With so much going wrong in the world – much of it related to climate change – the climate at least appears right for startups working in the sector, the nonprofit innovation company PLANETech reports.
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Climate-tech is already the focus of receiving worldwide attention from senior tech and investment figures. Bill Gates recently said he estimates that climate-tech would build about 10 companies the size of Google and Amazon, and BlackRock CE, Larry Fink predicted that the next 1,000 unicorns would be climate-tech ventures.
According to PLANETech – a joint venture of Israel Innovation Institute, led by Dr. Jonathan Menuhin, and Consensus Business Group, led by Vincent Tchenguiz – 2021 saw a total $2.2 billion invested in Israeli climate tech startups, 57% higher than previous 2020 record.
At the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in October, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared that Israel would become a leader in climate innovation.
Two months ago, PLANETech and the Israel Innovation Authority published the first report to map 1,200 climate companies, 637 of which are startups developing climate technologies, whose findings seemed to back up Bennett's prediction.
"By the end of the 2021, the annual investments in Israeli climate tech companies reached $2.2 billion, exceeding last year's fundraising record of $1.4 billion by 57%," said Uriel Klar, Director of PLANETech.
The biggest fundraising rounds for climate startups were secured by the following four companies:
Future Meat, which has raised $347 million for the development of sustainable cultivated meat technology.
Wiliot, which has raised $200 million to improve supply chain footprint via battery-free sensors.
UBQ Materials, which has has raised $170 million to convert waste to climate positive thermoplastic, including an investment from U2 lead singer Bono.
VIA, which has raised $130 million to promote an advanced digital platform for shared transportation.
"In addition to the two investments in Future Meat and UBQ Materials last month, SolarEdge has become the first Israeli company to enter the S&P 500 index and Tomorrow.io is going public on Nasdaq with $1.2B valuation," Klar noted.
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