Although investment in startups has been increasing recently, not all industries share in the profits.
Cleantech is one of the spaces that is most frequently missed. Overall funding for this space is down this year, despite some gains in areas like fusion and battery recycling.
Broad trend: Investments in clean technology and sustainability startups have been on a downward trend for several years. So far, 2025 can be one other year of decline.
On the positive side, nonetheless, there has been some recovery in recent months, boosted by large rounds for corporations in energy storage, fusion and other cleantech subsectors.
The Book of Numbers: So far this year, investors have committed about $20 billion in seed-to-growth financing for cleantech, electric vehicle and sustainability-related corporations.
This puts funding in 2025 on track to be well below last year’s level, which was already the lowest in many years.
Still, quarter by quarter, the pattern looks more and more encouraging. Investments bottomed out in the first quarter of this year and rose barely in the following two quarters. The current quarter is also off to a good start.
Notable last rounds
The largest cleantech round of the year ended this month. Base powerprovider of battery backup systems for residential buildings and utility plans, has raised $1 billion in Series C funding. The Austin, Texas-based company says its systems enable utilities to make use of renewable energy more efficiently.
The second largest round was Commonwealth Fusion Systems$863 million Series B2 financing. The Devens, Massachusetts-based company says it is getting closer to becoming the world’s first company to commercialize fusion power.
To get a broader picture, we have compiled a list of this year’s top 10 cleantech and sustainability financing sources below.
Takeaway: Startups innovating in an era of rising energy consumption
I don’t desire to generalize too much, but if there’s one big takeaway from the recent funding of cleantech and sustainability startups, it might be that founders and investors would recognize that the time has come constantly growing demand for energy. They are planning accordingly, trying to leverage latest energy sources, particularly fusion, in addition to higher leverage and scale existing clean energy sources.