Credits and programs for climate startups
There is no climate credit category, and looking for one wastes time: the compute programs open to you are the same general ones everybody claims. The climate-specific money sits in accelerators, grants and prize funding, which is slower, larger and mostly non-dilutive.
Climate teams arrive looking for a climate version of AWS Activate and it does not exist. Cloud vendors organise their programs by what you consume rather than by why you exist, so a climate company walks through exactly the same door as a marketplace or a CRM, and gets exactly the same answer.
Where the sector genuinely does have its own infrastructure is on the funding side. Our catalog holds dozens of programmes describing themselves as climate, climate tech or cleantech, and that split vocabulary is itself worth knowing: filtering on one spelling hides most of the field unless the filter expands all three, which ours does.
The order to do this in
- 1
Apply to the general cloud programs and stop hunting for a climate one
The AI and general tiers of the major clouds are open to you on the same terms as anyone else, and they are the largest credits you will get. Half an hour each, no mission questions on the form, and nothing about the sector changes the outcome in either direction.
- 2
Search all three spellings of your own sector
Programmes call themselves climate, climate tech or cleantech and almost never all three, so a single-label search hides most of the field. The focus filter folds the three into one set for exactly this reason, which is why the list on this page is longer than the label on it suggests.
- 3
Put grant applications ahead of accelerators in the queue
Climate is one of the few sectors where substantial non-dilutive money is genuinely available, through national innovation agencies, energy departments and prize funds. The applications are long and the decisions take quarters, so start them well before you need the money rather than when you do.
- 4
Choose a programme for industrial access, not for the cheque
Hardware, energy and materials companies need pilot sites, offtake conversations and utility introductions far more than they need a quarter of coaching. A programme with a corporate sponsor sitting in your part of the value chain is worth several times one without, at identical terms.
- 5
Be honest about hardware timelines in the application
A twelve-week programme built around a demo day assumes software milestones. If your next milestone is a prototype, a certification or a field trial, say so on the form, because a cohort goes badly when the programme expects a launch and you are waiting on a fabricator.
- 6
Ask whether the programme funds pilots separately
Several climate programmes carry a deployment or pilot budget that is separate from the investment, and it is frequently the more useful half for a company that needs a site rather than a salary. It is rarely on the front page, so raise it directly during the interview stage.
Accelerators in this space
- SOSV / HAXUnited States
- Kenya Climate Innovation CenterKenya
- Tasmu Digital ValleyQatar
- Startupbootcamp DubaiUnited Arab Emirates
- Qatar Science & Technology ParkQatar
- TAQADAMRemote
Which of these do you clear?
Five questions against the real eligibility rules.