Climate Tech

Market Context

Climate tech is experiencing a structural financing upgrade, with Europe now leading global VC deployment — European VCs deployed $6.6B in Q1 2026, outpacing North America by 20% and tripling Asia's total. The sector is being pulled forward by two powerful demand signals: the global EV inflection point (1-in-4 cars sold in 2025 were electric, per IEA data) and the emergence of hyperscaler data centers as real-world commercialization proving grounds for advanced cooling, energy storage, and low-carbon materials. Capital is flowing across the full stack — from grid infrastructure and long-duration storage to carbon removal and spatial AI for land adaptation.

Investment Activity

• Cloover raised a $1.2B Series A, one of the largest-ever climate-tech Series A rounds globally.
• Low Carbon Materials raised a $1.5B Series A, anchored in the European surge that collectively drove 56.4% of Q1 European deal value across the top 3 deals.
• CMBlu Energy raised a $240M Series A led by RWE, SPRIND, European Innovation Council Fund, and Prime Movers Lab.
• Gradiant reached a $2B Series E valuation for its water-cooling infrastructure serving data centers.
• Climate First Bancorp raised $67M in a growth round co-led by Wellington Management and AllianceBernstein.
• Stride raised a $15M Series B led by Lightrock and TRIREC for Vietnamese rooftop solar financing.
• REPS GmbH raised $23.6M in a growth round for its road-embedded energy generation system deployed at the Port of Hamburg.
• Anode raised a $9M seed round led by Eclipse Ventures for on-demand mobile microgrids.
• Coolant raised a $4.3M seed round backed by General Catalyst and Floodgate for spatial AI-driven climate adaptation.
• Greenpixie raised a $26M Series B led by Two Seas Capital and Barclays Climate Ventures.
• Elemental Impact deployed $5M in program grants alongside Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Meta for its Data Center Climate Innovation Initiative.
• Convective Capital closed its $85M Fund II focused on wildfire tech.
• ZincFive was acquired by Spark I Acquisition Corp. for $600M.
• DCC accepted a £5.7B buyout bid from KKR and Energy Capital Partners.
• China Resources New Energy plans a $3.62B IPO in Shenzhen, which would be the largest-ever IPO on the exchange.

Key Players

• CMBlu Energy is a German deeptech company producing non-lithium Organic SolidFlow batteries capable of discharging 2–3x longer per cycle than lithium-ion, backed by a $240M Series A from RWE and Prime Movers Lab.
• Cloover is a German renewable energy startup that raised a landmark $1.2B Series A, signaling European institutional confidence in distributed clean energy.
• Gradiant is a water-cooling infrastructure company for data centers that achieved a $2B Series E valuation, sitting at the intersection of AI infrastructure and climate tech.
• Elemental Impact is a Honolulu-based nonprofit whose 160-company portfolio has catalyzed over $11.8B in follow-on funding and whose DCII initiative counts Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft as co-funders.
• REPS GmbH is an Austrian startup with a patented road-embedded hydraulic system commercially deployed at the Port of Hamburg, converting vehicle traffic into clean electricity.

Market Signals

• Europe deployed $6.6B in climate-tech VC in Q1 2026 — 20% more than North America and more than triple Asia's Q1 total, marking the first time Europe has led global climate-tech VC.
• RWE and SPRIND each participated in 4 deals in the past 28 days, making them the most active climate-tech investors by deal count in the period.
• The data center–climate tech nexus is hardening: Gradiant ($2B valuation), Elemental Impact's DCII (backed by all four major hyperscalers), and Exowatt (A16Z-backed solar for data centers) all signal a convergence theme.
• Long-duration storage is attracting outsized rounds: CMBlu Energy's $240M Series A and the $1.5B round for Low Carbon Materials both represent bets on infrastructure-grade climate solutions.
• Global ICE car sales peaked in 2017, per IEA and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and 25% of cars sold in 2025 were electric — confirming an S-curve EV adoption pattern that is unlocking downstream opportunities in grid storage and battery repurposing (e.g., Moment Energy).
• Vietnam emerged as an active geography with Stride's $15M Series B for rooftop solar financing, backed by international climate-focused VCs Lightrock and TRIREC.