While venture cools down around the world, climate startups are blazing hot – TechCrunch

While the venture capital world slows, climate tech is bucking the trend as startups in the space continue to ink deals at a record pace. In the process, the sector is climbing the ranks.

In the first quarter of this year, five climate tech deals made it into CB Insight’s top 10 lists covering seed and venture capital rounds. In total, those five climate tech deals pulled in $1.4 billion in funding. By the second quarter, eight such startups made the lists, collectively drawing investments worth $2.5 billion.

The trend is even stronger if you omit data from China, where the Communist Party’s influence tends to distort the funding picture. Outside of China, climate tech’s presence in CB Insight’s top 10 lists jumped from two in Q1 to six in Q2, and investments rose from $635 million to $2.1 billion.

Climate tech winners in the second quarter spanned a range of businesses, from renewable energy developers to EV manufacturers and nuclear startups.

The top deal in Q2 was a whopping $750 million investment in Intersect Power, a renewable energy developer that’s pivoting to become more vertically integrated. It plans to use the funds to eventually combine clean power production and storage with green hydrogen generation and direct air capture.

Next up is electric supercar maker Rimac Automobili with a $535 million Series D followed by the $316 million Series A raised by newcleo, a U.K. nuclear startup that’s developing a new generation of reactors cooled by lead. Chinese photovoltaic manufacturer Gokin Solar brought in $251 million in a Series A; 1Komma5, a German solar and heat pump installer, raised $218 million in a Series A; and Sun King, a Kenyan provider of off-grid energy, closed a Series D worth $216 million.

Rounding out the list, Acadia, a U.S. renewable energy developer, raised $200 million in a Series E, and China Storage National Energy, which stores energy using compressed air, wrapped a $47 million seed round.