![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-22-at-65753-PM.png?w=2048\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
AI has changed the climate conversation.<\/p>\n
I had no doubt about that as I sat down onstage yesterday, under the lights at The Nest Campus, the Climate Week NYC bonanza at the North Javits Center. It feels a bit like a mini-climate-focused CES, complete with EVs inside the conference center.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was talking to Dawn Lippert, Elemental Impact founder and CEO and Earthshot Ventures GP, and Mike Schroepfer, founding partner of VC firm Gigascale Capital, about the future climate-focused VCs are investing towards\u2014and what it actually means to balance speed and climate concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an interesting time: Over the last 15 years or so, climate tech has gone from sexy to unsayable to today, where it\u2019s heating up again in the age of AI. As the conversation about what it takes to power data centers ramps up\u2014and concerns about the grid become unavoidable\u2014sustainable energy and the U.S. industrial base is more or less hot again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAI I think is both a headwind and tailwind for the space, but more a tailwind than a headwind,\u201d said John MacDonagh, PitchBook senior research analyst, via email. \u201cData center developers are looking for energy sources to support their projects, and the climate tech space has core technologies like renewables, which can be fast to deploy and relatively low-cost, but also face intermittency challenges that can then be addressed by energy storage technologies. Firm power sources are potentially better suited to datacenter applications, but are less mature, and require substantial funding to develop and commercialize.\u201d<\/p>\n
In short, AI has brought about a lot of opportunities for those building and backing climate tech, a notable turn given some of the numbers coming out of the last couple years: Recent PitchBook data showed that fundraising for climate-specialist VCs in 2025 was down nearly 40% from 2024. Simultaneously, it appears that startups, especially in energy, are commanding massive amounts of capital. I asked Lippert and Schroepfer about this onstage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c90% of the companies that Earthshot backs have generalist tech investors as our co-investors,\u201d said Lippert. \u201cWe think it\u2019s really helpful to be a climate investor on the cap table of these companies, asking about social impact, asking about environmental impact, sometimes we\u2019re the only ones in the room asking those questions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schroepfer, former CTO of Meta, raised $250 million for a climate-focused fund that was announced in June. Though he was asked to consider changing the name to an AI fund, he declined.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLike Dawn said, our most frequent co-investors are generalists or follow-on investors, and we\u2019ve seen more capital coming from there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a little bit of a tale of two cities, though. If you\u2019re in the energy space, critical minerals, anything that\u2019s supply chain, there\u2019s more money than I\u2019ve ever seen from an investing standpoint to do that work.\u201d<\/p>\n
See you tomorrow,<\/p>\n
Allie Garfinkle Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.<\/p>\n Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today\u2019s newsletter<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n – <\/span>Snorkel<\/b> AI<\/b>, a San Francisco and New York City-based provider of AI training data and evaluation tools, raised $350 million in Series E funding. <\/span>Insight<\/b> Partners<\/b> and <\/span>S32<\/b> led the round and were joined by <\/span>Addition<\/b> and others.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Verda<\/b>, a Helsinki, Finland-based cloud provider for AI developers, raised $189 million in Series B funding. <\/span>Emergence<\/b> Capital<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Supermicro<\/b>, <\/span>MUFG<\/b> Innovation<\/b> Partners<\/b>, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Go.AI<\/b>, a Chicago, Ill.-based provider of on-premises AI infrastructure for regulated industries, raised $85 million in Series A funding. <\/span>Updata<\/b> Partners<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>GFT<\/b> Ventures<\/b> and <\/span>LAUNCH<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Confido<\/b>, a New York City-based AI back-office platform for consumer brands, raised $55 million in Series B funding. <\/span>Insight<\/b> Partners<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Trenches<\/b> Capital<\/b>, <\/span>Watchfire<\/b>, <\/span>Barrel<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, and existing investors.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Biolevate<\/b>, a Paris, France-based provider of AI automation software for life sciences companies, raised \u20ac30 million ($34.3 million) in Series A funding. <\/span>RAISE<\/b> France<\/b> and <\/span>Orange<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and were joined by <\/span>MSD<\/b> Global<\/b> Health<\/b> Innovation<\/b> Fund<\/b>, <\/span>Station<\/b> F<\/b>, and <\/span>EQT Ventures<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Chamelio<\/b>, a New York City-based AI contract-management platform for in-house legal teams, raised $26 million in Series A funding. <\/span>Entr\u00e9e Capital<\/b> led the round and was joined by<\/span> Work-Bench<\/b>, <\/span>Emerge<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, and <\/span>Bright<\/b> Pixel<\/b> Capital<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Ramona<\/b> Optics<\/b>, a Durham, N.C.-based developer of AI-powered microscopy systems for life sciences researchers, raised $25 million in Series A funding. <\/span>ARCH<\/b> Venture<\/b> Partners<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Stealthpoint<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, <\/span>ND<\/b> Capital<\/b>, <\/span>Fall<\/b> Line<\/b> Capital<\/b>, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Teal<\/b> Health<\/b>, a San Francisco-based developer of at-home HPV screening tests, raised $22 million in Series A funding. <\/span>.406<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Emerson<\/b> Collective<\/b>, <\/span>Forerunner<\/b>, <\/span>Serena<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, and <\/span>MPower<\/b> Partners<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Sela<\/b>, a San Francisco-based AI voice-agent provider for mortgage lenders, raised $21 million in funding across seed and Series A rounds. <\/span>Costanoa<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Emergence<\/b> Capital<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Dialybird<\/b>, a Cant\u00f9, Italy-based developer of dialysis-access devices, raised \u20ac15 million ($17.2 million) in Series A funding. <\/span>XGEN<\/b> Venture<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>CDP<\/b> Venture<\/b> Capital<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Bird&Be<\/b>, a Toronto, Canada-based fertility company selling supplements and at-home tests, raised $13 million in funding. <\/span>BDC<\/b> Thrive<\/b> and <\/span>BFG<\/b> Partners<\/b> led the round.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Nexstrom<\/b>, a Singapore-based developer of 2D semiconductor materials and manufacturing technology, raised $12 million in seed funding. <\/span>Xora<\/b> Innovation<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Foothill<\/b> Ventures<\/b> and <\/span>SEEDS<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>mika<\/b>, a Berlin, Germany-based AI-powered tax advisory platform, raised \u20ac6 million ($6.9 million) in seed funding. <\/span>Smedvig<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Wecken & Cie<\/b> and existing investors.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Benford<\/b>, a London, U.K. and Oslo, Norway-based technology-enabled financial audit firm, raised \u20ac5 million ($5.7 million) in pre-seed funding from <\/span>firstminute<\/b> capital<\/b>, <\/span>Global<\/b> Founders<\/b> Capital<\/b>, <\/span>Sondo<\/b>, and others.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Fearn<\/b>, a San Francisco-based AI-powered patent law firm, raised $5.5 million in seed funding from <\/span>Kindred<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, <\/span>a16z<\/b> Speedrun<\/b>, <\/span>Designer<\/b> Fund<\/b>, and <\/span>Essence<\/b> VC<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n –<\/span> snag<\/b>, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based AI-powered marketplace for sublets and short-term rentals, raised $4 million in seed funding. <\/span>Slow<\/b> Ventures<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Long<\/b> Journey<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, <\/span>Chamaeleon<\/b>, and angel investors.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Palma.ai<\/b>, a Berlin, Germany-based platform for controlling and monitoring AI agents in use, raised $1.8 million in pre-seed funding. <\/span>D11Z<\/b> led the round and was joined by <\/span>Plug and Play Ventures<\/b>, <\/span>Deel<\/b>, <\/span>Scale<\/b> Now<\/b> Ventures<\/b>, and angel investors.<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Cornell<\/b> Capital<\/b> acquired <\/span>Hancock Claims Consultants<\/b>, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based provider of property-insurance claims inspection services. Financial terms were not disclosed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n – <\/span>Odyssey<\/b> Investment<\/b> Partners<\/b> acquired a majority stake in <\/span>Falcon<\/b>
X:<\/strong> @agarfinks
Email:<\/strong> alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com<\/p>\nVENTURE CAPITAL<\/h3>\n
PRIVATE EQUITY<\/h3>\n