-
Elemental Portfolio
130+ companies
- Square Partnerships Toolkit
- Funding Opportunities
-
Elemental Projects
100+ climate-tech innovation projects deployed
-
Elemental Policy Lab
Meet the moment, build the future
-
Elemental Navigator
Curated access to climate-tech innovation
-
Discover Elemental
Insights, resources, videos, podcasts, news, and more
- Events
-
Career Pathways
EDICT Internship Program
-
5 Year Strategy
Scaling Climate x Social Equity Solutions
Our Team
Dawn Lippert
CEO
“Systems are actually all connected… there is no real separation between our water system, food system, energy system, and the built infrastructure that we’ve created, or the communities that exist in these places.”

Dawn Lippert is Founder and CEO of Elemental Excelerator, a global climate technology investor and non-profit impact organization. Under Dawn’s leadership, Elemental has awarded more than $40 million to over 135 startups in the energy, mobility, water, circular economy, and agriculture sectors, and those companies have gone on to raise over $3.8B in follow-on funding to date. Dawn has shared insight on climate investing and the energy transition in the Economist, Bloomberg TV, Axios, Popular Science, Yahoo! Finance Live, Canary Media, and more.
In addition to leading Elemental Excelerator
Dawn serves as Founding Partner of Earthshot Ventures, a $60 million venture fund spun out of Elemental in 2021. At Emerson Collective, the investment and philanthropic platform led by Laurene Powell Jobs, Dawn is Director of Innovation and Community and advises on climate work and investing.
In 2020, Dawn received the UN Global Climate Action Award, recognizing her contribution for “Pioneering a New Funding Model for Climate Tech”. She is a board member of Climate Real Impact Solutions II, a climate-focused special-purpose acquisition company. Dawn was named a Grist 50 Fixer in 2019, served as a 2015 Omidyar Fellow, and was honored with the 2015 C3E Award from the U.S. Department of Energy and the Clean Energy Ministerial. She is passionate about inclusion in technology, and in 2010 founded the non-profit organization WiRE (Women in Renewable Energy).
Prior to Elemental Excelerator
Dawn was a management consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton’s alternative energy practice in Washington DC. She also worked on energy and environmental projects in communities around the world, including Africa, India, and Latin America. Dawn graduated cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in environmental studies, and received her Master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Management. A favorite quote comes from her love for sailing: “A ship in a harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
Outside of the office
You can find her playing with her husband and young daughter, on the soccer field, and enjoying the ocean.