Investor Highlight: Y Combinator’s Green Wave

According to the latest UN report on the climate crisis, society has the solutions if only politics weren't standing in the way. As just one example, wind and solar are now economically viable alternatives to fossil fuels (not even factoring in any estimated costs of climate disaster). Today, we're looking at the climate tech solutions currently in the pipeline.

Y Combinator, the Silicon Valley accelerator that has incubated numerous household names, can reliably tell us a lot about where venture capital is heading. The firm's latest cohort features a record 29 climate-related startups despite climate-specific accelerators' arguable expertise in climate tech.

                                                                    Via Climate Tech VC.

In a side-by-side comparison of climate tech investments from the general market vs. YC's investments in its latest cohort, prepared by Climate Tech VC, the YC Winter '22 batch emphasized industrial and carbon-related startups. These startups include Carbon Crusher, a carbon-negative roads startup, and AirMyne, an API to carbon capture at an industrial scale.

Gigacorns take off
YC may pride itself on its alumni of unicorns, but the accelerator has also created numerous "gigacorns," i.e., companies that have sequestered or lowered carbon emissions by one gigaton while remaining economically viable. These gigacorns include carbon capture company Pachama and Living Carbon, a genetically-enhanced carbon capture through trees.