Los Angeles is emerging as a climate-tech hub, with the local industry landing the most funding last year outside of heavyweight tech cities, a new report found.
L.A. climate-tech startups secured $546 million across 25 funding deals last year, according to a report by Washington, D.C.-based venture capital firm Revolution. The Denver area was second with $523 million, followed by Washington, D.C., with $374 million.
L.A.’s funding amount was the highest in Revolution's rankings of 15 U.S. metropolitan areas by climate-tech funding, excluding the major tech hubs of the Bay Area, New York City and Boston.
Despite L.A.’s high funding, California’s share of climate-tech funding has decreased significantly over the last five years, Revolution wrote in a blog post accompanying the report. California startups landed 76.5% of U.S. climate-tech venture capital funding in 2018 but just 46% last year.
"A more dispersed climate-tech economy will lead to greater innovation and more ready adoption of climate solutions," the blog post said. "Different regions have different legacy industries, talent pools, corporate players, challenges and opportunities. That diversity in thought, resources and experience is a catalyst for new climate solutions when capital is distributed rather than concentrated."
Revolution, founded by AOL co-founder Steve Case, has invested in companies from DraftKings and Sweetgreen to Clear. The report used data from Seattle-based PitchBook, which defined climate-tech companies as "dedicated to developing solutions aimed at mitigating or adapting to the impacts of climate change.”
