Very Invisible Hand In Climate Startups; In 2018 6X As Much Went To Software As To All Clean Tech

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It is common wisdom in the tech industry that it is much easier to raise money for a software company than it is for a start-up that wants to work in biotechnology or energy. The current wave of internet-focused start-ups going public, and reaping billions of dollars for investors, has hardened the bias against so-called hard technology. Total funding for clean-tech start-ups fell during most of the past decade, according to data from the research firm Pitchbook. In 2018, $6.6 billion was invested in clean tech, about 15 percent of what went to software start-ups. Carbon-removal start-ups got a tiny sliver of that.

The lack of investment in carbon-focused start-ups poses a particularly existential problem. Two major scientific organizations said last fall that even if greenhouse-gas emissions were reduced significantly, stopping drastic global warming would require technological breakthroughs that allowed for the removal of billions of tons of carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.

Some promising methods for accomplishing that involve old-fashioned technologies, like planting trees and changing the ways farmers till their fields. But there are dozens, if not hundreds, of start-ups developing new technologies that address the issue.

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A small number of companies have had success making this argument to investors. Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company founded in 2009 that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air by running it through specially formulated chemicals, announced last month that it had raised $68 million to build its first commercial facility. But the investment demonstrated just how difficult it has been for companies in the industry. In the time it took Carbon Engineering to raise one round of $68 million, Slack, a messaging company founded the same year, has raised more than 10 times as much and is now preparing for an initial public offering that could value it at nearly $20 billion.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/business/carbon-removal-technology-start-ups.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fclimate&action=click&contentCollection=climate&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront