokun Minerals from cohort 1 of Venture For ClimateTech, has been selected as a Breakthrough Energy Fellow. To be selected, Innovator Fellows must go through a rigorous application and selection process led by the Breakthrough Energy team, along with input from external experts. Olokun’s technologies had to demonstrate the potential to reduce 500 million tons of greenhouse gasses per year at scale.
Read more about the announcement here.
Voltpost Wins Detroit Auto Show Pitch Night
At the 2023 Detroit Auto Show, Voltpost took the stage and won the Pitch Night Competition for its innovative technology converting lamp posts into modular EV chargers. The competition is hosted during the annual Detroit Auto Show where the latest breakthroughs in automotive technology are showcased.
See more about Voltpost’s win here.
New Frontier Aerospace Featured on GeekWire
New Frontier Aerospace is building renewable- fueled, hypersonic aircraft to deliver cargo and passengers anywhere on earth in less than 2 hours. This Venture For ClimateTech cohort 1 company was recently featured in GeekWire on the team’s current rocket development and testing.
Read the full article here.
Get to Know Active Surfaces on Forward Faster’s Newest Episode
Check out the most recent Forward Faster podcast episode! Active Surfaces from cohort 3 of Venture For ClimateTech discusses its breakthrough flexible solar technology. Get to know the team and how the tech came to be.
Tune in to the full episode here.
Founder Feature
Abhishek Sastri | Founder and CEO of FLUIX INC.
What’s your elevator pitch?
At FLUIX we save critical infrastructure and building owners on their energy costs. We do this by integrating all of the facility HVAC and lighting systems with an autonomous AI platform. So think of us as autonomous AI for buildings.
What’s your motivation for your company?
I used to work inside the data center industry and I went to school for aerospace engineering. I love technology. I love the internet. I love what the internet represents. I think the internet is no longer a luxury–it’s a human right. Access to the internet is given by the data center. It’s given by a building that gives us access to the internet for us to be competitive on the global landscape of things. So FLUIX supports buildings that give access to the internet to the whole globe and allows every human to have access to what we have access to. What drives us is helping an industry and an infrastructure that really helps the world learn.
What are your top 3 go-to places to learn what’s happening in the climate tech space?
- NYC ClimateWeek
- National Labs and Guidelines
- Department of Energy
Outside of work, what do you do for fun?
I love content. I love shooting content, editing videos, and posting videos. I have my own YouTube channel, and FLUIX has a YouTube channel. We love the opportunity to get the word out on what we’re doing in our day-to-day activities. Obviously, we’re all pretty young. We grew up in a time where we idolized YouTubers, and content. So that’s the stuff that I really like.
What lesson or piece of advice from your founder journey would you share with other founders?
One piece of advice I’d offer is try to talk to as many customers as you can, and see if they align with your mission. Life becomes easier when you have customers. It’s just that simple. VCs are willing to give you money, which means you can afford to get team members, etc.
Program Update
The Innovation Showcase Recap
Did you miss the Venture For ClimateTech Innovation Showcase during Climate Week NYC? Catch up on the incredible pitches you missed in our recap post covering the showcase and all the companies that presented. Read the full recap here.
Community
The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) is interested in supporting climate tech hardware startups looking for space!
The Pilots at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (BAT) program aims to play a major role in market traction and wide-scale deployment of early- and growth-stage climate tech companies. It envisions that a network of expert partners, that already scour the globe for promising companies, might use BAT as a highly visible testbed for providing proof of concept, wayfinding, and the de-risking of subsequent investment or contracting by a network of public and private real estate managers. Submit your application to secure a space!
FLUIX Inc. is Hiring a Controls Engineer Contractor
FLUIX is looking for a Controls Engineer Contractor to develop and program digital controls and monitoring systems that align with the company’s AI models, client requirements, national guidelines, and sensor/building data streams.
FLUIX is developing autonomous AI building management systems to enable up to 40% energy cost savings for property owners. Its focus is enabling ultra-efficient data centers to power the epic growth of generative AI, high-performance computing, and internet activity.
You can learn more about the position and how to apply here.