May Week 4, 2023: 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.
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With care,
Guillaume and the SBC TEAM
Cross-cutting enablers
Founded:
2020 – Melbourne, Victoria
Founders:
Shoaib Iqbal and Przemyslaw Lorenczak
Elevator Pitch:
Esper Satellite Imagery, a space startup specializing in the design of satellites capable of hyperspectral imagery.
Problem they solve:
Traditional methods capture data limited by the bandwidths accessible by the technology employed, namely Multispectral Imagery. This generally consists of 5-10 bands or relatively large bandwidths (70-400 nm) in the electromagnetic spectrum, including infrared and visible light. On the other hand, Hyperspectral Imagery consists of hundreds of bands and in much narrower bandwidths (5-10 nm).
Data captured can be used to identify materials and their composition. Identification is possible as each reacts differently at different wavelengths, giving a unique spectral signature. Hyperspectral Imagery advances the accuracy of identification and range of materials detected as data encompasses a wider range of bands.
Impact:
Esper is making hyperspectral imagery data available in real-time. A total of 18 satellites in Esper’s constellation will capture and deliver earth’s observation daily. Our industry partners can gather data for any specific area of interest around the world, no matter the size.
Stage:
Seed
Interested in Esper Satellite Imagery?
To learn more about their technology or get in touch, see here.
Energy use in Industry and Buildings
2. Infyos
Founded:
2021 – London, UK
Founders:
Sarah Montgomery
Elevator Pitch:
Take control of your battery supply chain.
Problem they solve:
The battery supply chain is one of the most complex and high risk, with multiple players from miner to manufacturer to car maker spread out across the globe.
Impact:
Infyos helps leading supply chain players – from battery makers to car makers to renewable infrastructure providers – overcome the challenge of opaque and high-risk supply chains through visibility, risk identification and effective action on the ground.
Stage:
Seed
Interested in Infyos?
If you are interested in learning more, see here.
GHG Capture, Use, and Storage
Founded:
2021 – New York, USA
Founders:
Ryan Anderson and Aranzazu Carmona Orbezo
Elevator Pitch:
Making clean hydrogen and direct air capture affordable together.
Problem they solve:
The world needs to scale up carbon removal to the gigaton-level in parallel with deep decarbonization as fast as possible. According to the IPCC’s AR6, “if global net negative CO2 emissions were to be achieved and be sustained, the global CO2-induced surface temperature increase would be gradually reversed.” Simply put, net-negative CO2 ends global warming.
Impact:
Para‖‖el Carbon is developing the world’s most affordable direct air capture (DAC) process, relying only on water, wind, sunshine, and abundant minerals. Our technology fits seamlessly into a net-zero world, avoids increasing demand for fossil fuel extraction, and operates economically with intermittent renewable power. Importantly, its scalability enables profitable, gigaton-scale carbon removal, improves grid decarbonization economics, and promotes a circular economy.
Their process delivers cost-effective carbon management by combining geomimicry with electrochemistry. Many of Earth’s minerals (and organic matter) readily sequester CO2, but these systems are too limited by speed or scale to handle the excessive amounts of CO2 humans are injecting into the air. Para‖‖el Carbon enhances and accelerates ancient mineral reactions with modern electrochemical processing to solve the speed and scale challenge.
Stage:
Seed
Want to learn more about Parallel Carbon?
To learn more about their technology or get in touch see here.
Energy use in Industry and Buildings
Founded:
2021 – Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Leadership:
Kamelia Giles, Matt Desroches, and Donny Bobocel
Elevator Pitch:
Innova’s vision is to develop zero-emission, clean energy technologies to produce carbon-free hydrogen energy and high-quality, high-demand by-products.
Problem they solve:
Global demand for energy is increasing. Historically, hydrocarbons have been the world’s primary energy source. However, the negative effect of utilizing hydrocarbon fuels, where carbon is released into the atmosphere, has created the need to find an environmentally cleaner source of energy without the release of pollutants.
As a result, a new hydrogen economy has emerged whereby hydrogen can be used to store and deliver clean, usable energy. Existing methods for producing hydrogen, however, are costly and require water and/or oxygen in their production process, carbon capture and sequestration, or both.
Impact:
Innova’s revolutionary, proprietary HIP™ technology converts naturally abundant hydrocarbons into clean hydrogen and valuable forms of solid carbon with zero water and oxygen inputs and zero carbon emissions. This means lower production costs and an environmentally friendly energy solution.
Stage:
Pre-seed
Interested in Innova Hydrogen?
To learn more about this company, see here
Waste (water & landfills)
5. Re Company
Founded:
2019 – New York, USA
Founder:
Madeline Honingford and Maurice Landers
Elevator Pitch:
Re Company provide end-to-end reusable packaging as a service, supplying reuse systems with optimally designed containers and cycling them back into our supply chain at end of life.
Problem they solve:
There is a common perception that recycling is the best solution to single-use packaging waste but in reality only about 2% of packaging is ever effectively recycled. In fact, according to the waste hierarchy, which evaluates the efficacy of resources, circular, reuse-based systems can reduce waste up to 98%.
In reuse systems packaging is used hundreds of times instead of once, and is an alternative to disposable containers around the world. But this still begs the question, what is the most sustainable material reusable packaging can be made from? At Re Company we set out to answer this question because as producers of these products we need to make the smartest decision possible.
Impact:
Under this PaaS model, you have an obligation to return the products once they have reached their End of Useful Life. Re Company will retrieve the products from you once they have reached the End of Useful Life. These products will then be recycled properly and/or introduced back into our supply chain when it makes sense to do so. When products reach their End of Useful Life, you agree to aggregate such products at your facility in one location per city.
Stage:
Pre-seed
Interested in Re Company?
If you are interested in learning more, 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 400+ climate tech startups to watch we have featured.
