New index shows climate tech companies are outperforming the Nasdaq
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The VC firm Energy Impact Partners has created an index that tracks performance of companies spanning a wide range of climate-friendly technologies — and it shows they're crushing the broader market.
Why it matters: The firm's new "Climate Tech Index" differs from technology indices that are more narrowly targeted, such as only tracking clean energy companies.
What they're saying: "As far as we could tell, [there was] nothing that was inclusive of the broader climate tech ecosystem, which includes other sectors such as electric vehicles, plastics recycling and plant-based meat," said Shayle Kann, a partner with EIP.
- "We built our index to be able to monitor how the whole crop (so to speak) of climate tech companies performs as the market evolves," he told me in an email exchange.
- The companies in the index are not in EIP's portfolio, Kann added.
Where it stands: Despite a recent drop in share prices, the index is significantly outperforming the Nasdaq, as you can see in the chart above.
How it works: The index currently has over 30 companies, with more to be added, but is not an investment vehicle. Instead it's a tool for tracking the aggregate performance of a suite of new market entrants and more established players.
- On the mobility side, various companies range from incumbent electric cars leader Tesla to recent arrivals like Canoo, which is among the many EV startups that recently went public via merging with a special purpose acquisition company.
- Others include renewables companies like First Solar and wind turbine heavyweight Vestas, the plant protein company Beyond Meat, the hydrogen fuel cell company Plug Power, and the advanced battery firm Quantumscape.
The intrigue: TechCrunch's coverage by Jonathan Shieber makes an interesting point...
"While the EIP list is intended to be informative, there’s no reason someone couldn’t take this index and turn it into an exchange traded fund for the industry."
