🗽 50+ New York ClimateTechs To Know

New York City is world-renowned for its financial, real estate, and media industries, and it’s also fast becoming a hotspot for cutting-edge Climate Techs.

• In May 2024, it became the first US metropolis to adopt climate budgeting

• $3.5B venture capital funding has flooded its climate tech sector since 2021

• In 2023, climate startups in NYC raised $664M in venture or growth funding

It’s also home to a vibrant ecosystem enabling impact startups, incubators, investors and operators to break new ground and fast track partnerships.

And a meeting place for these impact investors and mission-driven founders eye-ing global expansion and new markets.

Take last week for example, the City held its 16th annual Climate Week hosting over 600 events and activities for pioneers, investors, and visionaries to come together to forge new partnerships that will move the needle on climate change.

And it doesn’t end there, NYC is home to many events year-round, like the ClimateHack and FoodHack Meetups as well as the launchpad for the inaugural US HackSummit this December.

Good news, if you’re feeling those NY Blues or felt the FOMO last week, then come and join us at the HackSummit this December 12-13th. You’ll be joining 500+ attendees across Climate Deep Tech who share your energy to upend the future of our planet through Deep Tech.

But before we get together at the end of the year, who are the startups and scaleups in New York to know? And what’s it like to build their startup in the ‘City of Dreams’?

Scroll on for a list of 50+ NY-based Climate Startups and their insights on why NYC has every tool in its toolbox to be a Climate Hotspot.

Why build a ClimateTech in New York?

We caught up with six locals who have chosen NYC as their startup / VCs home and so we got their take on building a DeepTech startup in the big apple.

An Environment for Success

"To truly succeed in ClimateTech, the key is building solutions that ultimately win on performance, price, and scalability. It’s only by achieving this that we can drive meaningful change for our planet. New York provides a unique environment for tackling these challenges, with access to world-class talent, diverse markets, and creative capital," notes Ron Zori of Essential Capital.

“The ability to experiment is crucial for driving innovation in climate solutions. Partnering with a NYC nonprofit to advance our carbon capture solution granted us vital access to water space, significantly expediting our research when compared to the traditional permitting process, which would have taken over two years to obtain, says Adam Ornstein of Fiora Mara.

Epicenter for Climate Deep Tech

"New York has such an energy for action - the community of people across policy, industry, science, and manufacturing is highly unified when it comes to climate. I've been able to bring together such a great network in this city thanks to frequent events, and of course, the ever famous Climate Week where everyone descends upon our town to discuss sustainability. If I ever need a question asked, help on a project, or a favor, I have someone to call on that can get it done. Not only that, but the city itself is catalyzing climate deployments and projects. Between the Navy Yard, Governor's Island, and Roosevelt Island there are multiple sites where hard tech founders can test and pilot their tech, and numerous programs through NYSERDA that provide funding and services to startups. I think New York is quickly becoming the epicenter of climate hard tech," reveals Marissa Beatty of Turnover Labs.

“Over just the past few years, NYC has done a great job of positioning itself as a hub for climate tech acceleration. Policy (like CLCPA and Local Law 97), programs (like the Activate NY Fellowship and Urban-X), and city-supported resources (like the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Trust for Governors Island NY Climate Exchange) have put together all the right pieces to help companies like Vycarb go from 0 to 60 quickly - which is exactly what ClimateTech needs,“ notes Garett Boudinot of Vycarb.

"New York is a place of unique opportunity for climate tech startups. Here, capital, talent, and purpose converge, allowing companies like Synonym to scale breakthrough technologies," adds Edward Shenderovich of Synonym.

Exceptional Talent Pool

“We are proud to be building a world-class biotechnology company in the heart of the Flatiron District. We’ve been lucky to tap into the incredible talent pool and to be surrounded by the unique energy of the city, which motivates the team every day as we work to commercialize novel food ingredients that will transform nutrition,” shares Laura Katz of Helaina.

“The same diversity in people’s backgrounds and ways of thinking combined with seemingly limitless resources and opportunities that make New York the global hub for industries like the arts and finance serve as tailwinds for the burgeoning ClimateTech space as well. If you know where to look and how to harness the energy of the city, the sky is the limit,” adds Benjamin Rubin of SnoFox Sciences.

Unrivalled Networking

"As a spinoff startup from New York University, we are excited to witness the burgeoning climate sector in NYC. The increasing number of stakeholders in this space is truly encouraging. We’re particularly enthusiastic about the incredible networking opportunities that this vibrant location offers," says Conrad Caviezel of Heliotrope Photonics.

Run This Town

“Urban climate solutions die, if they can’t ever graduate from your deck or lab. New York City recognized this and created the Climate Innovation Pilot Program, the first official program that allows startups to use city assets to validate their technology to scale. We’re incredibly proud that it’s electric’s early work with NYC/EDC became in fact “pilot zero” for this program,” highlights Tiya Gordon of it’s electric.

Aligned Ambitions

“With the New York State goal to have 100% new car sales as electric vehicles by 2035, Voltpost is charging ahead to provide reliable and convenient public charging access. With a shared mission, the Voltpost team has been supported by New York agencies from concept to commercialization. Voltpost participated in the NYSERDA Venture For ClimateTech and Scale For ClimateTech accelerators managed by SecondMuse, and has piloted the Voltpost lamppost retrofit charging platform with New York City Department of Transportation, ConEd, and Newlab. Our team is currently completing the site assessment process to deploy the Voltpost platform across New York State so drivers across all communities have the confidence to transition from gas to electric,” details Jeff Prosserman of Voltpost.

Let’s take a look at the homegrown or local talents making waves in ClimateTech

Agriculture

🥬 Bowery Farming
Founder: Irving Fain
What: Designing and building smart indoor environments to reimagine the future of food.

🌱 Gotham Greens
Co-Founder: Viraj Puri
What: Producing and delivering long-lasting and delicious leafy greens, herbs, salad dressings, dips and cooking sauces all year round to retail, restaurant and foodservice customers.

🌾 Re-Nuble
Founder: Tinia Pina
Total Funding: +$8million
What: Using organic cycling science™ technology to transform unrecoverable vegetative food byproducts into a platform of sustainable technologies for soilless farming.

🥗 Square Roots
CEO: Tobias Peggs
What: An indoor farming platform built to accelerate agricultural research in the face of climate change.

🧬 Quorum Bio
Founder: Sudharsan Dwaraknath
What: Engineering the crop microbiome for climate-smart farming.

Carbon 

💦 Arbon
Founder: Xiaoyang Shi
What: Using the humidity-swing method to capture CO2 when dry and releasing it concentrated when wet—eliminating the need for additional heat.

🌪️ CapCO2 Solutions
CEO: Jeff Bonar
What: Delivering local sourcing solutions to decarbonise the manufacturing / production process by substituting the typical fossil-CO2 by biogenic CO2, a carbon neutral alternative.

☁️ Cella
Co-Founders: Corey Pattison and Claire Nelson
Latest Funding: $3.3 million
What: Transforming carbon emissions into underground rock for safe, natural, and permanent carbon removal.

🌊 Fiora Mara
Founder: Adam Ornstein and Sunny Lad
What: Exploring ways to scale sinking seaweed in the open ocean as a form of carbon sequestration and to monetize it as a nature-based carbon removal business.

💨 Genvision
Co-Founders: Emiel Cockx and Wout Stienaers
What: Measuring CO2 removal in nature by analyzing satellite images with AI.

⚡️ Loa Carbon
Founder: Ryan Shearman
What: Scaling up our e-NG manufacturing technology so to begin supplying the energy and transportation sectors.

🌊 Vycarb
Founder: Garett Boudinot
What: Enabling fully-measured, low-cost and permanent marine carbon dioxide removal and storage.

Energy

⛽️ Aircela
Co-Founders: Eric Dahlgren and Mia Dahlgren
What: Creating an affordable carbon neutral alternative to fossil fuels.

💚 Ambient Fuels
Founder: Jacob Susman
What: Pioneering custom-engineered green hydrogen solutions to tackle tough decarbonization challenges. 

🔌 Amogy
Co-Founders: Young Suk Jo, Seonghoon Woo and Jongwon Choi
Funding: $220 million
What: Decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors with mature, scalable, and efficient ammonia-to-power solutions.

⚡ Tierra Climate
Co-Founders: Emma Konet and Jacob Mansfield
What: Accelerating grid-scale battery deployment by unlocking and monetizing grid decarbonization services. 

💥 Canyon Magnet Energy
Founder: Honghai Song 
What: Expediting the realization of fusion energy.

☀️ Heliotrope Photonics
Co-Founders: Conrad Caviezel and Minh Tran
What: Developing an innovative coating that transforms the sunlight to enhance solar panel performance. 

💥 Nano Nuclear Energy
Founder: Jay Yu
What: Developing “ZEUS”, a solid core battery reactor, and “ODIN”, a low-pressure coolant reactor, each representing advanced developments in clean energy solutions that are portable, on-demand capable, advanced nuclear microreactors.

🔋Terrament
Founder: Eric Chaves
What: Building low-cost, long-duration energy storage using underground gravity batteries.

Food

⭕️ Afterlife Mushrooms
Co-Founder: Winson Wong and Ryan Freed
What: A circular farm that turns food scraps into fresh, local, sustainable mushrooms.

🍄 Fable Foods
Co-Founder: Michael Fox and Jim Fuller
Funding: $8.5 million
What: Making delicious meaty food from shiitake mushrooms and all natural ingredients.

🧬 Helaina
Founder: Laura Katz
Latest Funding: $45 million
What: A biotech company pushing the boundaries of what food can do for health.

🥓 My Forest Foods
Co-Founder: Eben Bayer
What: Their flagship product, MyBacon is the first of many plant-based, clean-label, mycelium-grown eats.

🥗 Phood 
CEO: Luc Dang
What: Using computer vision and powerful data processing to automate food waste tracking for retail grocers and prepared food operations.

🧀 Pleese Cheese
Co-Founders: Kobi Regev and Abev Samain-Regev
Stage: Seed
What: Helping people transition from traditional dairy with Pleese, a plant-based cheese made from a unique blend of beans.

🥯 Stockeld Dreamery
Founder: Sorosh Tavakoli
What: Using science and technology we aim to develop plant based food alternatives for the masses that are tastier and more nutritious.

Home Decarbonization

🏠️ Hydronic Shell Technologies
Founder: David Goldstein
What: Transforming buildings with a facade-integrated HVAC technology for cost-effective and non-invasive retrofits

🔥 Kelvin
Founder: Marshall Cox
Latest Funding: $30 million
What: Reducing wasted energy, saves money, and enables pinpoint temperature control for apartments in legacy buildings.

🧮 Nantum AI
CEO: Gary Chance
What: Enabling buildings to hit energy targets via real time and predictive data as well as intelligent recommendations to save energy, reduce carbon emissions, and lower costs.

🏡 Sealed
Founders: Lauren Salz and Andy Frank
Latest Funding: $31 million
What: On a mission to stop home energy waste by enabling contractors to install more home weatherization and electrification projects and grow their businesses.

🤖 Renovate Robotics
Founder: Andy Stulc
What: Working on construction automation, starting with roofing

🏛️ Thalo Labs
Founder: Brendan Hermalyn
What: Modular hardware and software systems to help buildings measure, reduce and capture GreenHouseGas emissions for permanent storage.

Manufacturing

🛢️C16 Biosciences
Co-Founders: Shara Ticku, David Heller and Harry McNamara
What: Producing high-performance biodesigned ingredients for the personal care, home care, and food industries.

🧪 InFLOWS AI
Founder: Abdou Kane
What: A chemistry applications in the development of daily use consumer essentials with the goal of safer, more sustainable products from leading manufacturers.

🔬 Kingdom Supercultures
Founder: Kendall Dabaghi
Latest Funding: $25 million
What: Designing natural microbial cultures that deliver exciting new flavors, preservation abilities, and functional benefits.

❄️ SnoFox Sciences
Co-Founders: Benjamin Rubin and Matthew Rubin
What: Providing analytics focused on increasing efficiency and decreasing energy usage for the cold industrial space with no additional hardware required.

🔍 Synonym
Co-Founders: Joshua Lachter and Edward Shenderovich
Latest Funding: $6.3 million
What: Building and scaling infrastructure enabling the commercialization and manufacture of bioproducts.

🧪 Turnover Labs
Founder: Marissa Beatty
What: Building the world's more durable electrolyzers that can withstand the harsh conditions and impurities found in industry. 

Materials

👕 Bloom Labs
Co-Founders: Simardev Gulati and Richard Freundlich 
What: Accelerating the world’s transition to a circular economy, by developing next-gen alternatives to fibers and plastics.

🍄 Ecovative
Co-Founder: Eben Bayer 
Latest Funding: $28 million
What: Using mycelium to grow category defining products ranging from leather like textiles to sustainable packaging to high performance foams for apparel and beauty. 

🪡 Kintra Fibers
Co-Founders: Alissa Baier-Lentz and Billy McCal
Latest Funding: $8 million
What: Developing a proprietary bio-based and biodegradable polyester.

🧱 Ouros Materials
Founder: Teresa Liu 
What: Building carbon-negative building materials and products.

👕 SXD
Founder: Shelly Xu
Funding: $925K
What: Turning fashion brands' leftover/wasted textiles into beautiful and efficient zero waste clothing using patent-pending AI.

🧶 TômTex Inc
Co-Founders: Uyen Tran, Ross McBee and Atom Nguyen
Total Funding: $4.15 million
What: Developing a cutting-edge platform technology for creating sustainable textiles sourced directly from waste materials, not fossil fuels.

🧵 UNCAGED Innovations
Founder: Stephanie Downs
Latest Funding: $5.6 million 
What: A biomaterials start-up developing next-generation performance materials to replace bovine and exotic leather.  

🐑 Werewool
Co-Founders: Chiu-Lian Lee and Valentina Gomez
Latest Funding: $3.7 million
What: Biomaterials with tailored aesthetic and performance properties.

Transport

🛩️ AIR COMPANY
Co-Founder: Staff Sheehan
Latest Fundraise: $69 million
What: Paving a pathway to global decarbonization by transforming CO₂ into endless resources via industrial scale applications.

🚲 CLIP
Co-Founders: Clement De Alcala and Som Ray
What: Building the world’s first instant e-bike upgrade.

🚗 Gravity
Founder: Moshe Cohen
What: Building cutting-edge software and hardware that governs the flow of electricity between vehicles and the grid.

🔌 it’s electric
Founder: Tiya Gordon 
Latest Funding: $6.5 million
What: Bringing curbside EV charging to cities across the U.S. and advance the adoption of electric vehicles.

🛞 Voltpost
Co-Founders: Luke Mairo, Jörn Vicari and Jeff Prosserman
Total Funding: $8.6 million
What: On a mission to decarbonize mobility by democratizing charging access, by retrofitting lampposts into a modular electric vehicle charging platform.