Summer Fun(ds), V4C’s Newest Cohort, and More!
For ClimateTech’s monthly newsletter highlighting upcoming opportunities for climate innovators, thought leaders, and community connectors.
Introducing Cohort 2 of Venture For ClimateTech
This year, the program received 220 applications from 35 countries for Cohort 2—the most diverse applicant pool yet—with 54 percent of applicant founders identified as diverse, compared to 40 percent of applicants for Cohort 1.
“Our goal is two-fold: to be intentional with our community outreach to ensure we attract diverse, high-quality applicants, and second, to identify the most innovative ideas for addressing climate needs,” said Jacqueline Ros Amable, Managing Director of Venture For ClimateTech. “It’s clear there’s demand for the early support our program offers, and Cohort 2 is a promising mix of climate solutions and founders that have a high likelihood of significant impact.”
Read more about the teams and the full announcement here.
Find Funding
Fast-Track Your Manufacturing with Scale For ClimateTech’s MEIR program
Scale For ClimateTech’s Manufacturing & Expertise-in-Residence (MEIR) program is offering up to $75K in project-matched funding for the manufacturing of solutions that address climate change and reduce GreenHouse Gas (GHG) emissions. Through the MEIR program, engage with technical experts and seasoned manufacturers to solve diverse engineering and manufacturing challenges related to your climate tech product. \
See if you qualify for funding and start your application here.
The deadline to apply to IFundWomen Entrepreneur of the Year is June 8, 2022
IFundWomen is looking for extraordinary women entrepreneurs who have proven product-market fit, driven growth, and demonstrated a meaningful impact through their businesses.
One grand prize winner will be rewarded with a $100K equity investment and access to premium educational resources, and announced as the “best and brightest of 2022” through IFundWomen’s press and social media channels. Six $5K cash grants are also on the table for Business Category winners.
Learn more and apply here
Hackaday Prize Challenges Continue
The Hackaday Prize is offering a $25K award with numerous additional awards to teams focusing on sustainability, resiliency, and circularity. In addition to challenges through the year, this month it is accepting entries for two challenges:
- Reuse, Recycle, Revamp: Innovators are tasked with creating new ways to recycle materials. Entry period is May 1 – Jun 12, 2022
- Hack it Back: This challenge tasks entrepreneurs with adding new capabilities to old hardware, or to bring something broken back from the brink and make it functional again.
Entry period is Jun 12 – Jul 24, 2022. Find more challenges and submit your entries here.
NYSERDA, NYSEG, and RG&E Make $3M Available for Round 2 of the Future Grid Challenge
Round 2 of the Future Grid Challenge will support pilot projects for transmission line sensors with predictive capabilities in the Rochester, Buffalo, Ithaca, and Binghamton areas. NYSERDA and Avangrid’s subsidiaries, NYSEG and RG&E, seek to collaborate with solution providers to pilot advanced transmission line rating and monitoring solutions. Applications close June 22, 2022 3:00 PM EST for proposals.
Learn how to apply here.
Apply to pitch at the Women in Cleantech and Sustainability (WCS) Pitch Competition on June 23, 2022
Six applicants will be chosen to share their vision on the WCS stage in front of Silicon Valley VCs and an audience of 300+ industry professionals. Companies must have:
- Current funding stage, from seeking Seed funding to closed Series A
- Founded by, or with a CEO or CTO, who identifies as female
- Solving a cleantech or sustainability challenge, either through hardware or software
Learn more and apply here.
Apply Now to The Clean Fight: Energy Storage Edition!
The Clean Fight is seeking best-in-class battery and energy storage companies interested in scaling its business or manufacturing in New York. Selected companies receive:
- High-touch matchmaking with customer and capital partners
- Up to $100K per company for capacity building, deployment or manufacturing support in NY
- New York navigation from leading regulators, utilities and industry experts
With no equity stake taken. Apply here by June 30
Applications for Grow-NY Are Now Open
Grow-NY is a business competition focused on growing an enduring food and agriculture innovation cluster in the Grow-NY region. The competition attracts innovative, high-growth food and agriculture startups from across the globe and engages them in the region’s rapidly-growing startup ecosystem.
Finalists will pitch their business ideas for a chance to win up to $1M. Applications close July 1, 2022 at 5:00 PM EST. Learn more and apply here.
NYSERDA Makes $15M Available for Fourth Annual Commercial and Industrial Carbon Challenge
NYSERDA will award up to $15M as part of the Commercial & Industry Carbon Challenge, ranging from $500K to $5Mper successful proposal. $10M in funding is available to applicants who execute beneficial electrification, carbon capture, manufacturing process emission reductions or low-carbon fuel projects, with $5M in funding available to all other applicants.
The deadline to apply is July 29, 2022 at 4:00 PM EST. Learn more and apply here.
Innovator Spotlights
Pvilion Joins Coldplay on the Music of the Spheres Tour
Pvilion’s solar fabric is on its first concert world tour as a part of Coldplay’s Music of Spheres World Tour. The fabric solar panels that cove the stadium seats during the day also charge the batteries that will power the stage lighting in the evening. Starting in San Jose, Costa Rica, it’s making its way through North America, Europe, and finishing in South America.
Read about all the ways Tim Benson, Chair of Powerful Thinking and energy consultant on Coldplay’s current tour, has designed to capture energy using technology, the live music, and the concertgoers themselves to power live music on All Access Area.
CLIP Recognized by Fast Company as a World Changing Idea Finalist
CLIP, from Cohort 3 of Scale For ClimateTech, was announced as a finalist in Fast Company‘s transportation category in its World Changing Ideas Awards. CLIP is a clean-mobility startup based in Brooklyn, NY, building a device that upgrades your bicycle instantly to an e-bike without any tools.
Read the full announcement here.
Re-Nuble’s Pilot Project Showcases Potential for Closed-Loop Vertical Farming as an Everyday Reality
Agritecture did a deep dive into Re-Nuble’s 12-month pilot in the city of Glens Falls, NY, to demonstrate a closed-loop vertical farming model for urban areas.
“Our 480-square-foot vertical farm will provide a modular, scalable model for growing year-round crops using Re-Nuble’s closed-loop agriculture methods in northern climates, while also keeping the food stream local, ” Re-Nuble’s Founder & CEO, Tinia Pina, told Agritecture.
Read the full write-up here.
Event Calendar
Debt Financing for Climate Tech Startups
June 2, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST
Virtual
When is the right time to look into revenue based financing, debt and equipment financing? Phil Gager, Managing Director, Originations and Ben Malcolmson, Director, Equipment Financing from Trinity Capital will discuss when and how startups should be looking at venture debt and/or equipment financing as they prepare to scale. With Special Guest Speaker Erin Davis, COO and Co-Founder of Enduring Planet, who will discuss Revenue Based Financing and impact investment.
RSVP for this virtual event here.
R&D Tax Savers and Tax Credits
June 7, 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM EST
The Employee Retention Tax Credit has been extended and eligibility was recently expanded to include companies classified as start-up recovery businesses and those designated as severely financially distressed. Learn from the experience of manufacturing companies that have used the newly expanded Research and Development Tax Credit to achieve a higher level of innovation in their products and the processes. Learn about new strategies and how you can use this credit to make your designs and processes more effective.
RSVP for the event here.
How to Build a Board of Directors for a Climate Startup
June 9, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM EST
Virtual
So your investor wants a seat on your board… Who else should be there? Scale For ClimateTech and Clean Energy Business Incubator Program (CEBIP) are hosting a virtual panel discussion with investors, startup founders, and growth strategists to hear about how to build your board.
RSVP for the virtual event here.
Join the 2022 Compost & Food Waste Reduction Bike Tour and Zero-Waste BBQ
June 25
WeRadiate is almost at its fundraising goal for the Bronx Compost Bike Tour planned for Saturday, June 25, 2022. The ride and Community BBQ is free but WeRadiate is asking for contributions for this ride to be successful. Mark your calendar and consider supporting the event to support local and global movements for ecological restoration.
Learn more about the bike ride and how to donate here.
Register now for the 11th Advanced Energy Conference at the Marriott Marquis in New York City
September 7-9, 2022
The Advanced Energy Center will hold its upcoming three-day conference in person at the Marriott Marquis in New York City onSept. 7-9, 2022. The theme is, “Charting the course for energy”, and will map the pathway to a future energy portfolio by exploring technology innovations, key policy changes, new business models and more.
Learn more and register here.
Pipeline Partner Opportunities
Last Call for Project W’s Second Tech Equity Hub
The 12-week virtual accelerator is recruiting Black and Latinx female founders of pre-seed technology companies and providing them the tools, resources, and connections for success.
Project W will bring all the founders to New York City at the end of the program to meet with Project W community partners and to participate in a pitch evening with Project W’s network of investors.
Apply here by June 6, 2022
Urban Future Prize Competition Applications Closing Soon!
The Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon is holding the sixth year of its Urban Future Prize Competition through the generous support of The New York Community Trust, NYSERDA, and MUFG. Winners of the Future Environments and Future Vision Prizes will each take home a $50K cash prize and admission to the ACRE incubator, the longest-running cleantech incubator in New York.
Applications are due June 6, 2022, at 11:59 PM EST. Learn more and apply here.
Apply Now to The Clean Fight: Energy Storage Edition!
The Clean Fight is seeking best-in-class battery and energy storage companies interested in scaling its business or manufacturing in New York. Selected companies receive:
High-touch matchmaking with customer and capital partners
Up to $100K per company for capacity building, deployment or manufacturing support in NY
New York navigation from leading regulators, utilities and industry experts
With no equity stake taken. Apply here by June 30
Program Updates
The 2022 For ClimateTech Global Innovation Challenge
Calls for applications for the 2022 For ClimateTech Global Innovation Challenge, which aims to address the urgent need for climate tech solutions, will open mid June. This year, we are rallying our global community to source and support the most impactful and equitable early-stage climate tech solutions across the following sectors below that are key to reducing global emissions.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
- Women in Climate Tech
- Entrepreneurs from Developing Economies
- Climate Justice
Industry Impact
- Agriculture & Food
- Energy
- Transportation
- Web3 & Blockchain
- FinTech & ESG Data
- Hemp
Economic Challenges
- Supply Chain
- Manufacturing
- Future of Cities
- Built Environment
The Challenge will be held Sept. 13 – 15, 2022. Be sure to mark your calendars!
What’s the Consensus?
Every month we pose a single question to our audience and share the responses in the following newsletter. Our hope is to uncover insights worthy of more coverage and conversation.
This month’s consensus on, “What funding source have you found to be the most helpful in launching your company?” is… Government Grants & Loans with 57% of the vote. Here’s the breakdown:
