NY Climate Tech: Feb 27 - Mar 5
Functional foods, carbon removal, climate art, and over a dozen accelerator and fellowship opportunities this month
Hi friends,
It’s almost March, and you know what that means? It’s accelerator season!
We’ve rounded up 13 programs with deadlines this March, most of them NYC based. There’s something for everyone: transit, energy storage, biodiversity, DAC, fellowship programs, nonprofits, and more. If you know of any programs we missed, send them our way and we’ll include them next week.
Here are our picks for the week:
On Tuesday (today), head to IndieBio for 🥕 FoodHack NYC Meetup: Better for You and Functional Foods, a panel and networking
Also on Tuesday, swing by Houston Hall for the 🍺 First NYCDR Happy Hour of 2024 to talk all things carbon removal with a group of scientists and entrepreneurs
Visit the Climate Museum on Wednesday for a talk with Atmos 📚 A talk with Atmos editor-in-chief Willow Defebaugh about her new book
On Friday join friend-of-the-newsletter and climate artist Nicole Kelner online for a 👩🎨 Free Climate Art Worshop
As always, you scroll down for the full list of upcoming events.
Cheers,
Alec, Sonam, and the Climate Tech Cities Team
Correction: Last week we included the link for the 2023 Columbia University Sustainability Symposium—it’s now updated for this year’s edition.
Events This Week
🦠 Hazard NYC: A Talk on NYC’s Toxic Sites in the Age of Climate Change: Tue, Feb 27
🥕 FoodHack NYC Meetup: Better for You and Functional Foods: Tue, Feb 27
🌊 COPRI Technical Lecture - The Battery Coastal Resilience: Wed, Feb 28
🌳 Climate Changemakers Hour of Action: Wed, Feb 28
📚 The Overview: A Book Talk with Willow Defebaugh: Wed, Feb 28
🚂 How And Why To Talk To Kids About Climate Change: Thu, Feb 29
👩🎨 Free Climate Art Worshop with Nicole Kelner: Fri, Mar 1
🌎 ECOLOGICAL CITY - Art & Climate Solutions Workshops: Sat, Mar 2
🎨 Bioart Exhibit : Embodied Futures & the Ecology of Care: Sat, Mar 2
We’re experimenting with a new rearrangement this week: We’re bringing up the list of this week’s events, but dropping the detailed listings that normally follow. What do you all think? Do you like listings with blurbs or just the short lists? Reply and let me know! You’ll be able to find upcoming events at the bottom, as usual.
🌎 Climate Tech Cities and Streetlife Ventures Startup and Talent Platforms
Climate Tech Cities and Streetlife Ventures are launching new platforms to support climate founders, funders, and career transitioners! There is no shortage of great companies raising money for their groundbreaking ideas, great investors looking to support with capital, and great talent living the mantra that every job is a climate job. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Grant & Accelerator Opportunities
🚇 Transit Innovation (Due Feb. 28)
The Transit Tech Lab provides an accelerated pathway for early to growth-stage companies to solve public transportation challenges for the largest transit agencies in North America.
🙋♀️ Hire a Summer Intern from Company Ventures (Due Feb. 29)
Company Ventures runs an annual summer internship program with NYCEDC, CUNY and Blackstone LaunchPad that supports a diverse tech workforce, and is pleased to offer Founder Fellows the opportunity to hire a fully subsidized ($20/hour) full-time (35 hours/week) intern. CUNY will offer a partial wage subsidy to employers who extend an employment offer at the end of the 8-week period. Fill out this Employer Interest Form by February 29th to express interest.
🌱 Venture for Climate Tech (Due Mar. 1)
Venture For ClimateTech is a non-profit global venture studio + accelerator program. We source the most promising climate tech innovators from around the world and offer them hands-on support until they are ready for first customers, pilot runs, and investment.
🌇 Queens Tech + Innovation Challenge (Due Mar. 1)
Queens Tech + Innovation Challenge helps early-stage entrepreneurs grow their businesses, offering $20K grants to selected teams as well as access to industry experts, founder networks, and entrepreneurial classes. Presented by the Queens Borough President and Queens Economic Development Corporation. Apply by March 1st.
🌬️ OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge (Due Mar. 4)
The OpenAir Carbon Removal Challenge is a worldwide challenge for students to create new processes, approaches and prototypes to remove carbon from the land, waters, or air. Student teams will design and build creative solutions to the carbon pollution problem. The very best approaches will be selected as finalists for an in-person showcase at the Carbon Unbound conference in May 2024.
🔋 Energy Storage Capital Challenge (Due Mar. 4)
This highly-targeted program brings together decision-makers across the capital stack, industry experts, and your innovative energy storage project in New York State. This best-in-class group will work collectively to refine your project strategy and align capital in order to advance the development of your project — and the energy storage market in New York more broadly — to ensure a more diversified pipeline of projects.
💸 Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab (Due Mar. 15)
Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab promotes financial inclusion and provides access to capital for early-stage tech companies, offering $250K to companies selected to their New York-based program in exchange for a 5% equity stake, along with access to networks, mentoring, and a tailored curriculum. Apply by March 15th.Apply by
🤩 Brand New Brand (Due Mar. 22)
Brand New Brand! is a juried, pro bono initiative from Ideas On Purpose to rebrand a local nonprofit, at no cost. 🤩
🌇 $10M Empire Technology Prize (Due Mar. 24)
The Empire Technology Prize is focused on finding groundbreaking solutions to tackle the greatest single source of GHG emissions from New York’s tall buildings - heating. Solutions that will be significantly easier for tall building owners to adopt - in short, high GHG reduction, minimally disruptive to install, with a path to cost competitiveness.
📐Third Derivative (Due Mar. 26)
We’re looking for world-changing climate tech startups with significant climate impact potential, addressing billion-dollar markets bringing innovations in hard science, hardware, software and business models to the world. If accepted, you’ll take part in our virtual, 18-month accelerator program.
🦚 Biodiversity Accelerator (Due Mar. 31)
The world's leading capacity-building programme for early-stage companies creating biodiversity-positive impact. For tech enabled companies that are addressing the current drivers of biodiversity loss and/ or provide solutions to valuing, protecting and restore natural ecosystems.
☀️ Mária Telkes Fellowship (Due Mar. 31)
The Mária Telkes Fellowship is hosted by the Cleantech Leaders Roundtable and Clean Energy Business Network. Cleantech Leaders Roundtable (CTLR) is a community of peers including cleantech CEOs, investors, and influencers. This community facilitates trusted exchange of information, collective problem-solving through partnerships, and amplification of individual business and communications efforts. The Clean Energy Business Network (CEBN) is the small business voice for the clean energy economy, and partners closely with CTLR on events and industry collaboration.
🏙️ URBAN-X Accelerator (Rolling for Spring Cohort)
For founders building businesses in areas such as Mobility, Buildings, Energy, Circularity, and Community. Within those sectors, we are specifically interested in solutions that have an aspect of scalable climate mitigation and adaptation.
Rolling Deadlines and Upcoming
🚀 ERA Summer 2024 Program (Due Apr. 23)
⚒️ Pilots at the Brooklyn Army Terminal (Rolling)
🏢 Urban Tech XChange (Rolling)
Community Shoutouts
🌳 Adapt Unbound (May 21)
Over 250 leaders and visionaries will convene in NYC to share actionable insights, scale innovative solutions and unlock the critical capital needed to adapt our urban and natural environments to the changing climate.
Upcoming Events
🍹 The Carbonauts Sustainability Mocktails (New York City): Wed, Mar 6
🌱 Redefining the Concrete Jungle: NYC as a Model for Urban Sustainability: Thu, Mar 7
🍷 Sips & Sweets with Women in Climate Investing & Finance and Marsh: Thu, Mar 7
🌊 Financing Resiliency: The Opportunity for Stormwater Fees in New York City: Thu, Mar 7
🍻 First Friday Meetup: Fri, Mar 8
🌿 Wall Street Green Summit 2024: Tue, Mar 12
🗽 2024 Digital New York Summit: Thu, Mar 14
⚖️ Youth-Powered Green Future | Visions for a Just Transition: Thu, Mar 14
🔬 LEAP Research Updates: Florencio Portocarrero + Jaeyoung Jung: Thu, Mar 14
🗣️ Climate Techies NYC Monthly Member Sustainability and Networking Meetup: Thu, Mar 14
🌳 Unlocking Enterprise Value through Embedded Sustainability: Fri, Mar 15
🧩 Unlocking Enterprise Value through Embedded Sustainability: Fri, Mar 15
🌅 Leaders in Impact Happy Hour: Mar 18
🍽️ Pratt Presents Food Equity: A Design Equity Event: Tue, Mar 19
👑 Columbia University Sustainability Symposium: Fri, Mar 22
🌍 IPPA's 18th Annual Spring Summit: Fri, Mar 29