Climate Tech Talent & Capital Mind Map
By the MCJ Collective Community
Climate Tech Talent & Capital Mind Map
By the MCJ Collective Community
There has been an influx of capital to climate tech in the past year. Investment surpassed $60B in the first half of 2021 alone – up from $29B in the 12 months prior. According to PWC, climate tech now accounts for 14 cents of every VC dollar. Complimenting this capital stream is an influx of talent.
For the folks transitioning from traditional tech into climate tech, 2 things are clear:
Climate tech isn’t one industry – it’s a new economy: there are hundreds of companies working to address the climate from every industry/ sector – energy, agriculture, fintech, etc.
Climate tech is a hardware/science/bio heavy universe – making it hard to figure out where and how traditional tech skillsets can have the most leverage.
After understanding the big picture problem (sources of emissions, big levers to course correct via resources like Project Drawdown), trying to understand where one can best fit into the solutions space can feel overwhelming.
We — a working group of 8 folks* who met through the MCJ Collective community — wanted to create a framework for folks transitioning from traditional tech to get a 50K foot view of where the current centers of gravity are around capital & talent, overlaid with solutions that range from heavy software to heavy hardware/science as well as the purpose they serve in drawing down greenhouse gases and adapting to a warmer planet.
Climate Tech Talent+Capital Mind Map
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[access full list here on airtable]
How to read this framework:
X-axis draws from Fred Wilson’s framework of whether work is moving bits (leveraging software) vs atoms (leveraging hardware).
Y-axis draws from heuristics of Project Drawdown, John Doerr’s Speed + Scale, Bill Gates’ How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by mapping out different ways to think about the end goal achieved with a solution.
Each blue rectangle is a defined solution area where >2 companies are mission-driven to solve. The size of the blue rectangle does not reflect the volume of companies and each grey oval is an example of some (not all) of the companies working in this area.
You’ll see that the framework is right-side heavy, as climate tech is ultimately a hardware-centric space; however, we need software to change behavior, connect to consumers and existing infrastructure, provide insights to enable hardware to move faster, at higher quality.
Notes:
This project is a work in progress and leans heavily with US/EU organizations. This needs to evolve to be more inclusive of the global landscape. To that end, help us make this map better - please share any comments on domain, companies, geographies, or in general with us via our input form here.
The framework above is static and meant to give a snapshot of the overall landscape, we have begun making it dynamic - again, it’s a work in progress - you can explore it here.
For the sake of focus as a v1, this list is not inclusive of nonprofits for now, though organizations like this are critical in enabling so much of what’s here and should be built into the next version.
This map adds to the many existing frameworks for climate tech orientation that we also drew inspiration from:
HolonIQ global climate landscape
2021 Diamond list
Cleantech Group global 100 list
Lower Carbon Business School climate tech list
Work on Climate starter packs
*This project is a group effort from folks across the climate tech space who met and collaborated through MCJ Collective community. The group consisted of 8 MCJ community members from across 6 cities in 2 continents, collaborating to create a climate tech innovation mind map to help folks transitioning from the traditional tech sector to better understand the solution areas with concentrations of talent and capital.
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✨Highlights
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For more open positions, check out the #j-climatejobs channel in MCJ Slack.
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Sway is hiring a Business Development & Strategy Lead
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Seabound is hiring a Founding Mechanical Engineer
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