Market Map of Mobility & Urbanization, with 3 Hot Topics for Climate Tech VCs
3 Investment Leads from Mapping 100+ climate tech startups in Mobility & Urbanization (mostly early-stage and VC-backed)
Hello hello from San Francisco! It’s Diane, ex-M&A investment banker on my climate journey to break into VC climate tech. As discussed in my previous post, I’ve met with 100+ climate tech startups, saw some patterns and connected the dots to uncover the 4 main sectors of Climate Tech:
1. Food & Agriculture
2. Energy Transition
3. Mobility & Urbanization
4. Sustainable Systems (incl. carbon capture, manufacturing, recycling, etc.)
With a systemic approach, I decided to go deep-dive into each of these sectors: by creating a Market Map of 100+ startups in the space (mostly early-stage and VC-backed) and highlighting 3 investment leads for climate tech VCs.
And so it goes, after the amazing inbounds from investors and startups on my latest Market Maps in Food & Agriculture (with 6,000+ views!) and Energy Transition (with 13,000 views!!), I’m now ready for the next episode: Mobility & Urbanization — with topics covered by Biden’s $2 trillion climate bill to build a modern and sustainable US infrastructure over the next decade.
1. How I Created the Map
First, I researched more than 100 VC-backed climate tech startups related to Mobility & Urbanization, I then placed them in the “Big Picture of Cities” which led me to classify them into 4 main categories: 1. Electrification, 2. New Mobility, 3. Connected Infrastructure, and 4. Green Buildings.
Then, I mapped these 4 categories of Mobility & Urbanization with the 100+ startups that I discovered in my journey and which present the following profile:
- Sources: Data from websites of 20+ select climate tech VCs (85+ startups), Insightful 1:1 zoom calls with founders / C-suite (15+ startups)
- Sector: Climate Tech Mobility & Urbanization
- Stage: mostly early-stage (pre-seed, seed, Series A)
- Technologies: software; hardware; deeptech / hardtech (concept defined in my previous LinkedIn post)
- Location: mostly US, and Europe
2. Result: the Map
Market Map of Mobility & Urbanization: 100+ climate tech startups (mostly early-stage and VC-backed)
3. Key Takeaways: 3 Hot Topics for Climate Tech VCs
Taking a further step back on the above map (refer to yellow bubbles) and from my conversations with Climate Tech VCs, here are 3 hot topics to look out for:
A. First, let’s DREAM BIG with New Frontier Aerospace
- The Business in short: hypersonic rocket to deliver urgent cargo and passengers anywhere on Earth in 2 hours or less… yes, you read correctly. And their CEO Bill Bruner from NASA / Air Force / Department of Defense was so epic and fascinating to chat with!
- Technology / How it works: 3D printed VTOL using biofuel and flying 10x faster / 4x higher than today’s jet engines (speed Mach 8 vs. Mach 0.8; altitude 160,000 ft vs. 35,000 ft), covering a 8,000-mile range in 2 hours from existing airports and vertiports
- Impact / What is at stake: Faster (for travel routine and emergency situations incl. transplant organs, war zone evacuation & supplies, etc.), Cheaper (cost of $60k / flight << revenue of $1m+ / flight), Cleaner (biofuel + 3D printed)
B. Then, let’s CHARGE FAST with ElectricFish
- The Business in short: energy storage for extreme-fast EV charging at ubiquitous places including gas stations. And their founder Fola Ayoola from Stanford was so inspiring to meet with!
- Technology / How it works: patented software for site optimization combined with hardware-agnostic stack to enable charging up to 100 miles in range in 5–10 minutes, with no queuing and with high turnover
- Impact / What is at stake: Faster (charging 3–7x times faster than competition), Cheaper (Return on Investment 7 yrs earlier than competition, with permits in 2 weeks vs. 18 months, and patented technology to ensure 100% uptime), Cleaner (value of “stranded assets” such as unused parking space in gas stations to be converted into income)
C. Finally, let’s BUILD SMART with Brimstone Energy
- The Business in short: novel process to make carbon-neutral Portland cement at cost parity (in construction, Concrete = 7–15% Cement + 60–75% Aggregates + 14–21% Water). And both their co-founders Cody Finke and Hugo Leandri from Caltech were so cool & sharp to discuss with!
- Technology / How it works: proprietary process that turns abundant rocks into cement with no CO2 emissions (vs. emissions in conventional cement: >700 kg/ton from process and fuel)
- Impact / What is at stake: Large decarbonization (no emissions vs. current cement / concrete industry representing 8% of global CO2 emissions), Market simplification (all inputs from one place), Higher return (streamlined supply chain and process economics)
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There is a huge opportunity to further invest in Mobility & Urbanization, make our cities resilient/ circular/ sustainable and have a net positive impact on our planet.
I’m always looking to further expand my network. Through my recent fellowship at On Deck Climate Tech, I keep meeting with 10 startups per week and I am connected to most of the VCs on the Market Map. If you are an investor exploring some opportunities in Mobility & Urbanization (whether you’re on the Map or not!), or if you are / know of a startup who should be on this Map, let’s connect at diane.cozian@gmail.com!
Till next time,
Diane Cozian