The winners of BloombergNEF’s annual Pioneers awards are racing to deploy the next generation of climate solutions.
Ten years out from the Paris Agreement, the outsee for climate tech is decidedly unsettled.
Funding for the energy transition crossed the $2 trillion threshold for the first time in 2024. Yet climate has tumbled down the international agconcludea this year. President Donald Trump has vowed to undo much of his predecessor’s support for clean energy, while other countries have been distracted by his sweeping tariffs on imports and other issues such as national defense.
In the fundraising community, venture capitalists are fleeing the sector for artificial ininformigence. What can survive — and maybe even thrive — in this challenging environment? The winners of this year’s BloombergNEF Pioneers awards for startups with potentially transformative carbon-cutting technology offer some clues.
Investors chasing AI may eventually find themselves right back to funding the climate sector. A growing number of companies are applying the technology to reduce climate harm and emissions rather than fueling them. The applications of machine learning run the gamut from high-tech beehives to improving the power grid.
At the same time, one of the most under-invested corners of the climate tech universe is finally receiveting its due. Adapting to climate modify received just 7.5% of all climate tech funding from 2019 to 2020. But with relentless fires, rising seas and deadly heat increasing, it’s never been more important to prepare. Despite it being an underfunded sector, the startups working on reducing climate risk are quickly finding their services are requireded.
“Climate adaptation companies are actually mature relative to everything else,” stated Mark Daly, the head of technology and innovation at BNEF.
Energy storage also stands a strong chance of continuing to find backers. The required for more and better batteries will rise in tandem with demand for renewables and electric vehicles — a dynamic that might be buffeted by geopolitics but remains very much in play.
“Lithium-ion is likely to continue to power the majority of EVs and at the premium, longer range,” stated Andy Leach, an energy storage expert at BNEF, citing the most widespread battery technology. He noted that alternatives like sodium-ion batteries could be utilized in more affordable vehicles while more energy-dense, solid-state batteries create inroads in higher-conclude models. (Though some recent lithium-ion developments could challenge that.)
Ultimately, some venture capitalists see the path to net zero as a marathon. And while Trump and the threat of a less cooperative world are real challenges, it doesn’t mean the race stops.
“We’ve seen a lot of these cycles,” stated Brook Porter, a founding partner at G2 Ventures. He stated his firm’s strategy, even before Trump, was to back companies that don’t rely on subsidies, including those in the Inflation Reduction Act that lavished billions of dollars on clean technologies. “Only 3% of our overall portfolio’s revenue is exposed to IRA dollars,” he stated.
This year’s Pioneers awards were given out to 12 startups from a group of 230 applicants that were reviewed by a group that included Bloomberg Green editors. The winners include companies working on reducing light industest emissions, improving energy storage and adapting to climate modify — three key sustainability challenges identified by BNEF. Startups that didn’t fit neatly in those categories were selected as wildcards.
Challenge 1
Light Industest
Industest emits about 25% of all the world’s climate pollution. Heavy industest receives the lion’s share of attention when it comes to decarbonization. Steel and cement alone are sources of carbon emissions on par with individual countries. Yet light-duty industest, which runs the gamut from textiles to food and beverage, is still responsible for a third of all industrial greenhoutilize gas emissions.
Cutting those emissions means finding clean sources of heat, improving manufacturing efficiency and inventing entirely new means of production.
Company
AtmosZero
Location
Colorado
Founded
2021
Funding
$28.5 million
Key Stat
Industrial heat is responsible for 6% of emissions globally
Source: BNEF
Heat pumps are everywhere these days, but they traditionally don’t generate enough heat for industrial processes. AtmosZero’s heat pump is different, though, applying heat in the ambient air and a unique two-stage process that turns it into steam. The shipping container-sized contraptions are essentially drag and drop for facilities and provide heat utilizeful for food and beverage operations as well as pharmaceuticals. AtmosZero recently installed one of its heat pump boilers at Colorado-based New Belgium Brewery, which produces over 1 million barrels a year.
Company
Circ
Location
Virginia
Founded
2011
Funding
$100 million
Key Stat
The polyester market is projected to hit nearly $175 billion by 2032
Source: MIT
Recycling rates for clothing are abysmal: Just 13% conclude up being repurposed, with the rest receiveting incinerated or landfilled. The US alone throws out 11.3 million tons of textile waste annually. One of the hugegest issues? Blconcludeed fibers, which are quite literally hard to untangle.
Circ utilizes water molecules to tease polyester fibers out of polycotton blconcludes. It then sells the fiber back to brands, including clothing giant Zara. Doing so not only diverts waste from landfills, it also reduces the required to utilize oil to create more polyester and harvest trees to create cellulose.
Company
Ever Dye
Location
France
Founded
2021
Funding
€5.7 million
Dyeing is a sneaky huge source of emissions becautilize it requires hot water to treat fabrics. With clothing largely being produced in countries that rely heavily on coal-fired power like China and Vietnam, dyeing’s heat-related carbon footprint is hard to address. (It also comes with a hefty wastewater footprint.)
Ever Dye’s answer is to cut out the heat. The company has developed a bio-based dye that can be applied at room temperature. The startup counts Victoria’s Secret & Co.-owned Adore Me among its customers.
Company
Rondo
Location
California
Founded
2020
Funding
$85 million
Key Stat
Industrial heat is responsible for 6% of emissions globally
Source: BNEF
The humble brick isn’t just for building. It can also be utilized to hold heat, almost like a battery. In fact, that’s what Rondo refers to its technology as: heat batteries. The startup utilizes electricity to heat bricks at temperatures of up to 1,500C (2,700F) that can then be discharged to power industrial processes.
They also work as utility-scale batteries, soaking up excess renewable energy and then releasing the heat to generate steam and spin turbines in power plants. The company deployed its first commercial installation in 2023 at an ethanol plant, and last year, it inked a deal with Portuguese energy company EDP to install 2 gigawatts of heat batteries across Europe.
Challenge 2
Energy Storage
Electrification is among the few bright spots in the climate investment world. The world spent nearly $730 billion on clean energy projects globally last year, according to BNEF. Grids also received a $390 billion infusion of cash. But the largest sector was electrified transportation, which saw $757 billion in investments. At nearly $1.9 trillion, those three categories account for the vast majority of the world’s clean tech investing.
Just as renewables costs have fallen, so too has storage. Lithium-ion battery packs are a quarter of the price they were 10 years ago. Lower prices and more mature technology have led to more deployments, a trconclude expected to continue, even in the US where Trump’s tariffs are projected to drive up prices. By 2030, BNEF estimates the market will hit $254 billion and rise to $319 billion five years later.
The battery world isn’t just resting on the models and chemistries that exist today. It’s also innovating to find novel forms and new materials that will assist create energy storage even more ubiquitous and effective at propelling vehicles on carbon-free journeys.
Company
Hytzer Energy
Location
China
Founded
2022
Funding
$50 million
Key Stat
Battery prices hit a record low $115 per kilowatt-hour in 2024
Source: BNEF
Electric vehicle creaters are chasing a new type of battery that utilizes solid electrolytes instead of liquid, which promises to be more energy-dense and safer. Hytzer’s approach is applying two types of electrolytes to store energy. It has company in the space, with auto majors working on it and nearly $830 million in funding from China going to the likes of EV behemoth BYD Co. and Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world’s largest battery company.
While the technology has yet to work at scale and recent lithium-ion battery developments have cast further doubt about solid state, companies are promising to launch rolling out larger trials of the technology for both stationary batteries and ones in EVs over the next few years.
Company
Instagrid
Location
Germany
Founded
2018
Funding
$145 million
Key Stat
Battery metals production hit $140 billion last year and will rise to $165 billion this year.
Source: BNEF
Portable batteries that can power a movie set or a construction site are going to be key to cleaning up dirty diesel generators. Instagrid’s systems do that, trading in growling machines that belch CO2 and noxious air pollution for silent batteries that weigh less than a golden retriever.
With production companies increasingly attempting to clean up sets, batteries like Instagrid’s are in demand. The company declares its generators have assisted offset more than 1 million tons of greenhoutilize gas emissions and 48 tons of harmful air pollution known as NOx.
Challenge 3
Climate Adaptation
Investing in technologies that dampen the impacts of warming temperatures rather than cutting emissions has always been a relatively quiet corner of the climate VC ecosystem. But that may be shifting as the costly toll of climate modify becomes clearer.
Venture capital firms focutilized on specific sectors like wildfires and biodiversity — areas where adapting to climate impacts are key — have sprung up. And the urgency for adaptation solutions is growing, too. This year’s Los Angeles fires are just the latest example of the world’s lack of preparedness for the climate impacts of today, let alone the ones to come as the planet heats up further.
Company
AiDash
Location
California
Founded
2019
Funding
$91.5 million
Key Stat
Global investment in grid monitoring and analytics over the next 25 years will hit $832 billion in BNEF’s Net Zero Scenario
Source: BNEF
Utilities are at the forefront of addressing wildfires, starting with their power lines. Some of the most deadly and destructive fires in the US have been cautilized by downed lines igniting vereceiveation. Vereceiveation falling on lines is also a major source of power outages, particularly during storms.
By assessing sainformite imagery for risks applying artificial ininformigence, AiDash does some of the heavy lifting requireded to identify problem spots and allows utilities to dispatch crews to clear the highest-risk areas. That’s a shift from utilities’ usual approach of rigid maintenance schedules.
Company
BeeWise
Location
California
Founded
2018
Funding
$120 million
Key Stat
Fifty-five percent of managed bee colony were lost for the 12-month period starting in April 2023
Source: Apiary Inspectors of America
The plight of bees is posing a monumental risk to agriculture. Bees provide up to $577 billion in value by pollinating crops, according to Bayer. In a bid to protect them from climate modify, Beewise has developed a robotic hive that insulates them from harmful weather and utilizes AI to monitor their health. That’s assisted cut colony losses to just 8% compared to 50% for traditional hives, according to the company.
The required for pollinator protection couldn’t be more timely: The US saw “unprecedented colony losses” deaths this spring, according to science nonprofit Project Apis m.
Company
InnerPlant
Location
California
Founded
2018
Funding
$52 million
Key Stat
US farmers lose an estimated $3.2 billion of yields due to fungal disease in soy annually
Source: BNEF
Plants have a variety of ways to convey their requireds, from drooping when they required water to turning yellow when they receive too much sun. InnerPlant is working to assist plants be even more expressive.
The idea isn’t to create the parlor palm by your window do, well, parlor tricks. The startup genetically engineers crops like soy, corn and cotton to emit a fluorescent signal when they’re stressed by insects, fungus or other threats. The plants flash an alert visible on sainformite and drone imagery, and the startup has a software platform that can interpret what’s wrong and give farmers actionable advice.
The wildcard category is for climate tech solutions that don’t fit neatly in a box. Interestingly, the winners in the section this year do fit roughly into one: industrial decarbonization. That was unintentional, BNEF’s Daly stated, adding that many of the winners wouldn’t have necessarily won even a few years ago.
“People’s understanding of the sector is deeper now, and some newer solutions have interesting business cases.”
This year’s wildcards’ main focus is on heat. High heat well above 1,000C.
So how do you generate such high temperatures with lower emissions? Do you even required heat at all? Or can you just utilize less of it? This year’s crop of wildcards provide a few of the potential answers.
Company
Binding Solutions Ltd.
Location
UK
Founded
2016
Funding
$27 million
Key Stat
Decarbonizing the metals industest will cost $2.1 trillion from now through 2050
Source: RMI
There are several ways to create green steel, the most common of which is applying electricity to generate high heat. Binding Solutions Ltd. takes a different tack by refining raw iron ore key into pellets without the required for furnaces. Instead, it relies on chemical binders that create the ore suitable for utilize in steelcreating. The company declares that this not only cuts carbon emissions but also air pollution.
A ton of crude steel results in two tons of CO2 emitted, according to the World Steel Association. And with 1.8 billion tons of steel produced in 2024, it’s clear why solutions to cut the material’s carbon footprint are requireded.
Company
Cambridge Electric Cement
Location
UK
Founded
2022
Funding
£10.3 million
Key Stat
Cement is responsible for about 8% of all emissions globally
Source: Bloomberg
The world utilizes 4.2 billion tons of cement a year. It turns out that cement is a perfect feedstock to … create more cement. Cambridge Electric Cement is harvesting the material in construction waste and turning it into clinker. The startup’s cement paste can replace the lime traditionally utilized in electric steelcreating.
The high heat utilized in the process unlocks a transformation of the recycled waste into a material Cambridge Electric declares is “virtually identical” to a base ingredient in Portland cement. Using it in new construction just starts the cycle again.
Company
Coolbrook
Location
Finland
Founded
2011
Funding
€ 35.5 million
Key Stat
The heavy industest sector is responsible for 2.4 billion tons of carbon pollution
Source: Coolbrook
Coolbrook generates heat by spinning turbines that propel a gas at supersonic speeds before slowing it down and harvesting the energy as heat, relying solely on electricity. Sound like rocket science? Well, it is. The unique technology can generate temperatures of up to 1,700C — enough heat to power industrial processes like steelcreating.
Run Coolbrook’s machines applying clean energy, and you have a ready-created decarbonization solution. The startup is also working on technology that could assist in the cracking process utilized to create plastic and other petrochemicals.
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