Last year, when venture capital’s fiery streak cooled, climate tech held strong with tens of billions in deals despite geopolitical instability, hiked-up interest rates and crypto chaos. Still, the state of the sprawling, tricky-to-define sector was never easy to pin down; that’s as true as ever today.
So, where do things stand? Depending on what you’re reading, funding is still on the rise in certain corners, the “party” might be “over,” the industry is due for a rebound, or it’s feeling the squeeze. As research firms and media outlets pick apart the ebbs and flows across locales and subsectors, let’s look at some of the conclusions they’ve reached. Their latest takeaways aren’t actually conflicting, though they may seem to be for habitual headline skimmers.
First things first, climate tech deals and total funding dollars indeed slipped by more than a third in the first quarter of 2023, as TechCrunch laid out earlier this year. The chill persisted in the second quarter — altogether, funding dropped 40% in the first half of 2023, per the deal-watchers at Climate Tech VC (CTVC). In short, the squeeze is real. At its broadest definiti …
