December Week 2, 2022: In this monthly series, we highlight 5 climate tech startups to watch by featuring the incredible startups, companies, or projects that are leading the fight against the climate crisis.
Each month, we add these startups to our running list, which we have categorized based on fuel emission sector data from the most detailed, recent data SBC could identify from the World Resource Institute in 2016.
This initiative from Startup Basecamp aims to support founders by giving them access to networking and exposure opportunities that help them to scale and finance their climate tech solutions.
Do not hesitate to join our collective movement by requesting your membership.
With care,
Guillaume and the SBC TEAM,
Energy use in transport
1. BunkerTrace
Founded:
2019 – Deddington, UK
Founders:
Deanna MacDonald
Elevator Pitch:
BunkerTrace tracks and traces bunker fuel to bring total clarity to the origin, sustainability and verification of maritime fuels.
Problem they solve:
The world’s 15 largest ships produce more SOx and SO2 emissions than every car combined. As globalization continues, shipping emissions will increase 20% by 2050.
Impact:
We work to enable the transition to a decarbonised future of shipping by providing commercially viable traceability solutions for low-emission fuels, making these fuels the natural choice for ship owners.
Stage:
Seed
Interested in BunkerTrace?
To learn more about their technology or get in touch, see here.
Industry
2. Airthium
Founded:
2016 – Les-Loges-en-Josas, France
Founders:
Franck Lahaye and Andrei Klochko
Elevator Pitch:
We build heat engines that allow the industry and the electrical grid to stop polluting at scale in a cost-effective way to decarbonize the planet.
Problem they solve:
Industrial heat is a major polluter representing ~22% of worldwide CO2 emissions.
Our engine is built to replace fossil-fired industrial steam boilers and dryers by a low-cost, fully electric alternative, in the form of high temperature heat pumps.
Impact:
We plan to decarbonize industrial heat between 160 and 500°C (3%), and then electric power generation (30%), using our breakthrough heat engine.
By replacing fossil-fired industrial steam boilers and dryers and to also replace gas-fired peaker power plants has the potential to prevent one third of worldwide direct CO2 emissions, or more than 12 Gt/year.
Stage:
Seed
Interested in Airthium?
If you are interested in learning more, see here.
Agriculture, Forestry, and Land Use
3. Hortiya
Founded:
2020 – Berlin, Germany
Leadership:
Marc Weimer-Hablitzel and Timo Hoffmann
Elevator Pitch:
Hortiya’s mission is to revolutionize indoor farming by leveraging innovative sensor technology combined with our unique GreenHouse AI.
Problem they solve:
Hortiya develops AI as a service (AIaaS) and plant-centric technologies for highly efficient autonomous greenhouses.
Impact:
Hortiya has developed a unique sensor feedback loop that measures the photosynthetic activity and wellbeing of plants and controls our spectrum adjustable (SVL) supplemental greenhouse grow light, saving up to 30% energy and reducing CO2 emissions.
Stage:
Seed
Interested in Hortiya?
To learn more about this company, see here.
4. Gentian
Founded:
2020 – London, UK
Founders:
Daniel White, Thomas Fenal, and Dusty Gedge
Elevator Pitch:
We have a unique way of monitoring biodiversity using remote sensing to help businesses and governments understand nature quickly.
Problem they Solve:
There is currently a major biodiversity crisis, with many species in decline. Worse still, these known populations may represent as little as 20% of life on Earth; in some cases, we may not even know what we’re losing.
Impact:
Gentian provides a way to quickly and accurately assess biodiversity over wide areas.
Our software as a service uses a proprietary remote sensing system focused on vegetation – the best way to quickly assess the condition of an area – to identify its contribution to biodiversity.
Our work is quick, cost-effective, and conducted entirely remotely without loss of accuracy.
Stage:
Pre-Seed
Interested in Gentian?
If you are interested in learning more, see here.
Cross-cutting enablers
5. Briink
Location:
2021 – Berlin, Germany
Founder:
Samuel King and Tomas van der Heijden
Elevator Pitch:
We help private equity firms and companies automate EU Taxonomy and SFDR assessments with ease.
Problem They Solve:
Our technology helps you gather and analyze your sustainability and financial data, and draw out actionable insights for your company, loan portfolio, or Article 8 and Article 9 fund.
Impact:
Our SaaS platform will harness the scale of data and artificial intelligence to help companies navigate and implement sustainable finance frameworks including the EU Taxonomy, removing the significant cost and time barriers that are blocking them from achieving their climate neutrality objectives.
Stage:
Seed
Want to learn more about Briink?
To learn more about their technology or get in touch see here.
Do you know of other startups we should include in our Startups to Watch Series? Submit to our list!
How do these startups fit in with all the others we have looked at?
Check out our running list of the 350+ climate tech startups to watch we have featured.
