Cleantech innovations are driving the transition to a more sustainable future. Advances in renewable energy, energy storage, and energy efficiency technologies are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and optimizing resource usage. From solar and wind power to electric vehicles (EV) and smart grids, cleantech is transforming the way we produce, distribute, and consume energy. Additionally, the circular economy and sustainable materials are promoting the reuse and recycling of materials while reducing waste. Let’s explore 20 cleantech startups to watch in 2024 that are set to address climate change and environmental challenges, creating new economic opportunities and improving quality of life.
20 Cleantech Startups to Watch in 2024
- PolyGone – Microplastic Remediation
- Mini Mines – Eco-friendly Li-ion Battery Recycling
- Cyclothe – Circular Textile Waste Management
- Nextron – Clean Energy as a Service
- Pascal – Solid Refrigerants for HVAC
- Novalith – Sustainable Lithium Extraction
- Cellone – Solar Power Infrastructure
- Climative – Low Carbon Building Plans
- QReceipts – Paperless Receipts
- Metal Light – Zero-Emission Energy Generation
- Nellie Technologies – Carbon Capture Bioreactor
- Holy Technologies – Circular Carbon Fiber Components
- Openversum – Water Filtration Membrane
- Zero Labs – Digital Renewable Energy as a Service
- Enreport – AI-driven Digital Twins for Energy Efficiency
- NETS23D – Circular Blue Economy
- Varme Energy – CCS-integrated Waste-to-Energy (WTE) System
- Cool Lion Energies – Solar-powered Cooling as a Service
- TerraStor – Grid-scale Energy Storage
- Blue Energy Motors – Green Trucking
Global Startup Heat Map highlights 20 Cleantech Startups to Watch
Through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 3 790 000+ startups & scaleups globally, we identified 3585 cleantech startups. The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights the 20 cleantech startups you should watch in 2024 as well as the geo-distribution of all cleantech startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research.
Based on the heat map, we see high startup activity in Europe and the USA, followed by India. These cleantech startups work on solutions ranging from eco-friendly Li-ion battery recycling and microplastic remediation to low carbon building plans and clean energy as a service.
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As the world’s largest resource for data on emerging companies, the SaaS platform enables you to identify relevant technologies and industry trends quickly & exhaustively. Based on the data from the platform, the Top 20 Energy Startup Hubs are in London, New York, Berlin, Singapore, and San Francisco. The 20 hand-picked startups highlighted in this report are chosen from all over the world and develop solutions for sustainable HVAC, circular textile waste management, microplastic remediation, paperless receipts, and much more.
Discover 20 Cleantech Startups to Watch (2024)
PolyGone promotes Microplastic Remediation
USA-based startup PolyGone develops a natural microplastic filter technology. The company’s product is a modular flotation frame, Plastic Hunter, that captures microplastic debris in water bodies through biomimetic artificial root filters. These filters mimic the fibrous structures of aquatic plant roots, effectively trapping microplastics without harming the ecosystem. The proprietary silicone formulation used in the filters is highly hydrophobic, ensuring adherence to microplastic particles.
The Plastic Hunter monitoring stations, equipped with these filters, operate without pumps or electricity, allowing for deployment in diverse aquatic environments. Data from the filter arrays provide insights into the levels of microplastic pollution across various settings. For areas with significant pollution, PolyGone offers tailored remediation solutions with custom support infrastructure. This approach enables effective monitoring and remediation of microplastic contamination in both urban and rural waterways.
Mini Mines advances Eco-friendly Li-ion Battery Recycling
Indian startup Mini Mines enables sustainable recycling of Li-ion batteries through a carbon-neutral process that recovers valuable materials from end-of-life batteries, minimizing CO2 emissions. Its patented Hybrid Hydro-Metallurgy (HHM) technology recovers materials like lithium, cobalt, and nickel, which are essential for battery manufacturing.
The process involves neutralizing spent batteries using MiniMines Solution A, followed by safely dismantling and shredding them. The batteries then undergo a 2-stage stripping using the MiniMines Solution B. The startup then separates the black mass from plastics, copper, and aluminum foil. This circular economy approach ensures that battery-grade materials re-enter the supply chain, supporting sustainable cell manufacturing.
Cyclothe simplifies Circular Textile Waste Management
Cyclothe is a Swedish startup that advances circular textile waste management. The Cyclothe App allows consumers to dispose of their textile waste by utilizing existing distribution networks and scheduling a pick-up. The nearest partner courier picks up the waste and transports it to the nearest container so as to be delivered to the sorting facility for processing. The textile waste is weighed and in return for the weight of the waste, users earn textile money which they can use to buy recycled garments via the app.
Cyclothe uses its AI-driven sorting systems to identify the material composition of the collected textile waste. This allows the startup to determine the best use for the garments. It then reintegrates these garments into a value stream — maximizing their economic and environmental value by making them available again to the partners for reuse, repurpose, or recycling.
Nextron offers Clean Energy as a Service
Nextron is a startup based out of Brazil that provides clean energy as a service using solar power. It operates solar power plants, generating renewable energy without the need for individual installations. Customers register online with Nextron’s platform to receive clean energy from these solar plants, avoiding unexpected costs and fees.
The entire management process, including consumption monitoring, savings, bill payments, and more, is accessible through the startup’s app. Nextron thus connects solar power plants to properties via agreements with existing energy companies, facilitating access to clean, affordable energy without the logistical challenges of private solar panels.
Pascal makes Solid Refrigerant for HVAC
USA-based startup Pascal develops a solid refrigerant technology for HVAC systems. Its suite of refrigerants undergo a solid-solid phase change to transfer heat. They function within the same pressure and temperature parameters as traditional gas refrigerants, suitable for a broad spectrum of HVAC applications, including freezers and heat pumps.
Pascal’s technology enables HVAC systems that emit no direct refrigerant emissions, enhancing environmental sustainability. The design also leads to smaller, quieter, and safer operations. Further, they directly integrate with standard HVAC components, ensuring compatibility.
Novalith streamlines Sustainable Lithium Extraction
Australian startup Novalith utilizes carbon dioxide to make low-carbon, high-purity lithium for batteries, without the environmental costs. The startup’s proprietary LiCAL technology replaces the conventional lithium refinery.
It does not rely on strong acids or bases and instead collects carbon dioxide from industrial sources and utilizes it to directly extract and convert the lithium into battery-grade lithium carbonate. By using CO2, Novalith’s process is significantly cheaper, has a smaller footprint, and produces a low-carbon and environmentally sustainable lithium.
Cellone enhances Solar Power Infrastructure
Cellone is a cleantech engineering startup from Nigeria that builds advanced solar power technologies. It designs PluGSpot systems, which are smart, pre-configured power setups offering cost-effective, modular, and scalable solutions. PluGSpot-R caters to rural telecommunication needs with a modular off-grid design, ensuring effective uptime. PluGSpot-U serves peri-urban and urban telecommunication sites with similar reliability.
For businesses, PluGSpot-E integrates energy storage with a sleek design, incorporating inverters, solar controllers, grid chargers, and lithium batteries. Additionally, Cellone offers an AI platform VertGrid that allows real-time remote control and management of PluGSpot systems, enhancing energy usage efficiency. This platform also supports integration with smart devices for comprehensive energy management.
Climative provides Low Carbon Building Plans
Canadian startup Climative develops an AI-driven data platform that creates personalized low-carbon plans for buildings, aiming to guide energy retrofitting processes. These plans are designed to be dynamic, allowing for updates as new data becomes available or as improvements are made.
Climative’s data platform encompasses several tools, including Insights for AI-assisted insights, Navigator for customer engagement, and Advisor for remote energy retrofit modeling. Additionally, the platform offers custom data analytics reports and interfaces to support decision-making.
QReceipts enables Paperless Receipts
UAE-based startup Qreceipts builds a digital receipt solution that eliminates paper receipts, thus promoting sustainability. The platform offers smart digital receipts, known as e-receipts, which are accessible on customers’ phones after transactions. Qreceipts features instant smart receipt collection through a quick scan at checkout, by scanning a QR code to receive a PDF receipt on the phone.
This initiative brings brands and customers together to share responsibility for the environment, advocating for a paperless approach. Thus saving millions of trees annually from the waste associated with thermal receipts. QReceipts reduce the wastage of resources and emissions associated with their production and disposal. Additionally, Qreceipts simplifies receipt management by storing all receipts on a mobile device without the need for downloads or registration.
Metal Light enables Zero Emission Power Generation
Metal Light is a startup from the USA that develops metal-air batteries for sustainable power generation. Its patented Metal-Air technology uses electrochemical reactions for zero-emission power generation, ensuring silent and safe indoor use. The power generation process involves inserting an aluminum cassette to fuel up the LED light of the battery.
The light turns on when the metal harvester comes in contact with the aluminum cassette. When the metal harvester is removed, the power is disconnected and the light turns off. The technology is sustainable, using recyclable metal fuel and producing environmentally friendly by-products. Metal Light’s product lineup includes off-grid lighting solutions, mobile energy banks, portable generators, and home power backup systems.
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Nellie Technologies makes a Carbon Capture Bioreactor
Nellie Technologies is a UK-based startup that develops Nellie Cell, an organic bioreactor with a proprietary growth medium and controlled growth environment (CGA). It sequesters a commercially viable volume of carbon dioxide directly from ambient air. Moreover, the startup’s patent-pending feedstock and environmental management system increase efficiency and carbon capture rates.
The bioreactor is also modular and scalable, allowing applications tailored for the installation environments. Further, Nellie Technologies provides carbon capture, utilization & storage (CCUS) as a service using its solution, avoiding upfront costs for businesses. The startup’s approach of using evolutionary biotechnology allows industries and commercial businesses to capture carbon at the source and reduce their carbon footprint.
Holy Technologies creates Circular Carbon Fiber Components
Holy Technologies is a German startup that makes circular carbon fiber solutions for applications in the energy, automotive, and aerospace industries. The startup leverages proprietary manufacturing processes to make carbon fiber components.
They are lightweight, greener, and more cost-effective than conventional manufacturing materials. This allows manufacturers to integrate high-performance components while reducing production cost and product weight, improving CO2-saving potential.
Openversum creates a Water Filtration Membrane
Openversum is a Swiss startup that offers a proprietary water filtration membrane. It removes contaminants like heavy metals, pathogens, and pesticides quickly and efficiently. The startup further provides a simple plastic manufacturing workflow and the required raw materials to make water purifiers locally.
It also educates local businesses on the technology to micro-franchise the startup’s purifiers to ensure minimal selling costs. Additionally, Openversum‘s manufacturing process utilizes a biodegradable cartridge and is solvent-free, making their product environmentally friendly. This provides communities with more access to clean and sustainable water while creating employment for entrepreneurs.
Zero Labs offers Digital Renewable Energy as a Service
Zero Labs is an Estonian startup that delivers digital renewable energy as a service. The startup’s application programming interface (API) and point-and-click service allow businesses to provide proof of green energy sourcing. For this, Zero Labs leverages a trustless blockchain to verify the claims and sustainability reporting.
This generates renewable energy certificates (REC) that allow businesses to communicate their impact and enable anyone to verify the data, enhancing transparency. The startup’s programmable decarbonization solution thus ensures carbon-free operations, advancing a zero-carbon economy.
Enreport makes AI-driven Digital Twins for Energy Efficiency
Enreport is a Finnish startup that creates energy-efficiency software solutions for commercial and industrial companies. The startup’s energy management system (EMS) develops AI-driven digital twins of production processes using a drag-and-drop workflow.
These digital models simultaneously calibrate the equipment to optimize energy consumption and reduce emissions. The EMS also uses predictive analytics to forecast energy consumption and prices to improve energy demand and supply, lowering operational expenses.
NETS23D advances Circular Blue Economy
NETS23D is a South African startup that advances the circular blue economy. The startup upcycles end-of-life fishing nets into consistent quality compounds for the molding and 3D printing industries. NETS23D also utilizes its compounds to 3D-print moveable, modular floating structures for housing and commercial use cases like family houses and floating restaurants. This way, the startup redirects discarded end-of-season fishing nets from seas to reduce their negative impacts on aquatic life.
Varme Energy makes a CCS-integrated Waste-to-Energy System
Varme Energy is a Canadian startup that builds waste-to-energy projects with integrated carbon capture and storage. For this, the startup utilizes AITOS‘ gasification technology (AGT) that leverages modular and scalable thermal treatment plants to generate energy.
Varme Energy then couples a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system to the AGT to capture post-combustion carbon capture and permanently stores it underground. As a result, the startup’s plants or projects deliver decarbonized baseload steam for district heating, industrial processes, or produce electricity. This allows utilities, businesses, and cities to leverage low-carbon heat energy on demand while diverting waste from landfills.
Cool Lion Energies offers Solar-powered Cooling as a Service
Cool Lion Energies is a startup based in Ivory Coast that delivers solar-powered cooling as a service. The startup constructs refrigerators and freezer storage for use in the agriculture, agri-food, industrial, and eCommerce sectors. Cool Lion Energies’ solar-powered containers or cold rooms are assembled locally from prefabricated panels while keeping them removable, quickly deployable, and space-light.
It also offers containers on demand based on the pay-as-you-go business model to mitigate upfront costs. The startup’s product line includes storage options for multiple capacities and payment models. These refrigerators allow businesses to reduce their reliance on the grid and transition to cleaner operations.
TerraStor develops Grid-scale Energy Storage
TerraStor is a US-based startup that makes grid-scale energy storage for renewable integration. The startup’s highly efficient advanced compressed air energy storage (ACAES) systems are large mechanical batteries. They feature an electric compressor that is powered by the excess electricity from the grid, which compresses air from the atmosphere to a very high pressure. An underground cavern then stores the pressurized power while the heat generated during compression is stored in a heat retention medium.
During intermittent periods, the compressed air, heated with the recovered heat during compression, escapes the cavern. Further, the heated compressed air runs through a turbine to power a generator and deliver electricity to the grid. This allows energy and utility companies to efficiently integrate renewables, replace peaker plants, and ensure a small surface footprint for the installation.
Blue Energy Motors advances Green Trucking
Blue Energy Motors is an Indian startup that offers green trucking solutions. The startup’s clean technology delivers a modular platform that supports various green fuels like liquified natural gas (LNG), biomethane, and hydrogen. Blue Energy Motors also makes a hybrid heavy-duty truck, Blue LNG, using its technology to provide long haul and reduced emissions.
Additionally, the startup offers an electric truck, Blue EV, that features a lower cost per kilometer compared to conventional diesel trucks. These trucks allow logistics companies and businesses to leverage zero-emission transportation and reduce their carbon footprint.
Discover All Emerging CleanTech Startups
The CleanTech startups showcased in this report are only a small sample of all startups we identified through our data-driven startup scouting approach. Download our free CleanTech Innovation Report for a broad overview of the industry or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies & emerging solutions that will impact your company in 2024!
