The Earthshot
Demonstration Track
We provide a grant of Up to $1 Million USD (with an average award amount of $500,000) to de-risk project deployment with a commercial partner in Hawaii or Asia Pacific.
Our resources are best leveraged for established companies looking to develop the next generation of their technology or enter a new market.
In addition to funding, we provide:
Project design and project management guidance
Support with policy, permitting, and other barriers to deployment
Introductions to customers, investors, corporates, and other strategic partners
As a nonprofit, we ask for a 1-2% warrant donation to align our success with yours — and to support future entrepreneurs. Payment is milestone-based, as modules are completed.
Where Do We Fund Projects?
Hawaii
Hawaii is an island state that faces unique challenges and opportunities around transportation, water, agriculture, energy, and waste. Our team has developed deep relationships across public, private, and nonprofit sectors to help startups deploy at the community level.
Asia Pacific
In the Asia Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand, we fund projects that have the potential to address global environmental challenges and/or significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Who should apply?
Team
A strong and growing team that can support multiple project deployments.
Maturity
Companies with a scalable business model and an appetite for expansion.
Project
A project concept that is high-impact and in line with the company’s core business strategy.
Track Fit
Established companies looking to develop the next generation of their technology or explore a new customer segment through a transformational project deployment in Hawaii or Asia Pacific.
Who should not apply?
- Companies not looking to deploy in Hawaii or Asia Pacific
- Companies with fewer than two full-time employees
- Companies without a working prototype
- Project developers selling third-party products
- Consulting firms
- Marketing or PR agencies
- Nonprofits
- Acquired startups
12-18 Month Program
Kickoff Week
Cohort 9 comes together for the first time for a week of workshops and facilitated discussions that advance companies toward key inflection points and introduces them to our local ecosystem.
CEO Summit
100+ leadership teams from our newest cohort and alumni companies share networks, knowledge, and insights over the course of a 2-3 day summit.
Interactive
At Interactive we curate a room of 250+ investors actively funding companies in the energy, water, agriculture, mobility, and circular economy sectors. All Cohort 9 company CEOs will be given an opportunity to speak on stage and set up one-on-one meetings with investors.
For our next cohort, we are seeking technologies in these sectors:
Solutions:
- Robotics, artificial intelligence & machine learning
- Asset management tools
- Manufacturing, commercial & industrial solutions
- Grid design & safety
- Energy efficiency
- Carbon sequestration & capture
- Affordable & clean options for low-to-medium income customers
- Democratization of energy
- Electrification of everything
- Tech at the nexus of other sectors
In 2019, we funded companies tackling everything from demand response to hyperlocal climate risk analysis to democratizing access to renewable energy. In 2020, we’re looking for companies whose innovations help us accelerate the transition to a more equitable, resilient, and sustainable and clean energy sector.
Solutions:
- Affordable, appealing, & reliable mobility options for those most in need – super commuters, seniors & frontline communities
- Behavior change solutions to reduce single-occupancy vehicles
- Increased convenience, appeal & access to electric transportation
- Reduced emissions in heavy freight, shipping, logistics, & air travel
- Enhanced roadway infrastructure safety, resiliency & disaster planning
Despite the recent flood of new mobility solutions entering the industry, for the most part we’re still avoiding the elephant in the room — cars. With personal vehicle ownership and overall car trips continuing to climb, GHG emissions are soaring, traffic is increasing in almost every city, and large and mostly empty vessels are polluting the frontline neighborhoods that all too often house our freeways and major roadways. We need to redirect the brainpower and investment that has come into the transportation sector to ensure that we’re on a path toward transitioning to a fully clean and equitable mobility ecosystem.
Solutions:
- Carbon sequestration & soil health
- Food safety & traceability
- Waste reduction & diversion
- Alternative proteins
- Technologies that reduce or combat deforestation
- Supply chain platforms that support increased access to food, resources & land
- Solutions that reduce energy use, toxic synthetic inputs & the overuse of water
Recent reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change illustrate the global food systemʼs significant contribution to climate change. We seek companies whose innovations increase local food production and decrease emissions throughout the value chain, from farm to fork.
Solutions:
- Measurement & repair
- Emerging contaminants & newly regulated substances treatment
- System optimization
- Membrane related systems
- Decentralized treatment solutions
- Capital-efficient utility upgrades
- Technology related to human capital
- Data & AI-based maintenance tools
- Safe, affordable, non-discriminatory drinking water solutions
- Emergency preparedness
- Conservation & water reuse solutions
Most public investment goes to centralized infrastructure, overlooking opportunities for improvement elsewhere in the water ecosystem. We prioritize technologies that take a decentralized approach, help municipalities and utilities reduce pollution, and advance solutions to provide clean water for all.
Solutions:
- Waste-to-value solutions
- Carbon capture & sequestration
- Resource recovery & reuse
- Textile & apparel recycling
- Source reduction & data collection platforms
- Alternative packaging & next-generation waste sorting & processing technology
- Solutions that create high-quality, local jobs for people who live in frontline communities
- Manufacturing companies interested in ‘Equity IN’ projects to establish diverse hiring, inclusion & retention, & responsible supply chain practices
Our existing industrial and waste systems are unsustainable and inequitable. As we aspire to redesign waste streams using new technologies and business models, we’re looking for market solutions that create value from greenhouse gas emissions and other waste products, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems.
