The primary purpose of CalSEED is to address a critical funding gap in the early stages of the energy technology development pipeline. Most entrepreneurs and researchers require multiple rounds of funding over several years to successfully commercialize their new energy invention. To obtain this sustained, long-term funding – either through private capital or large government grants—entrepreneurs and researchers must first demonstrate that their concept is feasible.

CalSEED provides small funding awards to help California entrepreneurs, researchers and businesses prove out the feasibility of new scientific concepts for energy applications. These small funding awards, along with support services, provide a launch pad to help entrepreneurs be successful in their clean energy ventures.

The FORGE Product Development Grant (FPDG) is non-dilutive funding awarded to a startup(s) to support the development of a physical product. This Supply Chain Disruption offering is dedicated specifically to remedying the effects of global supply chain disruptions on cleantech oriented startup companies.

The goal of the grant is to remove barriers to scale and manufacturing, providing the necessary funds for disruption driven redesigns, or to offset part markups driven by disruptions, or to build critical inventory as a guard against future disruptions, or other creative solutions to mitigating disruptions.

This grant will range between $5k-$25k, and must be used by the winning startup(s) to address a specific supply chain challenge, informed by an accompanying quote and/or work order.

ETIPP employs a community-driven approach to identify and plan strategic clean energy and energy resilience solutions that address a community’s specific challenges. This approach leverages the experience and expertise of local community leaders, residents, and organizations with the ETIPP partner network. The ETIPP partner network connects selected communities with regional nonprofit or academic organizations, energy experts at DOE research institutions, and DOE offices to navigate options for addressing local clean energy and energy resilience challenges.

By participating in ETIPP, communities receive substantial support from ETIPP experts in the form of technical assistance on energy analysis and planning (see Technical Assistance below). Each community is also supported by an ETIPP regional partner that can assist with identifying and developing a community’s needs and goals.

Venture For ClimateTech (V4C) is a program under the For ClimateTech (FCT) umbrella and is powered by NextCorps and SecondMuse and supported by NYSERDA. V4C is focused on helping to advance energy, food & agriculture, buildings, and transportation as key strategic areas for the New York State climate tech landscape.

V4C is currently looking for solutions in the following challenge areas: Future of Cities, Women in ClimateTech, and Web3 & ClimateTech

mHUB is looking for early-stage startups working on hardtech and infrastructure solutions in renewable energy, hydrogen, carbon capture & sequestration, energy storage, vehicle-to-grid, heat sink technologies, distributed energy resources, sustainable buildings and the internet of energy. When accepted to the program you will get the following value:

• An estimated $1M investment in the cohort, comprised of $75K in cash for each startup through a SAFE in exchange for 6% equity, and a minimum of $200K from the program’s corporate partners in the form of convertible notes (funds will be distributed based on partners’ discretion and may not be shared by entire cohort).
• Follow on investment opportunities from mHUB’s Product Impact Fund to support portfolio teams’ future rounds.
• Become part of mHUB, one of the nation’s leading hardtech innovation and manufacturing centers. You will join an ecosystem of more than 1,000 hardtech entrepreneurs and innovators, an active investor network, seasoned industry mentors, regional manufacturers and suppliers, and our hardtech product development community.
• Access to our $6M prototyping, manufacturing and testing workshop, along with technical staff and training.
• Cash equivalent credits towards hardtech development services ($30K per startup), 24-month mHUB membership ($34K value per startup), as well as multiple other services
• Support from our engaged and invested partners Invenergy, Nicor Gas / Southern Company, Evergreen Climate Innovations and legal partner Perkins Coie

KickStart Venture Services, a department in Innovate Carolina’s Office of Technology Commercialization at UNC-Chapel Hill, supports research-based startup formation and growth by providing education, early-stage funding, and on-campus accelerator space.

In addition, KickStart has quarterly Commercialization Grant Awards, ranging from $5,000 – $50,000.

Entrepreneurs & Researchers: C2M is now accepting climate tech applications — low-carbon energy, green chemistry, food, and water technologies covering both mitigation and adaptation — for its 2022 cohort. For those technologies selected, interdisciplinary, hand-picked teams of UC Berkeley grad students will help identify the most viable initial markets, prospective customers and partners, funding sources, and related strategies. Each project receives approximately 1,000 hours of free commercialization assessment.

ARPA-E has announced the third round of funding under the SEED Exploratory Topic. Successful SEED projects should create new paradigms in energy technology and have the potential to achieve significant reductions in U.S. energy consumption, energy-related imports, or energy-related emissions. SEED awards will support research projects that establish potential new areas for technology development and provide ARPA-E with information that could lead to new ARPA-E focused funding programs.

Awards may support exploratory research to establish viability, proof-of-concept demonstration for new energy technology, and/or modeling and simulation efforts to guide development for new energy technologies.

The Product Development and Small Business Incubator Fund (PDSBI) offers long-term, asset-backed loans to product development companies and small business incubators/accelerators located in Texas. The loans finance the development and production of new or improved products or the stimulations of new or existing small businesses in Texas. The program targets those businesses which may be unable to obtain full financing or financing on workable terms in traditional capital markets.

This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) seeks to empower regions to harness the benefits of a clean energy future. This FOA supports multiple avenues for localities to improve their energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and bolster their local workforce through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D) projects for renewable-fueled energy systems and technical assistance to support manufacturers in adopting innovative, smart technologies to help better manage their energy use.

Under this FOA, DOE will provide up to $7.5 million to support activities that drive innovation, deployment, and technical assistance activities for clean energy technologies that are critical for climate protection under two topics:

Topic Area 1: Advanced Technology Demonstration in a Renewably Supplied District Energy System

Topic Area 2: Regional Initiative to Integrate Smart Manufacturing and Energy Management Systems

Shell UK has announced a new program for energy start-ups – Shell StartUp Engine UK – in partnership with Unreasonable Group (Unreasonable). The program focuses on scale and growth-stage start-ups that are best placed to accelerate a fair and just energy transition, improve access to energy and help consumers make smarter energy choices. CEOs of these start-ups will benefit from high-profile mentorship, access to potential investors and partners, and being part of the Shell and Unreasonable start-up communities.

The program will be delivered over 12 months to give Shell and Unreasonable an opportunity to test new ways of supporting entrepreneurs in the energy space building on Shell’s significant legacy in this area. The program will initially focus on up to 30 start-ups operating in or entering the UK energy market.

Learn more about the programs here.

If you have an idea that has the potential to have a significant positive impact across one or several of the SDGs while being financially successful, apply here to build your company with Satgana. Satgana’s goal is to co-create companies from scratch, alongside extraordinary entrepreneurs. It offers financial, operational, and organizational support for ventures.