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Those of us who follow climate change news are used to seeing the bad tidings outweigh the good.

We鈥檙e slogging through what鈥檚 shaping as the . at an alarming rate. And fossil fuel consumption .

Now, here comes another grim data point: Equity funding to startups focused on cleantech and sustainability is down this year.

In the first half of 2024, around $9.6 billion went to seed through growth financings for companies in 小蓝视频色情网页版鈥檚 . That鈥檚 a decline of 61% from the second half of last year, and about 10% from year-ago levels.

For perspective, we charted investment and round counts for the aforementioned categories below:

As industries go, cleantech-related sectors overall weren鈥檛 as hard hit in the post-2021 downturn as other categories like consumer products or fintech. Funding to the space last year was flat for example, even as overall investment declined.

This year, even though overall equity investment declined, the broader picture is more nuanced. For one, we鈥檝e seen huge sums go into debt-based project financing.

Sweden leads in this arena, with two giant rounds for Stockholm-based companies in January. , a sustainability-focused battery manufacturer, $5 billion in project financing to expand its facilities, and $4.6 billion in debt financing to go toward what it described as the world’s first large-scale green steel plant.

Those aren鈥檛 the deal sizes we see for sectors in decline. Since infrastructure-heavy cleantech companies commonly turn to debt financing as they scale, the shift from equity rounds to project finance may be more an indication of a maturing startup pipeline than a change of heart among investors in the space.

Hot themes include EV charging, battery supply chain and hydrogen

Back to equity rounds, meanwhile, a few investment themes stand out so far this year.

One is around the battery supply chain. Amid growing EV adoption and a hoped-for shift to cleaner energy sources, we鈥檒l need more batteries and a more robust, reliable supply chain to produce them. As a result, we鈥檙e seeing strong investment in alternative battery materials and battery recycling.

In the first category, Alameda, California-based , a next-generation battery materials company, raised led by and .

In the recycling camp, Westborough, Massachusetts-based was the standout, securing . Ascend makes battery materials using valuable elements reclaimed from spent lithium-ion batteries.

Electric vehicle charging has been another popular investment theme in recent months. Those that raised large rounds this year include charging spot operators , based in Paris, which landed a in January, and , based in Quebec City, which picked up in June.

There鈥檚 also strong venture interest around hydrogen energy, particularly startups developing electrolyzers, devices that use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

An Australian electrolyzer startup, , picked up in a financing co-led by and in May. And in February, Denver-based , which focuses on identifying and commercializing geologic hydrogen resources, closed on led by .

The exit climate has not warmed

While big venture rounds are still happening, the pace of IPOs and M&A deals involving venture-backed cleantech companies remains rather slow. So far in 2024, we haven鈥檛 seen much in the way of big exits of any kind.

One exception to the slowing was Chinese EV maker . The company carried out a NYSE IPO in May and had a recent market cap around $5 billion. However, shares have been trending lower since its debut.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a colder exit environment than it was in 2021 and 2022,鈥� observed Anthony DeOrsey, a research manager at the , who attributes this to the overall decline in technology IPOs, particularly for U.S. companies. The collapse of the SPAC as a route to the public market has also impacted cleantech, as many had gone public this way around the market peak.

Hopefully, the exit climate will warm up a bit beginning next year. There鈥檚 certainly a large enough pipeline of well-funded private companies at this point to make for a compelling list of IPO candidates.

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