Cited by: Paddy Padmanathan, investor, president and CEO of ACWA Power
In the ACWA portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $59,000
What it does: "Desolenator is the world's first truly sustainable water purification system, powered by solar energy, to provide safe drinking water at scale, low cost, and with low environmental impact."
Why it's hot in 2020: "What really excites me about Desolenator is its potential to address a much ignored major global issue, water scarcity, in such an impactful and environmentally friendly way.
"Not only is Desolenator the first net zero water purification system, it offers a cost-competitive solution for the unserved two billion+ people who walk to collect dirty water and for corporates to take action to address the critical potable water challenges they face, while improving the health, wealth and happiness of these forgotten members of our family at large."
Energy Vault
In the ACWA portfolio? No
Total raised: $110 million
What it does: "Energy Vault, a competitive energy storage solution that will increase the dispatch-ability and reliability of solar and wind energy to overcome the current limitations imposed by resource variability and cost prohibitive lithium-ion battery."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Energy Vault has the potential to revolutionize the scale and use of solar and wind energy by addressing the energy storage challenge without harming the environment thus contributing in a fundamental way to accelerate the much needed de-carbonization of energy we consume."
Cited by: Tomas Kemtys, from Contrarian Ventures
In the Contrarian portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $5 million
What it does: "Based in Norway, CHOOOSE is offering impactful climate solutions and carbon offsetting for businesses and individuals."
Why it's hot in 2020: "With next-generation APIs for carbon offsetting, CHOOOSE allows businesses to integrate climate action into existing products and services. With customers such as Norwegian Airlines, Skyscanner and Santander, CHOOOSE already has clients in more than 50 countries."
Zeigo
ZeigoCited by: Tomas Kemtys, from Contrarian Ventures
In the Contrarian portfolio? No
Total raised: $2 million
What it does: "Zeigo is an online platform that connects corporates with renewable energy projects globally through PPAs [power purchase agreements], green energy contracts and renewable energy certificates. The platform also offers data insights and market trends on PPA prices."
Why it's hot in 2020: "By facilitating the green PPA marketplace, Zeigo pushes for wider PPA and renewable energy adoption. Zeigo's offering helps corporates meet net-zero emission targets cheaper and easier."
Timbeter
Cited by: Yrjö Ojasaar, from Change Ventures
In the Change portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $1.2 million
What it does: "Timbeter is a precision forestry platform for the digitizing (tagging, measuring, sourcing, tracking and tracing) of industrial timber. Timbeter makes the forestry industry more efficient and therefore more profitable but also more sustainable."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Customers are using Timbeter to trace logs throughout the value chain from the forest all the to the processing facilities. The mobile phone app eliminates human error, fraud and inefficiency in manual counting, measuring and reporting of timber assets.
"Timbeter is the only way to objectively measure and certify compliance with sustainable forest management practices on a global scale."
Skeleton
Cited by: Yrjö Ojasaar, from Change Ventures
In the Change portfolio? No
Total raised: $102 million
What it does: "Skeleton works with some of the largest companies in the world to decrease CO2 emissions and fuel consumption, improve power quality, and protect equipment and infrastructure from power peaks, and to power electrification to fight climate change."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Listed in the top 100 companies four years in a row by Global Cleantech 100, Skeleton just raised €41M Series D round of financing (one of the top five funding rounds for the cleantech sector in the EU this year)."
Tomorrow
Cited by: Patrick Sheehan, founder and partner, ETF Partners
In the ETF portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $3.5 million
What it does: "Germany-based Tomorrow is the world's first sustainable mobile banking provider ... Simply put, Climeworks' technology extracts carbon dioxide directly from the air. This is a significant milestone in the move to reduce, recycle, or removed CO2 from the air economically and at scale."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Since March 2019, Tomorrow has been offering a contemporary checking account for everyone holding a smartphone and a healthy moral compass. The company is also currently developing a digital platform that will cover all aspects of finance with a positive impact."
Climeworks
Cited by: Patrick Sheehan, founder and partner, ETF Partners
In the ETF portfolio? No
Total raised: Undisclosed
What it does: "Simply put, Climeworks' technology extracts carbon dioxide directly from the air. This is a significant milestone in the move to reduce, recycle, or removed CO2 from the air economically and at scale."
Why it's hot in 2020: "I am a huge fan of the company and its ambitious goals ... The CEO, Jan Wurzbacher, is a visionary, and he has the potential to deliver game-changing technology to solve one of the most pressing environmental problems."
BYBI
Cited by: Maria Wagner, investment director at Beringea
In the Beringea portfolio? No
Total raised: $1.3 million
What it does: "BYBI is a skincare and beauty brand founded by Elsie Rutterford and Dominika Minarovic in 2017. Elsie and Dominika established BYBI to create a cosmetics business that could lead the clean revolution in the beauty industry without compromising on quality products."
Why it's hot in 2020: "BYBI has sought to show the path ahead for the cosmetics industry — currently a substantial contributor to global pollution — by committing to be a net zero carbon brand by the end of 2020. This means it will achieve carbon neutrality across its supply chain by carbon offsetting."
Earthly
Cited by: Maria Wagner, investment director at Beringea
In the Beringea portfolio? No
Total raised: n/a
What it does: "Earthly was founded in 2020 by Oliver Bolton, a serial entrepreneur with years of expertise in carbon offsetting, to provide an effective and trusted platform for businesses to invest in natural climate solutions and become climate positive."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Earthly works with businesses including Garnier, The Body Shop and Planet Organic, helping them to invest in projects that protect, restore and re-establish crucial ecosystems like forests, peatlands, mangroves and seabeds. Each project is vetted by an independent scientific board and progress is monitored by satellite."
LettUs Grow
Cited by : Dama Sathianathan, partner at Bethnal Green Ventures
In the Bethnal Green Ventures portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $4.5 million
What it does: LettUs Grow has built patent-pending aeroponics technology that uses up to 95% less water than traditional farming and increases growth rate by 70% compared to hydroponics. With aeroponics, there are no pesticides or harmful chemicals and no fertilizer runoff into waterways.
Why it's hot in 2020: "With rapid population growth, and increasing extreme weather events that severely impact our food security, we need more innovation that guarantees we can provide affordable healthy food for everyone," Sathianathan said. "Backed by Bethnal Green Ventures, ClearlySo, Longwall Ventures and others, they are helping farmers take the pressure off soils by using less land, and reduce food miles, carbon footprint, and food waste."
SafetyNet Technologies
Cited by: Dama Sathianathan, partner at Bethnal Green Ventures
In the Bethnal Green Ventures portfolio? No
Total raised : $1.5 million
What it does: SafetyNet Technologies designs products to encourage sustainable fishing practices.
Why it's hot in 2020: "SafetyNet Technologies are building tech products to make the fishing industry more sustainable, which given the increasing demand on the fishing industry and Brexit in the UK can help to guarantee sustainable practices are adopted to mitigate and adapt to climate change."
Raylo
Cited by: Jon Coker, founding partner at EKA Ventures
In the EKA Ventures portfolio? No
Total raised : $19 million
What it does: Raylo is on a mission to reduce the waste baked into today's disposable smartphone culture.
Why it's hot in 2020: "I really like them because I think we need a better ownership model for high value, high impact assets," Coker said. "I really like Raylo's approach because they can own the phone and rent it out to three or four users across its life and then recycle it effectively at the end. Giving people great value at every stage of the process and totally optimizing the resources that go in to a phone."
Circulor
Cited by: Jon Coker, founding partner at EKA Ventures
In the EKA Ventures portfolio? No
Total raised : Undisclosed
What it does: Circulor uses blockchain and AI to cut the cost of traceability and due diligence in raw materials supply chains.
Why it's hot in 2020: "I love what Circulor are doing because if we are going to transition to electric vehicles without trashing the environment in another way (ie through the battery supply chain) then we will need proper traceability and that's what they are doing," Coker said. "We have seen quite a few businesses try to build this kind of supply chain software but they are the only ones I have seen get real traction."
Notpla
Cited by: Andrew J Scott, general partner at 7percent Ventures
In the 7percent portfolio? No
Total raised: $7 million
What it does: "London-based Notpla offers an alternative to single-use plastic in food and drink packaging."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Human-made trash is destroying our society. Notpla make packaging solutions made from seaweed and plants that disappear, naturally. Our future has to be only packaging which will biodegrade fast, or which is re-used infinitely."
Clim8
Cited by: Andrew J Scott, General Partner at 7percent Ventures
In the 7percent portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $2.65 million
What it does: "They've created an easy-to-use app which enables anyone to invest into a sustainability-friendly portfolio of companies. It's simple: customers now have the chance to save money, make money, and save the planet."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Clim8 is 'hot' because climate change is the world's biggest problem EVER, a problem rapidly approaching a point of no return. Clim8 has an opportunity to make an impact at scale."
Yayzy
Cited by: Antoine Poirson, partner at early stage VC investor Antler
In the Antler portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $890,000
What it does: " Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious about the environment, and are on the lookout for action they can take to limit their own negative impact. Yayzy is building a product that users love, which helps them understand their personal impact, and make the right actions to reduce negative outcomes.
Why it's hot in 2020: "Yayzy empowers consumers to live the sustainable lifestyle they want, by finding alternative products, services or behaviors, which will help reduce their immediate environmental impact. And to enable a longer term impact, Yayzy is also building access to ESG investment products."
Greyparrot AI
Cited by: Antoine Poirson, partner at early stage VC investor Antler, and Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, lead partner for industrial tech at Speedinvest
In the Antler portfolio? No
In the Speedinvest portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $5 million
What it does: "A problem with recycling is the inefficiency of the 'sorting' process itself, which is still quite manual, and not efficient enough when automated," says Poirson. "Greyparrot solves this by using the latest computer vision technology to automate the sorting of our trash, making it more efficient and affordable."
Why it's hot in 2020: "From a VC perspective, it is a perfect combination of tangible positive environmental impact and a huge and growing potential market, which is expected to reach $530bn by 2025," says Ametsreiter.
Node.energy
Node.energyCited by: Marie-Helene Ametsreiter, lead partner for industrial tech at Speedinvest
In the Speedinvest portfolio? No
Total raised: $916,000
What it does: "Node.energy provides corporations with an effective software solution to reduce administrative efforts by up to 90% — unlocking a large segment of customers that previously did not have the resources to initiate the transition to alternative energy sources themselves."
Why it's hot in 2020: "We particularly liked the strong validation of the pain point across different industries. In addition, the need for solutions in that space will only grow further with tightening regulations to ensure the achievement of carbon emission goals throughout the EU."
Emitwise
EmitwiseCited by: Priscilla Tyler, senior associate at True Ventures
In the True portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $3.4 million
What it does: "The Emitwise team is building a platform that helps companies track and reduce their carbon emissions. This area of focus is especially important considering that more than 70 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to 100 companies."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Becoming sustainable and reducing emissions will be a part of every company's story, whether due to regulation and compliance or because consumers demand it and it's the environmentally responsible thing to do. Compliance will be a large part of market growth while we work toward a zero-carbon future."
Overstory.ai
Cited by: Priscilla Tyler, senior associate at True Ventures
In the True portfolio? No
Total raised: $120,000
What it does: "Overstory.ai is building a platform that monitors the world's natural resources. The goal is to empower people to make better, informed decisions that can help to mitigate climate change and protect against natural disasters."
Why it's hot in 2020: "It's incredibly timely given the extent of this year's wildfires in the Western U.S., the massive hurricanes, and more. The platform lies at the intersection of a number of rapidly growing markets that are top of mind for investors right now: satellite tech, machine learning, and wildfire mitigation."
Ynsect
Cited by: Matus Maar, cofounder and managing partner at Talis Capital
In the Talis portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $400 million
What it does: "The sustainability case for insects as a source of protein is compelling. Paris-founded Ynsect is reinventing the food chain by breeding insects that can be used as feed for animal and fish farms ... Given that food production needs to increase by about 70 percent by 2050 in order to feed the world's growing population, producing feed that can fuel our animal and fish consumption is absolutely critical to building a sustainable future."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Historically, it's been difficult to find sustainability startups that are commercially viable, but this is changing: Ynsect has raised more funding than the entire alternative insect protein sector globally. The alternative protein market is predicted to be worth $8bn by 2030, so needless to say, it's a portfolio company that we're very excited about!"
Infarm
InfarmCited by: Matus Maar, cofounder and managing partner at Talis Capital
In the Talis portfolio? No
Total raised: $305 million
What it does: "By placing micro-farms inside consumer-facing locations like supermarkets and restaurants, Infarm enables consumers to pick and purchase the freshest produce, virtually eliminating the lengthy supply chains that typically accompany these products."
Why it's hot in 2020: "It's a revolutionary approach to farming and it's one that I can really see appealing to increasingly eco-conscious city dwellers."
Spire
Cited by: Rob Desborough, partner at Seraphim Capital's Space Fund
In the Seraphim portfolio? Yes
Total raised: $200 million
What it does: "Weather disrupts 70% of businesses worldwide and costs more than $600 billion each year in the US alone. Climate change has a big impact on global business operations. Spire addresses these challenges and provides data and forecasts to help reduce operational risks and transform weather variability into a competitive advantage."
Why it's hot in 2020: "Their current five-day weather forecast they believe is more accurate than government agencies' three-day forecast which provides a significant commercial advantage in areas like insurance and financial services."
Sust
SustCited by: Rob Desborough, partner at Seraphim Capital's Space Fund
In the Seraphim portfolio? No
Total raised: Undisclosed
What it does: "Sust has built a platform that addresses the last mile and provides real insight on climate risk built for the specific needs of asset managers within financial services. The end customer doesn't need to build their own team of data scientists to interpret the data."
Why it's hot in 2020: "The team is uniquely positioned to do this given their expertise at some of the world's leading Earth observation companies, such as Planet and Orbital Insight."