🌎 Is Impact Losing its Meaning?

Impact is fast becoming one of the most overused words in climate, cropping up across pitch decks, portfolio strategies, mission statements and more. But for all its visibility, the term ‘impact’ often lacks a clear definition.

At its best, it means outcomes that matter: emissions cut, materials reimagined, systems transformed. At its worst, it’s a stand-in for good intentions without evidence.

So what do we actually mean when we talk about impact? And where is capital flowing?

Even over the past 6 summer weeks, when deal flow usually slows, here at Hack we tracked 65 funding rounds by climate startups - a sign that investors are still keen to back ventures driving measurable change.

To dig deeper into how impact is defined, assessed and acted upon, we caught up with 12 seasoned investors to hear what it means to be an impact investor and how this influences their thesis in today’s climate landscape.

Plus we reveal 8 impact Founders who will join us at the HackSummit this December in New York, having raised over $110M between them.

Let’s jump right in.

In this week’s edition:

• 65 Latest Funding Rounds in Climate

• 12 Funders Define Impact Investing

• 8 Impact Founders at HackSummit

• 8 Days to Lock in Super Early Bird

💰$1Bn for Impact Investing

With over $1Bn AuM (Assets under Management) between them, we caught up with Fund Managers, GPs and Climate Investors at 12 leading Climate Funds to hear how they define and deploy ‘impact investing’ in the real world.

Inside, they unpack what dual impact really looks like, how efficiency shapes scale and when financial return aligns with climate upside.

If you want to understand how climate capital is evolving, and hear direct from leading impact investors, start here.

Get inside the minds of 12 VCs, Foundations and PE Funds: Adapt [us] Capital, AENU, Almi Invest GreenTech, Biotope Ventures, Buoyant Ventures, Deep Science Ventures, Eka Ventures, Fondation Valery, InnoEnergy, Marvelous, Norrsken VC and Swisscanto

🔦 Impact Founders in the Spotlight

The HackSummit will showcase Founders tackling hard infrastructure for climate and resource resilience, each building keystone systems with measurable impact.

Spanning energy, minerals, oceans, food and weather, the timing could not be better, as ongoing supply chain shocks create strong demand for deployable solutions, these Founders and their teams are uniquely positioned to meet it:

 🌐 Alfred Johnson of Crux - Scaling the capital markets platform for clean energy and manufacturing.

🌎 Ted Feldmann of Durin - Automating the future of mineral discovery by building and operating automated drill rigs.

⚓️ Sampriti Bhattacharyya of Navier - Building zero-emission marine vessels, which drastically reduce operational costs, and enable clean, scalable, waterborne transport.

⛏️ Roman Teslyuk of EARTH AI - Reinventing how we discover and extract critical minerals, using AI to make exploration faster, cheaper, and more sustainable.

🌧️ Augustus Doricko of Rainmaker - Using autonomous drones to seed clouds and deliver rainfall exactly where it’s needed, unlocking on-demand weather.

🦠 Liz Dennett of Endolith - Mining with microbes to access resources in extreme environments without the heavy footprint of traditional extraction.

🪸 Will O’Brien of Ulysses - Developing advanced ocean robotics to monitor, protect, and restore fragile marine ecosystems.

🥙 Hadar Ekhoiz Razmovich of Meala - Creating clean-label meat alternatives with functional ingredients that mimic meat without additives or compromise.

🎟️ T-8: Lock in your Super Early Bird Ticket

Super Early Bird tickets are now on sale at just USD $360. But for just 8 more days.

Yes, all good things must come to an end, so lock in your pass today and look forward to 2 of your most productive days of 2025.

There are a limited number of tickets per category to ensure the ideal mix of 35% Founders, 35% Funders, 20% Corporates and 10% Ecosystem, let’s make sure you’re in the room, at the best rate.

Whether you’re looking to find your next deal, discover fresh talents or get the inside track on what’s new and next, we’d love to see you at the next edition of the HackSummit this December 10-11th.

Mark your calendar and come and join us at Newlab to be part of the conversations shaping climate and DeepTech’s future.

We look forward to seeing you in New York.

Laura at Hack

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