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Climate tech is finally fundable software — but only the software half.
Scope: Carbon measurement, decarbonisation tooling, climate risk, energy software, grid-edge, climate finance, voluntary carbon markets.
Cost-to-build
68/100
Pure-software climate plays are buildable; hardware-adjacent plays carry the highest capital intensity on the site, often nine-figure scale.
Deal-velocity
52/100
The signal window has shortened from 14 weeks to roughly 10 as climate-software rounds compress alongside regulatory deadlines.
Live signal: 5 climate tech startups currently tracked for Q2 2026. See the roster →
Where Climate Tech lands
Build
Build it yourself
Fund
Write the cheque
Avoid
Reroute the energy
Wait
Wait or partner
High cost-to-build, high deal-velocity. The market rewards capital and rewards it fast — sourcing inside the pre-fundraise window matters more than picking the right sub-niche.
The honest version
The site's data shows engineering acceleration in climate-tech split cleanly: the software-only sub-sector (measurement, MRV, accounting, risk) moves like a healthy mid-velocity SaaS market, while the hardware-adjacent sub-sector (energy, materials, capture) carries five-to-eight-year capital cycles that make it functionally a different game. We score the blended sector just over the fund-quadrant line because software-side velocity now dominates the engineering signal.
If you are building
Fits when: You can stay strictly in the software / MRV / risk layer and you have access to an enterprise design partner inside the first quarter.
If you are funding
Fits when: You can separate climate-software from climate-hardware in your portfolio model; otherwise the blended IRRs will mislead.
The software-only half is fundable on conventional venture timelines. The hardware-adjacent half remains a different asset class with longer cycles and higher capital intensity — the build-vs-invest framework treats them as two regimes inside one sector tag.
The score blends a low cost-to-build for software MRV with a much higher one for hardware. If your scope is hardware-only, treat the effective cost-to-build as ~95.
AI/ML is the most expensive thing to build and the fastest thing to fund.
Fintech rewards capital and patience, not weekend builders.
Cyber is the most reliable mid-velocity fund quadrant on the site.
Data infrastructure is fund quadrant — but the indie wedge inside it is the best on the site.
Every sector we track lives somewhere on the 2×2 — the index page groups all 20 verdicts in one place.
When the verdict isn’t enough
The free Monday email tells you which way the wind is blowing. If climate techis the call you’re weighing this quarter, two faster moves: pull the live teardown on this one sector, or watch every sector week over week so you see the team pulling ahead before it shows up in someone’s deck.
Pressure-test one sector
€7
One sector, one teardown, one sitting. The same read your analyst would spend an afternoon on — who’s shipping like they’re about to raise, and who just looks busy. Cheaper than the coffee you’d buy to ask around.
Test one sector — €7 →Watch it move every week
€9.97/mo
The standing dashboard across every sector we track — so the team that quietly doubled overnight lands in front of you, not in front of the partner who beat you to the term sheet. The deck lags the work by 21 to 47 days; this is where you spend that head start.
Get the dashboard — €9.97/mo →