European ingenuity against the climate emergency: the EIT Climate startup ecosystem
Cleantech startups supported by EIT Climate-KIC are helping to shape a climate-positive new normal through breakthrough innovations that support ambitious climate action. Over 969 startups are now mapped on a dedicated database to facilitate access to investors, customers and employees to help them innovate and scale their solutions.
Explore more at startups.climate-kic.org
EIT Climate KIC startups, by the numbers
EIT Climate-KIC startups all have a climate-focus, meaning they have developed solutions in sub-industries like clean energy, energy storage and energy efficiency, biotechnology, agritech, waste solutions, water treatment or monitoring, innovative food, and more.
The majority of startups are concentrated in Europe; however, EIT Climate-KIC programmes are continually expanding into the Global South.
Together EIT Climate-KIC startups are worth a combined enterprise value of €11.8B. In 2022 they raised a whooping €1B, mostly led by Climeworks’s late VC mega-round with Partners Group and Global Founders Capital in April. But other notable rounds where raised early this year by agritech startup GrowUP Farms and energy provider Zolar too.
Although the number of recorded rounds in early-stage investing decreased over the last 2 years, mid- and later-stage rounds are becoming more recurrent.
Explore more at startups.climate-kic.org
Success stories and promising startups
The top 5 most valuable companies among the EIT Climate-KIC community is aforementioned Climeworks, innovative food solution Ÿnsect, electric scooters company Grin, GrowUP Farms and IoT heating system Tado. Based respectively in Zurich, Paris, Mexico City, London and Munich and active in a wide range of sub-industries like energy storage, innovative food, mobility, agritech and energy efficiency they show the scope of the EIT Climate-KIC program.
But it’s not only about the high valuation. Number of startups supported by EIT Climate-KIC are breakthrough opportunities to watch or young startups founded after 2019 showcasing stable growth and getting ready for their next round, characterising great Seed opportunities for investors.
Improved transparency and connections
The new open-access platforms that maps startups supported by EIT Climate-KIC is specifically designed to support tech communities with reliable intelligence and novel insights enabling policy makers to better understand overarching trends. Through the platform, investors can discover new promising startups, startups are offered more visibility and transparency to find their next potential investors and young professionals can easily find green jobs in fast-growing companies.
The platform adds to the many programs and opportunities EIT Climate-KIC is already offering like ClimAccelerator, the ClimAccelerator marketplace and the Climate-SAFE agreement. All initiatives aim to accelerate the global spread of entrepreneurship and innovation supporting transformative systems change; hoping to bring the best of European ingenuity to the climate emergency.
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