New Pillsbury Report Finds Climatetech Remains a Priority for VC Investors Worldwide

“Qualified opportunities tend to bring capital onto different continents,” noted Pillsbury partner and report contributor Stan Lewandowski, who focuses his practice on advising startups across a variety of international markets. “Prominent investors have claimed that the next wave of unicorns will be companies developing green hydrogen, climate-smart agriculture, green steel, and green cement and that borders will not exist for such investments.”

Some key findings in the report include:

• The total value of climatetech venture deals through early August was $14.3 billion, which lags totals from a blockbuster 2021 but already exceeds 2019 and is on track to easily surpass 2020 aggregate value.
• Climatetech deal values dipped 25.3% between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 but have recovered dramatically in the months since, growing 19.2% between Q1 and Q2 2022, even as other sectors struggled to regain investor confidence.
• Internationally, North America continues to drive the largest percentage of climatetech deal value. Europe is poised to take over the number two spot this year, following a fifth consecutive year of declining values out of Asia.
• Pre-money valuations increased across company stages, particularly for late-stage companies, for which the median valuation increased 48.5% YTD and exceeded $100 million for the first time.
• Even with predictably fewer new market entrants, the nearly $500 million in first-time climatetech financings year-to-date has already eclipsed the total in 2020.

The research is based on proprietary data provided by Pitchbook Venture Monitor as well as the Pillsbury’s extensive experience working first-hand with Climatetech startups and investors. To read the report in full, click here.

Ranked among the Top 3 most active law firms for global venture capital financings by Refinitiv, Pillsbury’s Emerging Growth & Venture Capital team counsels high-growth enterprises and venture capital investors domestically and abroad. We help entrepreneurs and investors take shoestring startups to market-leading positions, assisting on everything from company formation to financings, corporate governance, technology transactions, acquisitions and public offerings. To learn more, visit www.pillsburylaw.com/startups.