20 Overlooked Climate Technologies

What if the most powerful climate solutions were hiding in plain sight?

From water analytics to grid cybersecurity, a growing number of technologies could unlock massive climate, economic, and social gains, but they remain critically underfunded.

While billions pour into solar, EVs, and carbon removal, many of the highest-impact, ready-to-scale tools are still waiting for their moment.

We asked 20 climate investors where capital is most urgently needed next.

Their answers reveal a clear pattern: overlooked categories with massive abatement potential, strong co-benefits, and untapped market models.

From AI-powered water dashboards to methane-busting rice tech, ocean alkalinity enhancement for carbon removal and scaling up industrial biomanufacturing with engineered microbes, here’s where 10X more capital should be going, according to investors writing the checks.

Hear from 20 Leading Investors

Securing the Grid

Steffen Reinecke at eCAPITAL VC

“Cybersecurity for energy infrastructure is vastly underfunded, despite being critical to the climate transition. 

As grids digitalize and decentralize, they become more vulnerable: from smart meters to EV chargers, every connected node can be exploited. In 2023, breaches in critical energy infrastructure averaged $5.1M, with U.S. utilities seeing a 70% surge in attacks and downtime costs reaching $125,000/hour. 

The IEA states: ‘Cyber risk is climate risk.’ Europe’s shift toward resilience reflects a broader regulatory trend: we must invest in systems that absorb and recover from attacks. Startups building resilient OT/IT architectures deserve 10x more investment not after the next blackout, but now.”

Banking on Adaptation

Desiree Pettersson at Satgana

"As we have lived another summer of back-to-back heatwaves in Europe, with far-reaching negative impacts on human health, productivity, supply chains, and more, it's becoming increasingly clear that climate adaptation solutions allowing people, businesses, and governments to prepare, respond to, and recover from the risks and impacts of climate change have to be developed and prioritised next to climate mitigation solutions.

Thus, it is a much-welcomed development that climate adaptation solutions are finally stepping out of the shadows and receiving more attention from investors - roughly a quarter of climate tech funding went to adaptation solutions in 2024 according to PwC, up from single-digit figures just a few years ago.

That said, given the urgency of the issue and that being proactive, rather than reactive, will be cheaper in the long run, I would still argue that the space is largely overlooked by many investors. I believe this is partly because climate mitigation solutions are more straightforward - they can more easily be linked to measurable environmental KPIs - while identifying truly bankable and scalable climate adaptation solutions with a clear direct environmental impact and willingness to pay remains challenging. 

So I think it’s high time for founders and investors to come together and think about creative business models, go-to-market strategies, and products that different stakeholders will be willing to pay for as climate impacts continue to grow." 

Building Out Industrial Biomanufacturing

Duc Pham at Earth Venture Capital

“Industrial biomanufacturing - where engineered microbes turn sugars or CO₂ into fuels, chemicals, polymers, and fibers - is massively underfunded. It drew only $7B in private capital last year, less than 1% of what flowed into EVs and solar.

Yet McKinsey values the market at $2T, with the potential to cut over one gigaton of CO₂-equivalent annually.

A tenfold boost in investment could unlock fermentation gigafactories, drive costs below petrochemical alternatives, convert agricultural waste into valuable feedstocks, and build low-carbon, regionally resilient supply chains.”

Cool Tech in a Hot Market

Edward van der Hout at Rubio Impact Ventures

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, cooling. It’s fascinating how many heat pumps and thermal energy storage companies we see, and how few real innovations come up on the cooling side.

Between the grid, regulation and rising temperatures, Europe is a massive opportunity for all kinds of cooling startups. And we’re not alone - India is expected to add roughly its entire current peak energy demand in cooling loads alone by 2040 - and that stat precedes AI.”

The Rise of Tidal Power

Chloe Coates at Zero Carbon Capital

“Tidal power—clean, predictable, and now, affordable—has been sorely overlooked as a complement to intermittent wind and solar, in favour of sexier but more expensive alternatives like nuclear or geothermal.

Emerging tidal technologies have overcome past challenges of limited sites and ecological impacts, offering a higher capacity factor and modular assembly. Because water is over 800 times denser than air, the power density is higher than for wind, making it a low-cost, predictable power source whatever the weather or season.”

Resilient Mineral Supply

Nadav Steinmetz at Climate First

“The clean energy transition depends on lithium, nickel, cobalt, and other critical minerals, but the challenge isn’t just mining more. It’s turning raw materials into battery-grade inputs, and the up-stream part of the supply chain is still highly concentrated and dominated by China. 

Technologies like direct lithium extraction, cleaner refining, and recycling are critical to achieve localized and resilient supply chains.”

Trust-Driven Nature Tech

Myke Näf at Übermorgen Ventures

“NBS-enabling technologies - recent scandals around over-crediting and permanence issues have shaken confidence in nature-based solutions.

The solution isn't abandoning NBS - it's investing in the technology stack that makes them trustworthy: reliable sensing & monitoring, sound carbon quantification, automated verification, trustworthy accounting and robust financial product infrastructure.

These technologies transform NBS from opaque, controversy-prone projects into transparent, measurable assets that institutional capital can trust. The opportunity is massive both in terms of financial returns and climate impact.”

Invisible Water Crisis

Fernando Casado at Inclimo Climate Tech Fund

“Investment in hydric footprint AI tools Hydric-footprint analytics currently absorbs under 1 % only of all climate-tech investment even though water mis-management could slice 8 % off global GDP by 2050 and put half the world’s food supply at risk, says the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. 

Hydric-footprint analytics tackle this by showing companies, in real time, where every litre is used, wasted or discharged across their sites and supply chains. 

Dashboards fed by clip-on flow sensors or utility data flag leaks, over-cooling and “once-through” processes, letting managers cut water use by 10-30 % while trimming the energy and emissions tied to pumping and treatment. With regulators and investors beginning to demand water disclosures, these tools turn a looming compliance cost into instant savings and resilience.”

Grid-Enhancing Technologies

Svetlana Tokareva at UVC Partners

“Grid solutions receive only a single-digit share of climate-tech funding, despite being system-critical. Transmission congestion is already the main bottleneck for renewable adoption in the U.S. and Europe: if we can’t move green electrons, gigawatts of clean capacity remain idle.

Grid-Enhancing Technologies (GETs) address this by unlocking 30–40% more capacity on existing lines, accelerating renewable integration without a decade-long wait for new transmission.

For Europe, GETs mean greater energy security, reduced dependence on imports, lower curtailment, and a more resilient, flexible grid to support electrification and future shocks.”

AI for a Greener Grid

Borja Moreno at SilenceVC

“AI is poised to transform manufacturing. All the ingredients for an industrial AI breakout are in place:

1. Manufacturing is massive.
2. It’s a data goldmine, and AI is making the physical world machine-readable.
3. There are costly pain points that AI can address quickly.

Every step in the process presents an opportunity—from supply chain forecasting (upstream) to production scheduling (midstream) to defect analysis (downstream).”

Methane Matters Most

Emilie Abrams at The Yield Lab

“Demethanisation technologies are an underfunded but highly impactful investment case. Many high potential solutions already exist and are amongst the top solutions for GHG reduction vs. cost per McKinsey’s Marginal Abatement Cost Curve, but they lack funding and scale. 

These technologies include: animal feed additives that inhibit methane production in the rumen (e.g. Bovaer), manure slurry treatments (e.g.,Glasport Bio, or biodigesters BioNomad), and direct sowing technologies (e.g. Happy Seeder tool) for rice paddies. 

Agriculture accounts for 45% of global methane emissions which has 84x more warming potential than CO2 in the short term, primarily from enteric fermentation, manure, and rice cultivation.”

Photonics for Power

Frederik Hetsch at Audacy

“Photonic chips deserve 10x more investment due to their transformative potential in reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions, especially in data centers and AI computing, which are major energy users. These chips use light instead of electricity for data processing and transmission, enabling up to 10x lower power use and less heat generation.

They also enhance grid management, renewable energy efficiency, and environmental sensing. Despite their promise, photonic chip manufacturing is still costly and complex, requiring innovative integration of materials.

Scaling this tech can revolutionize clean energy infrastructure and data networks with lower carbon impact.”

Fixing Food Emissions

Steve Molino at Synthesis Capital

“One of the most under-appreciated climate solutions is the decoupling of protein production from industrial animal agriculture.

Facilitating the scale up of alternative protein solutions, such as plant-based, fermentation-derived, or cultivated ingredients, can slash GHG emissions, land use, and water consumption, while also reducing deforestation and supporting biodiversity.

Despite the major potential impact this shift could unlock, this space receives only a fraction of climate investment. Increasing investments in this area by 10x+ would help accelerate the scale up of these solutions required to address key inefficiencies and ensure climate resiliency in our food system.”

Industrial Efficiency

Anthony Del Porto at BetterWay

“General purpose industrial efficiency (more of a theme) needs 10x more investment. Industrial efficiency solutions can get to market quickly, have mind-boggling impact, and are totally overlooked.”

Shelf Life Revolution

Florent Nduwayezu at FP Capital

“Organic, plant-based sprays that extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables deserve 10x more investment. These natural solutions slow ripening and spoilage without refrigeration, reducing post-harvest losses and methane emissions from rotting produce. 

In regions like East Africa, where up to 40% of food is lost after harvest, this simple intervention can dramatically improve farmer incomes, food security, and climate outcomes. 

Safe enough to ingest and easy to apply, this category of low-cost preservation tech remains vastly underfunded despite its massive potential at the intersection of agriculture, climate, and livelihoods.”

Geoengineering Gap is Growing

Max Bray at Earth

“We need to spend a lot more time and effort talking about geo-engineering - everything from SAI/SRM, through cloud seeding, to solar sails.

We've so obviously blitzed through a number of planetary boundaries, temperatures are going bananas everywhere, yet this still remains a niche topic and one that is almost totally ignored by European investors.”

Feeding the Future

Bodil Sidén at Kost Capital

“Enabling food tech. We all need to eat - and in a time of climate change, health crisis and conflict we need to secure how we produce food. 

Developing and ensuring access to how we produce food in the future will be as bankable as climate crucial. With one third of the world's CO2 emissions, food needs urgent investment now.”

Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement

Sahaj Kumar at Counteract

“The ocean is a vast, dynamic, and complicated system, but has immense potential to durably store carbon (and already does!). There are many ways to leverage the ocean’s carbon system, but Ocean Alkalinity Enhancement (OAE) is one underfunded approach that has the promise of low cost carbon removal at scale, while also contributing to ocean de-acidification.

Strategic investment into MRV, field trials, and scalable deployment could help provide a ramp into responsible and meaningful CDR.”

Bridging the Grid Gap

Dinesh Ganesan at ArcTern Ventures

“While there continues to be promising innovation in this space, the grid deserves considerably more attention at the software and hardware level.

This is the one sector that will underpin our entire energy system and is the key bridge to large scale improvements in infrastructure.”

Thermoelectric is Taking Off

Abhi Desai at Desai Ventures

“Thermoelectric (TE) heat pumps deserve a 10× capital boost. They deliver reversible heating-cooling with no refrigerants—avoiding the high-GWP leaks that plague today’s HVAC.

Among solid-state options, TE is already market-ready: compact modules slot into existing walls, slash maintenance & installation costs (few moving parts, no certified gas engineers) and can be mass-produced like chips.

As European summers intensify yet legacy housing lacks cooling, TE retrofits can cut emissions and energy bills today. Early movers like Anzen Walls (London) and MIMic Systems (NYC) show the path, now let’s fund the scale-up.”

Meet the Climate Deep Tech Community IRL

Tickets to the upcoming HackSummit in New York (10-11th December) are selling fast.

500 industry mavericks and disruptors behind novel climate tech solutions are heading to New York at the end of 2025 for two days of networking and deal making across all things climate deep tech.

Ready to discover more? Head this way to see who’s speaking and what’s planned.