Each year, we find 15-20 companies that best fit our mission and fund each company up to $1 million to improve systems that impact people’s lives: energy, water, food & agriculture, and mobility.
Portfolio companies
Demonstration projects
Awarded to companies
$6 million in funding awarded to 17 new startups tackling urgent challenges in food & agriculture, water, energy, and mobility.
Since 2009, we have been on a mission to catalyze new solutions that help Hawaiʻi transcend oil. We do this with entrepreneurs that can help us redesign our energy, ag, water, mobility, and circular economy systems.
We are known for deploying projects and supporting startups through key commercial inflection points.
We partner with some of the biggest names in the business to help our companies grow through investments, projects, and acquisitions.
Meet our portfolio companies innovating across energy, water, agriculture, mobility, and circular economy.
Electric commercial aircraft
Ampaire was founded to develop high-performance, zero-emission aircrafts. The company's first product is an electric powertrain to replace common turboprop engines in 9- to 19-passenger airplanes.
MobilityMaking drinking water from sunlight and air
Zero Mass Water has one purpose: to perfect water for every person in every place. Its technology extracts water vapor from the air to make, mineralize, and deliver drinking water to your tap.
WaterCarbonCure is pioneering CO2 utilization technologies for the cement and concrete sector.
A short film that tells the story of our transition off of fossil fuels one community at a time to a more clean, resilient, and equitable world.
Our partners offer some of the most exciting investment and commercialization opportunities in the world.
Elemental Excelerator is created in collaboration with Emerson Collective's Elemental platform, which is focused on balancing the needs of humanity and nature by supporting scalable, equitable, and innovative solutions.
Emerson Collective is an organization established and led by Laurene Powell Jobs dedicated to removing barriers to opportunity so people can live to their full potential. Elemental is Emerson Collective’s platform for applying systems level, design thinking to the multifaceted environmental challenges of our time, using every tool and talent we can avail.
In 2013, the U.S. Navy made a $30 million commitment to our program.
The Department of Defense Office of Naval Research (ONR) recognizes the paramount importance of scientific research to future naval power and the preservation of national security. ONR is interested in the rapid commercialization of clean energy technologies that the Navy can procure to improve reliability and resiliency.
Coming out of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, a model for states pursuing an aggressive transition to renewable energy, the U.S. Department of Energy set aside funding for innovation. This became the seed funding for Elemental Excelerator.
The Department of Energy (DOE) is dedicated to ensuring America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental, and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions. The DOE’s goals include transforming the nation’s energy system, securing U.S. leadership in clean energy technologies, maintaining science and engineering as a cornerstone of our economic prosperity, and enhancing nuclear security. DOE sponsors more research in the physical sciences that any other U.S. federal agency.
In 2018, Elemental Excelerator was a selected as one of DOE’s Power Connectors for its American Made Solar Prize.
Since our roots in the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, we have worked closely with the State Energy Office to support innovation-friendly policies.
The Hawaii State Energy Office (HSEO) is a division of the State’s Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. HSEO is committed to developing and deploying high-impact solutions that will maximize Hawaii’s renewable energy resources, and improve efficiency and transportation standards. In partnership with Elemental Excelerator, HSEO has brought one of the most exciting conferences, VERGE Hawaii, to the islands, showcasing Hawaii’s energy leadership and convening some of the most important voices in clean energy.
Hawaiian Electric Industries was our first Global Partner. Together we have partnered on nearly a dozen demonstration projects.
Hawaiian Electric Industries (HEI) is the parent of the three largest utilities in the Hawaiian Islands – Hawaiian Electric Company, Inc., Hawaii Electric Light Company, Inc. and Maui Electric Company, Ltd. – and one of Hawaii’s largest financial institutions, American Savings Bank.
Vector is New Zealand’s largest distributor of electricity and gas. They challenge and reinvent the way communities and businesses are powered and connected.
Vector owns and manages a unique portfolio of businesses, which consists of electricity distribution, data and communications provider, gas transmission and distribution, smart metering and data management, natural gas and LPG, fiber-optic networks, and solar and energy storage solutions. Vector sees Hawaii as the Silicon Valley of energy and is most interested in technologies that bring different types of innovation together into one platform and technologies that increase engagement with their end clients.
Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc. (TEPCO) is the largest public utility in Japan, and the 4th largest utility in the world.
After the market was deregulated in Japan, TEPCO faced a rapidly changing market and significant disruption to their business model. In response, TEPCO formed an Innovation Task Force to evaluate technology solutions for their grid and explore new business ventures. They are collaborating with Elemental Excelerator and its portfolio companies to assist them in their transformation, learn more about energy innovation in Hawaii, and build a pipeline of promising startups.
SK Gas is looking for technologies that bring innovation to the energy sector and has high interest in service solutions that are built around enhancing engagement with end customers.
SK Gas is part of SK Group, the third largest conglomerate in Korea. SK Gas also owns and manages a portfolio of businesses, including power generation, renewable energy development, and property development. SK Gas is looking for technologies that bring innovation to the energy sector and has high interest in service solutions (e.g., energy storage systems, energy efficiency, etc.) that are built around enhancing engagement with end customers.
Elemental Excelerator is partnering with HCF in looking at innovative ways to increase water efficiency, transparency, and supply.
The Hawaii Community Foundation (HCF) partners with and convenes experts, donors, and nonprofits to raise the level and effectiveness of philanthropy in Hawaii. HCF creates partnerships by bringing funders together with nonprofit, community, and government leaders, and shares knowledge gained through its work investments. Fresh water has always been a concern for an island in the middle of the Pacific with finite water resources.
PTT, a Fortune 500 and a member of World DJSI, is a fully integrated energy and petrochemical company in Thailand, with global footprints.
PTT, a Fortune 500 and a member of World DJSI, is a fully integrated energy and petrochemical company in Thailand. Aside from traditional energy, petrochemical, and trading businesses, PTT invests in New S-Curve businesses under the ‘Design Now’ strategy. PTT’s Innovation Team and Corporate Venture Capital identifies, partners, and invests globally in technologies for energy and sustainability, which can solve developing countries’ challenges.
National Grid Partners is the venture investment and innovation arm of National Grid plc.
National Grid Partners (NPG) makes and manages strategically and financially attractive investments and leads company-wide innovation efforts. The organization focuses on innovation, incubation, corporate venture capital and business development providing a multi-functional approach to change the status quo. NGP is based in Silicon Valley with offices and team members in Los Gatos, San Francisco, Boston, London, and New York.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric energy companies in the United States.
As the climate change clock ticks faster and faster, we know that every moment counts in taking action. As Greta Thunberg reminded us during the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit, "To have a 67% chance of staying below a…