💵 56 US-Based CVCs Backing ClimateTech

Corporate venture capital has become a critical driver of climate innovation in the US.

While traditional VCs often grab the spotlight, the strategic arms of Fortune 500 companies are moving billions into clean energy, carbon tech, mobility, food systems, and beyond.

Their advantage lies in more than capital: they bring market access, infrastructure, and scale, often providing startups with a faster route to commercialization.

In the US, a growing network of corporate investors is placing bets on the technologies that could define the next industrial era.

Below, we’ve compiled 56 CVCs that every founder, funder, and climate operator should know.

But first, let’s hear from 6 investors:

“CVCs and startup partnerships are essential for speeding up climate tech deployment. Beyond capital, CVCs bring infrastructure and access to industry experts who can share on-the-ground insight into the challenges corporations are actively trying to solve. The value is in striking the balance — investing in technologies with the potential to shape the industry’s future, while also learning from startups to gain new perspective,” says Alexandra Iljadica, Investor at BHP Ventures

"Climate Tech needs patient capital. Regardless of market cycles, it’s important to be structured for the long term to provide the stability to grow critical technologies from lab scale to planetary scale. This philosophy allows Toyota Ventures to keep our heads when others are losing theirs and, to follow Warren Buffett’s advice, be greedy when others are fearful,” adds Jim Adler, Founder & General Partner at Toyota Ventures

“CVCs have an unparalleled ability to open doors. Unlike traditional VCs, we’re embedded within industries that ClimateTech startups seek to transform.  We can provide access to customers, supply chains, infrastructure, and technical validation that could otherwise take years to secure. Even the “small stuff” – like a procurement referral or a workaround for an out-of-stock component – can make a big difference in startup success,” notes Ginger Rothrock, Senior Director at HG Ventures

“Startups bring an immense amount of passion and energy towards their innovative, world-changing ideas but can sometimes find themselves challenged to find the right product-market fit. One of the major benefits a CVC can provide is to connect startups with internal expertise within their corporation to help provide meaningful feedback to the startup based on decades of technology, market, and/or customer experience in a relevant industry.  

While every CVC-startup interaction will not result in a production contract, the feedback and guidance provided via a CVC can help a startup to refine their approach and result in these innovative solutions getting to market sooner and starting to make a positive impact on the world,” explains Jordan Turk, Technology Director at Allison Ventures

“CVCs bring not just capital - they bring resources, reach, and knowledge to help early-stage companies scale their technologies and deliver real-world impact. The true mission of CVCs is to help startups overcome the ‘valley of death’ between piloting and large-scale commercialization. It’s not easy - bringing together small and large companies is complex and not for the faint of heart. But when it works, it drives innovation and helps build a sustainable future. That’s where the magic happens,” adds Sivan Zamir, Vice President, Innovation and Ventures at Xylem

“CVCs play a pivotal role in the creation of food and climate-related innovation. They do this by providing not just funding, but also access to industry expertise, markets, infrastructure, regulatory support, and support to mitigate risk. CVCs can help early-stage companies accelerate from breakthrough ideas to creating global impact. The CVCs bring to the relationship a focus on corporate strategy and the ability to commercialise. The early-stage companies bring innovation and an entrepreneurial mind-set to the corporate world, paving the way for symbiotic partnerships. 

Nourish Ventures takes this approach with the partners in its portfolio. This can help them create scalable, commercially-viable innovation in a way that has a positive impact on both people’s lives and the planet,” concludes Simon Burton, Managing Director at Nourish Ventures

Discover all 56 CVCs investing in ClimateTech

Nigel Carr, Director at Acario

About: The Silicon Valley-based CVC and open innovation arm of Tokyo Gas. Acario is focused on funding market leading companies in the new energy economy and sustainability sectors
Verticals: Mobility, energy

Daniel Griffis, Senior Director, Investments at ADM Ventures

About: ADM Ventures invests in startups with proprietary technologies that demonstrate feasibility and scalability. Investable companies are typically Series A stage and beyond, with a proof-of-concept or evidence of early market traction established.
Verticals: Food, agriculture

Greg Fleming, Investment Director at Air Liquide Venture Capital

About: Creating mutually beneficial partnerships between innovative startups and Air Liquide, providing financial, technological and commercial support to help startups grow and reach their full potential.
Verticals: Energy transition, healthcare, industrials

Maximilian Von Poelnitz, Managing Director at Ajinomoto Corporate Venture Capital

About: Investing in transformative companies that advance new ways to extend health span, develop new approaches that change the ways information is processed, and answer complex challenges in sustainability.
Verticals: Energy, biotech

Jordan Turk, Technology Director at Allison Ventures

About: As Allison Transmission’s CVC arm, Allison Ventures strategically invests in and partners with start-up and growth-stage companies to drive advancements in commercial-duty mobility and work solutions.
Verticals: Commercial vehicles, mobility, manufacturing, defense, agriculture, mining, construction

Phoebe Wang, Investment Partner at Amazon Climate Pledge Fund 

About: A $2bn fund that invests in companies accelerating Amazon’s path to meeting its goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Verticals: Mobility, manufacturing and materials, circular economy, buildings, food and agriculture, carbon removal

Tibor Toth, Senior Investment Director at Aramco Ventures

What: A $1.5bn Sustainability Fund for the strategic technology venturing program of Saudi Aramco, a world leading integrated energy and chemicals company. Investments typically range from $1-$50 million.
Verticals: Carbon, energy, mobility, sustainable fuels, water

Lemuel Lim, Venture Manager at Avery Dennison

About: Investment team managing Avery Dennison's corporate venture capital program and supporting innovation and strategy functions across the enterprise.
Verticals: Manufacturing, materials

Joshua Speros, Investment Manager at BASF Venture Capital

About: Investing worldwide in young, fast-growing companies and funds related to current and future businesses of BASF.
Verticals: Decarbonization, circular economy, materials, digitization

Alexandra Iljadica, Investor at BHP Ventures

About: Investing in game-changing companies and technologies to help drive more sustainable growth within BHP today and for the decades ahead.
Verticals: Energy, decarbonisation

Yassine Cherkaoui, CEO at Bidra Innovation Ventures

About: Deploying capital globally, supporting early and growth-stage startups, backed by OCP, steward of the world’s largest reserves of phosphate, and UM6P, a cutting-edge African applied research university ecosystem.
Verticals: Agriculture, industrials, mining

Timo Kilp, Head of Borusan Ventures

About: The CVC arm of Borusan Group, a prominent industrial group active in the U.S, Europe and CIS region generating more than $6.5 billion consolidated revenues.
Verticals: Mobility, supply chain, logistics, energy, industrials

Thomas Molleker, Senior Associate at BMWi Ventures

About: Investing in purpose-driven entrepreneurs building high-performance companies.
Verticals: Manufacturing, mobility

Chad Bown, Managing Director at BP Ventures

About: Backing innovative technologies and visionary founders which could help revolutionise the energy sector.
Verticals: Energy

Erin VanLanduit, Head of Corporate Ventures at Cargill

About: As strategic investors, focus is on investment in areas that align with Cargill's long-term growth objectives and have support from the organisation's enterprises or functions to ultimately deliver strategic value.
Vertical: Food

Kemal Anbarci, Vice President & Managing Executive at Chevron Technology Ventures

About: Identifying and integrating externally developed technologies and new business solutions with the potential to enhance the way Chevron produces and delivers affordable, reliable, and ever-cleaner energy now and into the future.
Vertical: Energy 

Ryan Jones, Climate Investments at Cisco Investments

About: Committed to helping create a more diverse, global technology community, and are focused on accelerating innovation to the market.
Verticals: Emerging technologies and incubation

Chris Fortunato, Vice President at CRH Ventures  

About: CRH Ventures is the strategic investment unit within CRH, the global leader in building materials solutions by shaping the future of the built-world and driving Industry 4.0 - revolutionizing the way companies manufacture, advance and distribute their products.
Verticals: Manufacturing, materials

Sunidh Jani, Director, Business Development and Venture Investments at Eaton

About: An intelligent power management company dedicated to improving the quality of life and protecting the environment for people everywhere.
Vertical: Energy

Clara Andreoletti, President and CEO at Eni Next

About: Investing in high-growth startps to boost the energy transition to a zero-carbon future.
Vertical: Energy

Rael McNally, Managing Director at Fortescue Capital

About: The technology, energy and metals group accelerating the commercial decarbonisation of industry, rapidly, profitably and globally.
Vertical: Materials, manufacturing

Lisa Dufresne, Corporate Venture Capital at GC Ventures 

About: Actively scouting for new technology and identifying new investment opportunities for GC, and investing through GC’s CVC arms: GC Ventures and GC Ventures America.
Verticals: Advanced materials, life sciences (synbio, fermentation), clean technology, and sustainability/circularity technologies.

Kurt Baumgarten, Partner at GM Ventures

About: The venture capital arm of General Motors. Co-founder of Applied Licensing, an angel investment firm specializing in intellectual property development and monetization.
Verticals: Mobility

Raymond Zheng, Sr Managing Director at Honda Xcelerator Ventures

About: Honda Xcelerator Ventures is the global Honda program for open innovation and corporate venturing, across North America, Europe, Israel, Japan and Southeast Asia. It is designed for innovators across all stages seeking to transform technology and business.
Verticals: Mobility, energy

Ginger Rothrock, Senior Director at HG Ventures

About: Investing in seed to growth stage companies developing new technologies and approaches in both our core and adjacent markets. 
Verticals: Resilient physical infrastructure, circular supply chains, and digital industrial systems

Matt Morris, Associate at Hitachi Ventures

About: With a total of USD 1 billion AUM, they invest in early stage rounds in globally leading startups.
Verticals: Environment, decarbonisation and circular economy solutions.

Siyuan Dai, Open Innovation at Hyundai Cradle

About: ZER01NE is Hyundai Motor Group's strategic investment arm and open innovation platform, acting as an investor for startups in areas like AI, robotics, and future energy, and fostering collaboration between these startups and the Group's affiliates.
Verticals: AI, robotics, cybersecurity, hydrogen, energy

Shiva Chandra, Senior Associate at Kyocera Venture Fund 

About: The early-stage venture capital arm of Kyocera Corporation, investing in amazing technology startups that have the potential to reshape the key markets that Kyocera Corporation focuses on.
Verticals: Manufacturing, energy

Kevin Chen, Managing Director at Lam Research Capital

About: Investing in innovative companies that are addressing some of today's most challenging, high-impact problems. From semiconductor subsystems to AI chips and Industry 4.0 technologies, they invest in and partner with startups that are disrupting their respective industries.
Verticals: Semiconductor industry

Michael Stewart, Managing Partner at M12

About: Microsoft’s venture fund is a $1B Climate Innovation Fund program, focused on scaling climate innovation and accelerating adoption of emerging sustainability solutions.
Verticals: Energy, green infrastructure

Halsey Cook Jr, President and CEO at Milliken & Company

About: A global manufacturing leader whose focus on materials science delivers tomorrow’s breakthroughs today.
Vertical: Materials

Jennifer Sanduski, Investor at MunichRE Ventures 

About: Their ClimateTech and Transportation investment sectors has a new $500M fund, supporting visionary founders in their mission to accelerate innovation, tackle new risks, and address some of the biggest challenges facing humanity.
Verticals: Climate risk and resiliency, climate sustainability, energy transition, transportation in marine, mobility, aviation and space

Kristian Bodek, Director, Investments at National Grid Partners

About: Invest for strategic and financial impact and lead company-wide innovation efforts, the team focuses on corporate venture capital, business development, new business creation and alliances, providing a multi-functional approach to change the utility industry.
Vertical: Energy

Simon Burton, Managing Director at Nourish Ventures

About: On a mission to partner with, nourish, and scale new ventures focused on creating the food system of the future: delicious, nutritious and sustainable.
Vertical: Food

Karl Boone, President at Nova Ventures, LLC from Saint-Gobain

About: A global leader in light construction, construction chemicals, and design. Established in 2006, NOVA aims to drive innovation by forming long-term partnerships with startups to develop new ideas, business models, and technologies for Saint-Gobain's core markets. 
Verticals: Construction, chemicals, manufacturing 

Christopher Hermanowicz, Managing Director at NTT

About: The Venture Capital arm of NTT Docomo & NTT Group; investing in outstanding companies which can strategically benefit from collaboration with Japan's leading telecommunications & information technology and services conglomerate.
Vertical: Infrastructure

John Wesley, Investment Director at NVentures

About: Investing in ‌technology visionaries solving complex problems to reshape our world. Through a unique mix of expertise and resources, they build long-term partnerships with bold teams to accelerate their journeys.
Vertical: Agriculture, AI, robotics

Eitan Dekel, Managing Director at Orbia Ventures 

About: Operating in the Polymer Solutions (Vestolit and Alphagary), Building and Infrastructure (Wavin), Precision Agriculture (Netafim), Connectivity Solutions (Dura-Line) and Fluor and Energy Materials (Koura) sectors, with a collective focus on solving three global challenges:
Verticals: Water, food security, decarbonization, the energy transition

Rae Oakley, Investor at Prologis Ventures

About: Driving the investment strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of Prologis' portfolio in alignment with the company's net zero 2040 goals.

Brian Bernstein, Venture Capital Investor at Rich Products Ventures

About: Making minority equity investments in companies that will shape the future of food through technology and innovation.
Vertical: Food

Tolga Kaan Doğancıoğlu CEO at Sabanci Climate Technologies

About: Bridging the gap between emerging and developed markets in energy and climate transition. Addressing the challenges of the next two decades by developing a sizeable renewable portfolio under Sabancı Renewables and future energy challenges via investing in disruptive technologies under Climate Ventures.
Vertical: Energy 

John Kwon, Venture Investor at Samsung Ventures

About: Backing emerging technology startup founders, whom they believe will pioneer and shape the future, with $200M deployed annually.
Vertical: Energy 

Blair Tritt, Vice President Corporate Ventures at Schreiber Foods

About: Ventures utilises three models in the early stage ecosystem to advance corporate initiatives and strategies: Clienting, Partnerships, Investments.
Verticals: Food, supply chain

Julien Cristiani, General Partner at SE Ventures

About: A $1B+ venture capital firm and a team of specialist investors and operators who back bold entrepreneurs in Industrial & Climate Tech and drive commercial acceleration for portfolio startups by tapping into the deep domain expertise and global customer base of their LP, Schneider Electric.
Verticals: ClimateTech, sustainability, energy management, industrials

Queenie Co, Managing Partner at Shell Ventures

About: Shell Ventures works with startups and companies from their early stages to their scale and growth phases.
Vertical: Energy

Anthony Clark VC Investment Lead at Siemens

About: Founded in 2020, our focus is on investing, building and piloting ventures that will transform energy systems and will help fight climate change.
Verticals: Carbon, energy

Ludovic Copéré, Senior Investment Director at Sony Innovation Fund

About: Dedicated to investing in and engaging with promising early-stage & growth-stage companies.
Verticals: Mobility, FinTech, PropTech, Drones, FoodTech, AgTech, Environment

Coppelia Marincovic, Partner at Syensqo Ventures

About: Operating since 2005, Syensqo Ventures manages a $100m global evergreen fund. Syensqo Ventures leverages Syensqo's capabilities and network to generate business synergies and partnerships between start-ups and Syensqo's BUs and Innovation Platforms.
Verticals: Sustainable resources, energy, health and well-being, industry

Nicolas Sauvage, President at TDK Ventures

About: Investing globally in early-stage tech startups – Impact Scaling entrepreneurs who are creating a new era of sustainability and social value.
Verticals: Materials, energy, cleantech, industry, mobility, healthtech

Ka-Hay Law, Partner at TELUS Global Ventures 

About: The strategic venture arm of TELUS, a global technology company headquartered in Canada. TGV has a global investment mandate, manages  ~$1B AUM and invests in early growth (Series A/B +) across multiple industries.
Verticals: Agriculture, food, AI, energy, carbon, resilience

Jim Adler, Founder & General Partner at Toyota Ventures

About: As Toyota’s early stage investment firm, Toyota Ventures’ mission is to discover what’s next by helping early-stage startups bring disruptive technologies and business models to market quickly. With over $800M under management and 95+ investments to date, the firm is  committed to finding and funding the best entrepreneurs from around the world. 
Verticals: The Frontier Fund, led by partner David Sokolic, invests in deep tech companies in areas like artificial intelligence, autonomy, mobility, robotics, and advanced materials. The Climate Fund, led by partner Lisa Coca, invests in climate technologies, including  renewable energy, hydrogen, sustainability, and carbon solutions.

Ross Bosn, Managing Director at UFP Ventures

About: UFP Ventures partners with entrepreneurs to enable the innovation that will shape the futures of construction, packaging, and retail building products industries.
Verticals: Construction, packaging, retail building products industries

Joe Darcy, Investment Director at Volvo Group Venture Capital

About: As an integral part of the Volvo Group, we have 25 years of experience in doing strategic investments and creating value for both our startups, for Volvo Group, and for the transportation sector.
Verticals: Mobility

David Klein, Head at WEX Venture Capital

About: The $100M venture capital arm of WEX, a global commerce platform that simplifies the business of running a business.
Verticals: Energy transition in mobility

Sivan Zamir, Vice President, Innovation and Ventures at Xylem

About: Leading Xylem Innovation Labs, driving early-stage innovation, partnerships, and ventures activity at Xylem, a Fortune 500 global water solutions company that empowers customers and communities to build a more water-secure world.
Vertical: Water

Kei Onishi, CEO and Managing Director at Yamaha Motor Ventures

About: Investing in early-stage companies with $300M AUM to catalyze innovation by supporting entrepreneurs with Yamaha Motor’s unique capabilities to transform how we live.
Verticals: Mobility, robotics, industry, advanced manufacturing/engineering, FinTech/InsureTech, energy transition, sustainable material, carbon management

Have we missed a CVC? Drop us a note [email protected] to add them.