NY Ecosystem
Learn more about NY startup support organizations, including other NYSERDA-supported programs
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Carbon to Value Initiative (Urban Future Lab, GreentownLabs, Fraunhofer USA)
- Stage: Pre-seed to Series A
- Domain: Carbon Capture (point-source & DAC) Carbon Dioxide RemovalEnabling technologies, financing insurance, and carbon markets
- Primary Success Metric: Funding
- Program Duration: 12 months
The Carbon to Value Initiative (C2V) is a multi-year multi-stakeholder program catalyzing the carbontech ecosystem, running under the Urban Future Lab. Since its launch in 2020, the C2V Initiative has created over 20 partnership opportunities and facilitated over 200 new business connections between its 26 startups, CLC members, and C2V’s rich carbontech network. C2V startups have collectively raised over $400 million in follow-on funding. The Carbontech Leadership Council (CLC) is another component of this program.
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CEBIP Incubate (Clean Energy Business Innovation Portal)
- Stage: Early-stage
- Domain: Broad, covers all aspects of environment/climate
- Primary Success Metric: Market adoption
With a full slate of virtual and in-person resources – and a long history of game-changing graduates – CEBIP Incubate nurtures the best ideas into the smartest real-world solutions, and today’s promising innovators into tomorrow’s energy-industry leaders. CEBIP also has an accelerator program, the Clean Energy Technology Transfer (CETX), which creates a pipeline and expands the network of clean energy innovation from intellectual property (IP) to commercial feasibility.
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ChargeUp Accelerator (New Energy New York, Battery Tech Hub)
- Stage: Pre-commercial Series A
- Domain: Battery or energy storage technologies (batteries preferred)
- Primary Success Metric: Market adoption
- Program Duration: 6 months
ChargeUp is a 6-month accelerator program that supports startups developing emerging solutions in the battery and energy storage space across the entire value chain by advancing their technology commercialization and investor readiness. Domain: battery or energy storage technologies (batteries preferred)
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The Clean Fight (New Energy Nexus)
- Stage: Growth >$1M in revenue
- Domain: Energy Storage Building Decarbonization Food Services
- Primary Success Metric: Market adoption
- Program Duration: 6 months
The Clean Fight is a flagship not-for-profit accelerator that will identify and scale the top growth-stage climate tech companies from around the world looking to expand into New York. The Clean Fight is supported by NYSERDA and the U.S. Department of Energy and powered by New Energy Nexus. Each of the selected companies is eligible for a range of tailored benefits to support capacity building, deployments or manufacturing capabilities in New York, hands-on matchmaking with industry-leading customer and capital partners, bespoke support services, and expert insight into navigating the New York State market.
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The Carbontech Development Initiative (CDI) (Columbia University - Center on Global Energy Policy)
- Stage: Early (pre-seed)
- Domain: Carbon capture CO2-to-Building Materials CO2-to-Chemicals Fuels Materials
- Primary Success Metric: Tonnes of carbon captured
The Carbontech Development Initiative (CDI) is a large-scale market transformation grant-seeding and commercialization initiative for carbontech science and technology. CDI aims to position New York State as a global carbontech hub by supporting research and development, facilitating technology transfer, and commercializing innovation. By leveraging the deep bench of technical expertise at Columbia University and the entrepreneurial dynamism of New York State, CDI promotes the decarbonization solutions required to address the climate crisis and catalyze economic development. CDI awards grant funds via three different research tracks and one commercialization track.
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Empire Technology Prize $10M (The Clean Fight - New Energy Nexus)
- Stage: Growth-to-late stage
- Domain: Buildings (heating/cooling)
- Primary Success Metric: Carbon abatement per dollar spent
- Program Duration: 12 months
The Empire Technology Prize is administered by The Clean Fight and RMI, with the support of New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Wells Fargo. The prize pool includes $10 million for up to seven finalists, with an additional $2 million funding pool available for pilot and demonstration projects in New York City or State.
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InnSure Innovation Prize (InnSure, RISE Resilience Innovations)
- Stage: Insurance product development
- Domain: Climate tech insurance products
- Primary Success Metric: Market adoption
- Program Duration: 18 months
InnSure is a challenge to support the creation of new insurance products and policies that fill gaps in the climate tech insurance market. The prizes of up to $1 million each are accompanied by an 18-month accelerator program specializing in new insurance products.
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Koffman Southern Tier Incubator (Binghamton University)
- Stage: Early-stage
- Domain: Broad (not just climate but agriculture, food, health, recycling, etc)
- Primary Success Metric: Funding
- Program Duration: Varies
The Koffman Southern Tier Incubator, opened in 2017, is a business incubator and start-up workspace located in Binghamton, NY. The Koffman serves as a hub for start-up activity in the region, providing working areas and mentorship that inspire individuals and companies to create and develop transformational, innovative products and ideas that diversify the regional economy. The unique and often challenging path start-up companies face is understood by the Koffman team, and their mission is to provide the tools and resources to maximize start-up success. They run 7 different programs.
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Launch NY
- Stage: Early-stage to Series A
- Domain: Broad (focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy)
- Primary Success Metric: Funding and exits
Launch NY is a nonprofit venture development organization in Upstate New York.
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New York Business Plan Competition (Upstate Capital)
- Stage: Early Pre-seed
- Domain: Broad (not just climate)
The NYBPC is a statewide, intercollegiate entrepreneurship competition powered by Upstate Capital. Students from across New York state are invited to apply and showcase their ideas.
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North East Clean Energy Council
- Stage: Early
- Domain: Broad (cleantech)
- Primary Success Metric: Funding
The NorthEast Energy Council (NECEC) leads the Cleantech Open Northeast (CTONE) accelerator, founded in 2005 as the Ignite Clean Energy program by the Energy Special Interest Group (ESIG) of the MIT Enterprise Forum. Shortly after its inception, Cleantech Open Northeast (CTONE) entered an affiliate agreement with the Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC). As part of this agreement, NECEC provides office space and visibility, in exchange for CTONE helping to promote NECEC’s interests and creating a pipeline for potential new members for NECEC. NECEC also runs NECEC Navigate, an accelerator for clean energy startups.
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Retool West New York - (Jamestown Board of Public Utilities)
- Stage: Early
- Domain: Broad (clean energy)
Retool WNY is dedicated to highlighting Chautauqua County and the WNY region as the ideal place for cleantech and climate tech manufacturing, offering numerous supply chain opportunities in this emerging sector. Regional manufacturers can apply for up to $19,000 in reimbursement for equipment/software investments made to help them move into clean energy manufacturing.
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RIT Venture Creations Incubator (Rochester Institute of Technology)
- Stage: Early to mid-seed
- Domain: Broad (not just climate but all sectors)
- Primary Success Metric: Jobs created, NY companies served, capital raised
RIT Venture Creations is a technology business incubator that provides a range of services to early- to mid-seed stage startups to help them advance their businesses on their way to joining the ranks of viable, profitable businesses.
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Scale For ClimateTech
- Stage: Late
- Domain: Hard Tech (Buildings, Transportation, Grid, and Industry)
- Primary Success Metric: Products and units manufactured
- Program Duration: 12 months
Scale For ClimateTech provides support throughout the manufacturing process, ensuring that founders have confidence in their path to the market, make fewer mistakes, and can scale up production to meet demand. From early Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and prototype refinement to negotiating partner and supplier agreements, as well as managing logistics, Scale For ClimateTech is dedicated to helping startups navigate time-sensitive, critical decisions throughout the entire manufacturing process.
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Venture For ClimateTech
- Stage: Early Pre-seed
- Domain: Broad across climate (Buildings, Transportation, Grid, and Industry)
- Primary Success Metric: Market adoption
- Program Duration: 6 months
The goal of Venture For ClimateTech is to accelerate innovations likely to have substantial climate impacts for all, and which have potential for adoption in NYS. In particular, Venture For ClimateTech wants to offer a path to help entrepreneurs whose highly impactful innovations face unique barriers to commercialization through normal processes due to long paths to market and high capital intensity, along with other more traditional startups.
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Urban Future Lab (New York University, NYU)
- Stage: Market-ready
- Domain: Broad across climate
- Primary Success Metric: Funding and company exits
- Program Duration: Varies from 6 months to 3 years
The Urban Future Lab at NYU Tandon is a non-profit innovation hub for best-in-class climatetech startups with a focus on clean energy and sustainable urban infrastructure solutions. They have 5 programs: ACRE, Carbon2Value, the Offshore Wind Innovation Hub, Innovate UK, and Clean Start.
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The Clean Tech Center (Tech Garden, CenterState CEO and Syracuse Center of Excellence)
- Stage: Early to mid-stage
- Domain: Broad across clean tech
- Primary Success Metric: Commercialization
- Program Duration: Varies by program
The Clean Tech Center at the Tech Garden in Syracuse is focused on supporting companies commercializing environmental and clean energy technologies. The Clean Tech Center offers support for entrepreneurs and early-stage companies through incubation, acceleration, and retention. The Clean Tech Center also partners with the Syracuse COE to administer the EPIC Building Accelerator.