The Harvard Innovation Labs has selected 30 ventures to join the fourth annual Harvard Climate Entrepreneurs Circle, an incubation program for high-potential ventures working to address climate change.
“Since introducing the Climate Entrepreneurs Circle in 2021, the program has supported 95 ventures in developing innovative climate solutions,” said Rebekah Emanuel, senior advisor for social impact at the Harvard Innovation Labs, and chair of the Harvard Climate Circle. “In this cohort, our team continues to see remarkable impact, from finding new ways to reduce emissions in agriculture around the world, to creating new pathways to flood-proof homes.”
Climate Circle participants have access to world-class 1:1 coaching, pro bono legal counsel, warm connections to industry leaders, negotiation support, and a peer group of ventures working on innovative solutions to tackle climate change. The program is spearheaded by the Harvard Innovation Labs, Harvard Business School’s Business and Environment Initiative, and Harvard Alumni for Climate and the Environment.
Members of the 2024 Harvard Climate Circle include:
- 1Climate (HKS 2023): For clean energy developers who struggle with the time and costs of managing the regulatory sides of their projects, 1Climate offers an AI-powered, end-to-end platform that automates clean energy permitting and incentive processes.
- Aclaria Partners (HBS 1997): Financing decarbonization of real estate at scale with a team that has best-in-class subject matter expertise; demonstrated leadership across multiple economic cycles; and proven track records in global finance, business, and policy.
- AgDev (HBS 1999): Offering long-term debt capital for expansion-focused farmers in Brazil to purchase and restore degraded pastures to productivity, which reduces the need and financial incentive to clear native vegetation.
- Algoma (HBS 2023): Building a technology company that partners with real estate developers to automate the repeatable delivery of zero-carbon buildings.
- Carbon Counts (HBS 1996): For people who see climate change as a problem but don’t feel like they can help, Carbon Counts has built a mobile game, EverForest, and an impact platform that will plant billions of trees and motivate meaningful climate action.
- Charli Charging, Inc. (Harvard College 2016): Providing premium, turnkey EV charging solutions for the largest commercial and multifamily properties as well as single-family residences.
- Crop Diagnostix (HBS 2024): An ag tech startup diagnosing plant health to help farmers grow more food, more sustainably.
- Eki Agrivoltaics (HKS 2023): Enabling the coexistence of agriculture and solar energy by scaling an innovative photovoltaic technology and sharing the revenue generated from the solar energy with farmers.
- Finpublica (HLS 1997): Empowering finance leaders to foster a more sustainable, inclusive, and equitable society. The organization works with existing and emerging leaders, from across the finance industry and around the world, to help them develop and achieve their own environmental, social, and governance goals.
- FlatPeak (HBS 1995): Building an energy data platform that provides a complete energy optimization solution for any product or service.
- GoPowerEV (HBS 1996): Building an affordable, hassle-free EV charging solution for multifamily communities.
- GramHeet (HKS 2024): For Indian smallholder farmers facing post-harvest challenges, GramHeet provides integrated solutions that increase earnings, foster self-reliance, and mitigate environmental effects.
- Henua Technologies (HBS 2001): Combining environmental management technology, innovation, and business intelligence, Henua Technologies’ tools help corporations implement sustainability, ESG, regulatory compliance, reporting, circular economy, and productive transformation programs for the carbon-neutral economy that are efficient and profitable.
- Invert Inc. (HBS 2021): For companies focused on closing the gap between emissions reduction ambition and program execution, Invert accelerates corporate sustainability programs through the Invert SaaS Climate Action Platform and nature-based carbon credit projects.
- Keystone Climate (HES 2023): For corporate sustainability teams that need to measure, mitigate, and report their impact on nature and biodiversity, Keystone Climate provides software to automate this process.
- Laboratorio de Ideas Sostenibles (The Sustainable Ideas Lab) (GSAS 2023): Delivering climate solutions across South America through planning and design, Laboratorio de Ideas Sostenibles partners with governments and development organizations to address climate challenges while actively seeking solutions to broader social and economic issues.
- MicroAvionics (SEAS 2024): Levitating near space platforms for climate research, weather monitoring, and telecommunications.
- NetaCarbon (HBS and HKS 2024): For pro-climate businesses fed up with the significant time and cost to issue their carbon project, NetaCarbon provides a platform to digitize and streamline the credit issuance process.
- Offstream (HBS 2023): For companies that remove carbon and want to automate carbon compliance, Offstream’s platform maximizes revenue and minimizes time spent managing carbon certifications, compliance needs, and reporting.
- PelaStar (HKS 1993): Building a new platform for floating offshore wind energy. With a decade of pioneering R&D and engineering, PelaStar’s tension leg platform minimizes environmental impact and operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, and maximizes flexibility during deployment.
- Pacto Medical (HSPH 2023): For public health and healthcare workers who use pre-filled syringes, Pacto Medical makes a collapsible syringe that reduces transportation volume by 40%, allowing them to ship and deliver more syringes for less money and with a lower environmental impact.
- Prisere LLC (HBS 2009): Developing technology to help the reinsurance sector address underwriting the risks of a changing climate.
- RESILIFT (HBS 2023): For homeowners with flood risk, RESILIFT provides end-to-end residential flood-proofing solutions focusing on project financing and physical mitigation using innovative technology to optimize the process.
- Solara (HBS 2024): Making clean irrigation affordable for marginal farmers by providing irrigation as a pay-per-use service without any upfront investment.
- Tender Food (HBS 2023): Introducing a new generation of alternative meat products that have the same texture, taste, and consistency as real meat, using its patented fiber-spinning technology.
- The Surpluss (HSPH 2023): Helping governments and small-to-medium enterprises bridge the gap between climate science and circular economy with a digital solution to share their underutilized resources and profit from them.
- Trellis Air (GSD 2017): For industries looking to drive down their cooling costs while being at the forefront of climate policy, Trellis Air provides world-class, energy-efficient air conditioning.
- Wenverter (HKS 1991): Creating technology that converts our natural energy into clean electricity and green hydrogen to provide an actionable solution for the world’s climate emergency.
