On September 17, 2024, Evergreen Climate Innovations hosted its flagship event, Co_Invest Climate 2024, gathering climate tech founders, investors, and ecosystem partners in Chicago to kick off Chicago’s second annual Climate Tech Week. The theme of this year’s event was clear: addressing the critical funding gap between early-stage climate innovations and the capital needed to bring them to market. Throughout the day, a blend of thought-provoking discussions, inspiring startup presentations, and valuable networking opportunities reinforced the importance of bridging the divide between innovation and commercialization.
Setting the Stage for a Day of Climate Innovation
The event kicked off with a lively networking session as attendees connected over coffee and explored innovations in the startup expo area. Evergreen CEO Michelle Carr officially opened the day with welcome remarks, underscoring Evergreen’s commitment to supporting climate startups and fostering partnerships that accelerate progress in clean energy and sustainability.
Highlighting Evergreen’s 2024 Portfolio Companies
The first session featured four of Evergreen’s most recent portfolio companies, each working on cutting-edge technologies with the potential to reshape industries:
- Aquarry: Revolutionizing carbon dioxide removal using pit lakes. (Note: Aquarry is also a member of the generat8tor Carbon Removal Cohort that was featured in the afternoon and is highlighted below.)
- New Iridium: Leveraging photocatalysis for more efficient chemical production.
- Bedrock Materials: Innovating low-cost, eco-friendly sodium-ion batteries to advance the adoption of electric vehicles with next-generation energy storage technology.
- Grid Status: Providing real-time, comprehensive data on the U.S. power grid to ensure grid reliability and resilience.
These presentations demonstrated how early-stage investments are essential to turning breakthrough ideas into scalable solutions.
Nicor Gas Multicultural Innovator Award Announcement
Evergreen’s Equity & Access Program followed with the presentation of the 2024 Nicor Gas Multicultural Innovator Award, which celebrates an entrepreneur making strides in the clean energy space. This award emphasizes the importance of supporting diverse voices and perspectives in climate innovation to ensure equitable solutions for all communities. Stay tuned for the full announcement feature coming soon!
Mind the Gap: The Climate Capital Divide
One of the day’s most anticipated sessions was the keynote by Rob Day, Co-Founder of Spring Lane Capital, titled Mind the Gap: Addressing the “Missing Middle” in Climate Capital. Rob tackled the “missing middle” in climate tech financing—the challenging phase between early-stage innovation and the significant capital needed for commercialization. He explored who is currently financing these projects, what gaps remain, and how to inspire continuous innovation while creating investable opportunities.
Evergreen Legacy Portfolio Success Stories
After the keynote, we turned the spotlight on Evergreen’s legacy portfolio companies, showcasing how early-stage support can yield substantial results over time. Presenters included:
- Continuum Ag: A leader in regenerative agriculture and soil health technologies.
- Renewance: Driving a decarbonized economy through enabling safe and sustainable use of battery-based applications or product.
- Intellihot: Innovating energy-efficient, tankless water heating systems for commercial and industrial use.
These companies are clear examples of how sustained investment can turn initial concepts into fully realized market solutions.
Chain Reaction Innovations Showcase
In the afternoon, the Chain Reaction Innovations (CRI) cohort took the stage to share their pioneering work in carbon removal and energy technologies:
- Frakktal Technology: Advancing biobased PVC alternatives for the built environment.
- HaloGen Technology: Developing a primary battery chemistry that can boost the energy density of the state-of-the-art by 50% while improving safety.
- MicroAvionics Technology: Enhancing climate modeling, environmental monitoring, and defense systems by enabling continuous, high-resolution data acquisition and relays.
- RenewCat: Revolutionizing PVC upcycling.
- SynthBits Technology: Building a quantum microscope to tackle the hardest challenges within the life sciences.
These startups provided a glimpse into the future of climate tech and the crucial role that innovation hubs play in nurturing breakthrough technologies.
From Lab to Market: Innovating in the Lab Panel
The theme of translating scientific discovery into scalable business models took center stage in the panel discussion, Innovating in the Lab: Where Breakthroughs Mean Business, moderated by Dr. Benjamin Gaddy, Senior Director at Breakthrough Energy Fellows. Panelists Dr. Nadya Mason from the University of Chicago and Dr. Omar Farha from Northwestern University shared their experiences on the delicate balance between lab-based research and commercialization. Their insights painted a clear picture of how critical partnerships between research institutions and the private sector can help bridge the commercialization gap.
More Showcase Highlights!
The event continued with pitches from some of the most promising early-stage startups driving the future of clean technology:
- Beni: Developing sustainable upcycling solutions to reduce waste in fashion.
- Aeternal Upcycling: Creating circular economies by transforming waste materials into valuable resources.
- C+UP: Pioneering the future of industrial sustainability by converting CO2 emissions into valuable, sustainable chemicals.
- Volexion: Advancing drop-in graphene encapsulation technology for commercial Li-ion cathode materials.
- Expost Technology: Using Purification and Regeneration Integrated Materials Engineering (“PRIME”) to recover battery components and transform them to better states.
gener8tor Carbon Removal Cohort Presentations
Closing the presentations, the gener8tor Carbon Removal Accelerator cohort demonstrated the power of innovation in reducing atmospheric carbon:
- Airbuild Inc: Enabling companies and governments to directly capture carbon, generate energy, and filter wastewater onsite with microalgae’s photosynthetic ability.
- Homeostasis: Synthesizing battery-grade graphite from CO2.
- Mitico: Making carbon capture technology and services accessible to mitigate the impact of industrial emissions on people and the climate.
- Octavia Carbon: Pioneering direct air capture technology in new markets.
These companies reminded us of the critical role carbon removal plays in addressing climate change, offering tangible solutions for a more sustainable future.
The event concluded with closing remarks and a networking reception where attendees shared ideas, discussed partnerships, and reflected on the day’s presentations.
On behalf of the Evergreen Climate Innovations Team, a sincere thank you to all who participated!
And a special thank you to Chain Reaction Innovations and gener8tor for their partnership and for supporting today’s climate innovators to help create our more sustainable future.
