Hard tech climate startup examples

While everyone's paralyzed by the $3.7 billion funding cut, the smartest companies in climate tech are making their biggest moves yet. Not waiting. Building. Redwood's Brilliant Pivot: JB Straubel's Redwood Materials deployed 700 used EV batteries to power a Nevada data center. Not recycling them. Using them as-is for grid storage. While Li-Cycle went bankrupt begging for government money, Redwood raised $2 billion privately. Why? They solved real problems for real customers. 95% material recovery rate. Contracts with Ford, Toyota, Panasonic. No subsidies needed. The Nuclear Rush Is Real: Amazon paid $650M for one data center because it sits next to a nuclear plant. Microsoft's restarting Three Mile Island. Google signed for 500MW of small reactors. Not because of climate goals. Because AI/data center demand could hit 400 terawatt-hours by 2030. They need reliable power. Now. Who Else Is Moving? Rondo's heat batteries: Already powering New Belgium Brewery. AtmosZero's heat pumps: Replacing industrial boilers today. Not pilots. Revenue. Climate tech funding grew 15% YoY despite everything. First-stage startups outperforming the broader VC market since 2019. The Opportunity Map: - Industrial heat: 30% of emissions, almost no solutions - Grid flexibility: Every solar farm needs it - Building efficiency: Boring but massive - Carbon removal: Microsoft alone needs megatons The companies attacking these problems right now, while others wait for "policy clarity" will own the next decade. The Harsh Reality: Subsidies created zombie companies. Their death creates opportunity. Every competitor frozen in fear is market share you can take. Every company "reassessing strategy" is a customer you can win. 2001 dot-com crash gave us Google's dominance. 2008 gave us Uber and Airbnb's growth. 2025's climate shakeout? We're watching it create winners now. The Real Question: Your competitors are in defensive mode. What offensive play are you running? Who's already pivoting successfully that we should watch? The bold don't wait for permission. They build the future while others debate it. #CleanTech #EnergyTransition #DataCenters #NuclearEnergy #Innovation

This Kenyan startup is literally sucking CO₂ from the air and selling it Kenyan startup Octavia Carbon is building a Direct Air Carbon Capture (DAC) plant in Gilgil the first of its kind on the continent. It’s a serious engineering play -Uses geothermal energy -Captures 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ from the air annually -Stores it underground in volcanic rock -Sells carbon credits to global buyers This isn’t just another climate headline it’s infrastructure. Quietly being built, tested, and scaled right here. No noise. Just execution.The part that stands out to me? They’re using Kenya’s natural geology and energy mix as a competitive edge. Not trying to clone models from elsewhere they’re making something that fits where they are. I like this kind of work. It’s honest. Capital-intensive, science-heavy, long-term. Not the easiest path for a startup but arguably one of the most impactful. You don’t see many climate-tech teams going this deep into engineering. But maybe we’ll start seeing more. Props to the Octavia Carbon team. #climatetech #carbonremoval #hardtech #directaircapture #kenyatech #deeptech #startups #founderenergy #africa

If concrete were a country, it’d trail only China & the U.S. in carbon pollution. But one startup can slash its energy use by 40%. Their SVP shared the playbook in my MBA class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 🙏 Huge thanks to Joe for giving up peak fall weather in North Carolina to talk climate tech (we don’t brag about July/August here—mosquitos, humidity, and regret). And to CEO Leah Ellis for bringing this deep tech to market! Why their solution matters: - Cement = ~8% of global CO₂. - Demand = +50% by 2050. What Sublime is doing: - Eliminating emissions from CO₂, CO, NOx, SOx, mercury, and particulates. - Turning low-value rocks + toxic industrial waste into clean cement & pure minerals (no leftovers, unlike today's Portland Cement, where 50% of limestone becomes pollution). - Meeting or beating durability standards with ASTM-compliant results. And this isn’t theory... Backed by Holcim, CRH, SIAM CEMENT GROUP, and Suffolk Construction, Sublime has been pouring real-world projects since 2023. 🏗️ 👇 Curious about partnering? Link in comments. #climatetech #startups #innovation #leadership Tracy Triggs-Matthews, Jeff Mittelstadt UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School

🔥 Cleantech Innovation in Action: Meet the Finalists Shaping Our Sustainable Future! 🌍⚡ The world is at a turning point—we need bold solutions to transform how we produce, store, and use energy. That’s why I’m beyond excited to introduce you to the next wave of climate innovators in the latest episode of the #Tech4ClimatePodcast! 🎙️🚀 In this episode, I sit down for a roundtable discussion with Beth Zonis, Senior Director at Cleantech Open Northeast / ACT, alongside four trailblazing finalists from the 2024 season: 💨 Gianluca Roscioli, arculus – Making hydrogen transport easier by enabling existing natural gas pipelines to carry hydrogen with an MIT-developed barrier coating. 🏗️🔬 💧 Arjav Shah, hydroGel – Revolutionizing industrial purification in food, pharma, and biotech with novel polymeric resins that are more efficient and cost-effective. 🍽️🧪 ♻️ Marissa Beatty, Turnover Labs – Turning CO2 emissions into valuable chemical building blocks, creating a circular process that reduces waste and emissions. 🌎🔄 ⚡ Jeff Maelstrom, Green Spear – Converting CO2 into high-quality graphite for EV batteries and energy storage, strengthening supply chains and reducing our carbon footprint. 🚗🔋 💡 If you’re an #investor, #founder, or advocate in climate tech, this episode is packed with insights on scaling deep-tech solutions, forming industry partnerships, and driving real impact. 🎧 Tune in now to hear their stories, innovations, and vision for a cleaner future! 👉 https://lnkd.in/dxMFfjxd Which of these innovations excites you the most? Let’s chat in the comments! 👇 #climatetech #cleantechopen #Innovation #sustainablefuture #hydrogen #carboncapture #evbatteries #startupbasecamp #climateinvestorsalliance

The Energy Capital of The World is also the Energy Transition Capital. Another big breakthrough from a Houston Clean Tech Startup: Under the leadership of Cindy D. Taff, Sage Geosystems Inc. was selected to build a geothermal project to power Meta centers. Houston understands subsurface and fracking—geothermal leverages oil and gas expertise to use fractures for fluid injection. Sage Geosystems harnesses both heat and pressure to optimize energy extraction. Another Houston-based geothermal startup Fervo Energy partnered with Google to launch a 3.5-megawatt geothermal project powering Google's data centers in Nevada last year and is now working on a 115-megawatt project in the same state. Why are tech companies driving these projects? Because data centers are set to surpass traditional polluters when it comes to GHG emissions. For example Data centers in Ireland now consume more electricity than all residential homes combined. It's also affecting U.S. regions like Loudoun County, Virginia, and Grant and Douglas Counties in Washington. These areas face increased fossil fuel reliance or maxed-out hydropower, risking energy shortages. So while the digital revolution came from Silicon Valley, the clean tech innovation will come from the talent, resources and innovation right here in Texas. #geothermal #climatetech #climatevc #meta #energytech