Entrepreneurs are wired to scale solutions with speed and climate change requires urgent action. Elemental Excelerator exists to help entrepreneurs scale technology and deploy solutions to climate change faster than they would be able to do on their own. Each year, they invest in a cohort of startups with the potential to decarbonize our local and global economies, and uplift planet and people.

As an entrepreneur herself, CEO Dawn Lippert believes that the best solutions to climate change are also the most inclusive. That manifests itself in a majority female-led team at Elemental; gender, racial, and ethnic diversity in their portfolio companies; and a program for startups designed to increase Equity & Access climate technology in frontline communities.

Key facts

• In Elemental’s 2020 cohort, 50% of the companies they are investing in had female founders and 79% had a female on the executive team.
• Elemental has awarded over USD 40 million to 117 startups and funded more than 60 projects in six countries – all of which are tackling critical challenges in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change.
• 87% of Elemental’s active portfolio companies are generating revenue and 13 have been acquired. Their startups have also turned every dollar of Elemental funding into more than 40x that amount in follow-on investments, raising nearly USD 1.5 billion.

Credit: Elemental Excelerator

The challenge

In September, two artists reprogrammed a 62-foot digital clock facing Union Square in Manhattan to count down the time we have to prevent the irreversible impacts of climate change. On September 20, 2020 at 3:20 p.m. ET, it read 7:103:15:40:07 – 7 years, 103 days, 15 hours, 40 minutes, and 7 seconds. About 90% of the global population will live to see this day. Climate change is here and its irreversible impact is coming. We have time to do something about it, but we must act fast.

Entrepreneurs are wired to scale solutions at speed and Elemental Excelerator exists to help them scale faster. Elemental is an Excelerator, not an accelerator. For over a decade, Elemental has been building its Excelerator -- a platform to address climate change at speed and in an inclusive way. At the time, this had never been done before. There were tech accelerators kickstarting the next Airbnbs and Snapchats of the world inventing new markets for technology to play in, but climate-tech companies are different. Elemental interviewed dozens of entrepreneurs, as well as investors and large customers, and found that they need patient capital and support over multiple years. This is particularly relevant in industries — such as energy, water, food & agriculture, waste, and mobility — that transform the way we live.

The solution

Elemental was the first organization to apply a technology accelerator model to addressing climate change, paving the way for the subsequent proliferation of investors and accelerators now working to catalyze critical climate solutions.

Each year, they find and fund a cohort of 15-20 startups with the potential to transform the systems that underpin our economy. They have awarded over USD 40 million to 117 startups, funded more than 60 projects, and have attracted partners from philanthropy, government, and industry.

Credit: Elemental Excelerator

Helping the planet

Elemental not only invests in startups with the potential to address climate change, but they also co-fund projects alongside the startups they invest in. To date, Elemental has funded more than 60 projects across Hawaii, California, and the Asia Pacific. Here are two examples:

• CarbonCure worked with Hawaii concrete producers to install its retrofit technology that chemically mineralizes waste CO2 during the concrete manufacturing process to make greener and stronger concrete. The carbon-infused concrete from those producers was used in a local infrastructure project saving 1,500 lbs. of carbon dioxide, offsetting the carbon dioxide emissions from 1,600 miles of highway driving.
• SOURCE (formerly Zero Mass Water) worked with Waddi Springs to install a source field and bottling facility that created drinking water from sunlight and air in an area of Australia heavily reliant on bottled water. 

Helping people

An entrepreneurial approach to addressing climate change takes much more than technology and funding. It requires people and communities as well.

For instance, one way to increase the chances that a climate technology succeeds is to make sure solutions are created by and designed for people who for too long were not considered target markets. Elemental’s Equity & Access Track bridges the gap between for-profit startups seeking hockey-stick returns and the communities that needs these technologies the most. 

Elemental is also helping to cultivate the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. More than a dozen students and recent graduates spend their summers at Elemental and its portfolio companies each year.

Credit: Elemental Excelerator

Spillover effect

Success at Elemental means impact that scales. They have taken their model from Hawaii to the Asia Pacific region to California’s frontline communities; they have helped their portfolio companies go from a single pilot project to hundreds of customers, scaling commercial success and emissions reduction; and their former interns have gone on to find fruitful careers in climate tech, design world-positive public policy, and even start their own companies. Each of these have their own impact on the world in their own, unique way.

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