Evergreen Climate Innovation’s 501vc Investment Fund now invests $200k – $300k in early-stage climate tech startups in the Greater Midwest. This climate tech-focused investment fund is looking to support climate startups specifically in the tech space that are headquartered in places like Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and the surrounding states, a location that is historically under-funded for climate tech.
University of Michigan students and faculty have just launched a student-run investment fund focused on supporting early-stage climate tech companies.
In June, Aeroseal, LLC, a climate tech company shrinking carbon emissions from residential and commercial buildings, announced it raised $22 million in funding. The Series A round was led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) with participation from Energy Impact Partners and Building Ventures.
“We recently closed on $17 million in funding, reinforcing our commitment to the wind industry,” says Danny Ellis, CEO of SkySpecs, a sustainable energy company in Ann Arbor that uses drones to inspect wind turbines. “We’ve doubled down our focus on the wind industry.”
Russell Schindler is the head of TCNewTech in Traverse City, which at 1600 members averages 200 people per meeting. He’s also the CEO and founder of a company called SampleServe that uses technology to update the antiquated process of environmental sampling, from municipal water supply testing to cannabis. It sounds simple, and some of the technology is, but, Schindler tells us, the state of Michigan updated the standards for environmental sampling of soil, water, and the like, a number of years ago, and all of a sudden, it became much harder for companies to not only purchase specialized equipment required to conduct their sampling, but also to process all the data.
