Climate tech startup funding numbers for the first half of 2022 are刚进来并且是滞后指示器。根据气候技术VC newsletter与2021年下半年相比，气候技术初创公司的风险资本资金下降了20％以上，尽管实际上增加了数额，而不是2021年上半年。最大的打击from the 2022 numbers was for later stage climate tech companies, which saw funding drop by 39 percent between the first half of 2021 and 2022.
With a bear market and a recession still looming, this could be just the beginning of some kind of climate tech startup downturn, although it will affect startups disproportionately across sectors, at different stages of growth and at varying levels of risk.
People who are adapting are thriving. There’s no chill on the overall market. The chill is on last year’s business plan.
Not all climate tech startups will make it through tight funding times. But the investors and entrepreneurs GreenBiz spoke with remain hopeful and cautiously optimistic there won’t be a repeat of the first cleantech bust — where a cleantech winter lasted a solid decade.
That’s because fundamental market dynamics including the sky-rocketing growth of electric vehicles, the rapid expansion of low-cost solar and wind and the high price of natural gas and oil all point to major growth right now for climate tech solutions. Fingers crossed: Climate tech is far too crucial for the future of the planet to be handicapped by shifting financial winds.
“在风险投资方面，它已经产生了影响，”联合创始人兼合伙人罗布·戴（Rob Day）说Spring Lane Capital，为小规模气候技术基础设施提供项目股本和增长资本的基金。Day用来撰写Greentech Media上的清洁技术投资专栏，并通过清洁技术胸围直接生活。戴说，当股市下降并且关闭IPO窗口时，投资者将在“退出驱动回报”的地方进行投资。
电动汽车充电软件启动的创始人兼首席执行官Weavegrid, Apoorv Bhargava, suggested: "Stay strong. Don’t let yourself get bullied around by investors changing their minds all of a sudden. Show how your fundamentals are in line with where the long term market is headed, and how you're still continuing to sequentially derisk building a massive business while tackling the problem of our lifetimes." WeaveGrid上调2021年春季，一轮耗资1500万美元的一轮资金。
Venkat Viswanathan, associate professor of Carnegie Mellon and cofounder of several startups, said that while the biggest climate tech funds are still plowing forward, smaller funds are watching and waiting. "The FOMO investments have died down," he said.
同样，戴说：“不要减慢您的增长计划”，但要寻找“其他资本来源，而风险投资人则退后一步。”Day建议在风险投资之外寻找未来的非债券资金。Spring Lane Capital是为分布式气候技术基础设施提供项目资金的少数新资金之一，例如废水处理计划，商用电动舰队和厌氧消化园。
其他团体，例如非营利组织Prime Coalitionare partnering with philanthropic investors to fund high-impact climate tech startups with long horizons. Prime has funded startups including carbon removal company魅力工业, lithium extraction startup Lilac Solutions and fusion energy startup Avalanche.
There’s also U.S. government funding out there, kicked off by the Biden administration’s climate agenda. The U.S. Department of Energy’s recently reawakened Loan Programs Office is in the process of deploying more than $40 billion of loans and loan guarantees for climate tech infrastructure projects. Loan Program Office head Jigar Shah told GreenBiz that in a tighter private funding market, the loan program has seen increased and renewed interest from entrepreneurs building climate tech infrastructure projects.
Shah said climate tech startups with compelling business plans can still raise money, but it’s about being adaptable to the new market. "People who are adapting are thriving. There’s no chill on the overall market. The chill is on last year’s business plan," Shah said.
“对于公司来说，能够生存这一低迷很重要，因此保留现金将很重要。因此，我们指导公司尽可能地扩展跑道而不牺牲重大里程碑，”与突破性能源风险投资的合伙人克里斯蒂安·加西亚（Christian Garcia）上个月告诉TechCrunch。Breakthrough Energy Ventures是一项基金，其中包括投资者Bill Gates和Silicon Valley VCS John Doerr和Vinod Khosla。
Monolith首席执行官兼联合创始人Rob Hansontold气候技术VC最近在一次采访中：“扩大成功的气候公司的很大一部分是获得低成本资本。大量的初创公司即将同时进入第一个死亡山谷，直接作为资本成本has gone up. Of course in any capital market, the most resilient, best performing businesses will survive. But it’s going to be a tough slog. ... Let’s just say that it’s going to get hot in the Valley… in a dehydrating way!"
Sequoia’s presentation notes that tech companies that move quickly when it comes to making tough decisions will have the most runway and are most likely to avoid a death spiral. The same applies for climate tech companies. "Do the cut exercise (projects, R&D, marketing, other expenses). It doesn’t mean you have to pull the trigger, but that you are ready to do it in the next 30 days if needed," says Sequoia in its presentation.
气候技术将不可能独特地免疫衰退的观念。突破性能源冒险的加西亚put it this way to TechCrunch：“我会说[气候技术]同样容易受到伤害，即使不是更容易受到衰退的影响。…金融市场的逆风肯定会影响气候投资的整体投资，而且由于技术是风险资本的支持者，因此逆风肯定会流向其他部门。“
投资者指向capital drying up for later stage climate tech companies, but suggest that early stage companies will still readily have access to financing given the new climate funds raised. However, the valuation correction and investor derisking will affect all climate tech startups regardless of stage.
However, despite a potentially short-term funding cooling period for climate tech startups, investors and entrepreneurs continue to be bullish on climate tech’s importance and huge potential for market growth. Natural gas and oil prices are close to their highest in a decade. Global electric vehicle销售在飙升。And solar and wind帐户2021年全球发电的10％，高于2020年的1％。
投资者and entrepreneurs are optimistic that the climate tech startup sector will bounce back much more quickly than after the first cleantech bust. Day said: "The last cleantech bubble was a flavor of a month. Now it’s a mega trend."
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