Accelerators dominate early-stage climate-tech deals

In the rush to back early-stage climate technology startups, a handful of venture funds and accelerator programs are taking the cake, with the latter group occupying the largest share.

Why it matters: Accelerators — more so than specialist venture funds — are playing an outsize role in the space because they are funding large batches of companies, even if at smaller deal sizes, as part of the accelerator model.

By the numbers: Since January 1, 2021, the top five early-stage investors have participated in 70 funding rounds at the pre-seed, seed or Series A stage, Crunchbase data provided exclusively to Axios shows.

• The average deal size across those stages was $6.5 million, while the median deal size was $2.5 million, indicating a larger concentration of lower value deals at the earliest stages.
• Seventy-one investment firms, funds and accelerators have invested in at least three climate funding deals to date and count at least one climate startup among their portfolios.
• The 71 firms accounted for 351 deals across 169 startups.

💭 Our thought bubble: This level of activity in early-stage investment indicates the climate technology market is maturing.

• Entrepreneurs now have a range of financing options to get new companies off the ground instead of relying on a handful of gatekeepers in the industry.