CLIMATE VENTURE STUDIOS:
‍BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CLIMATE INNOVATION

We need to build the most relevant and impactful climate innovations and get them into the market as fast as possible.

To accomplish this we will need to adopt new company and technology building methodologies and programs to make sure that we are creating the most in-demand solutions and getting them into the hands of customers as efficiently as possible. The climate challenge is too urgent a threat to wait for the best ideas to appear.

Venture studios offer a more structured approach to identify, test, build and refine companies, which can help create firms that have overall better alignment with the market and maximize the chances of long term success.

This report provides a critical overview of climate ventures studio activity to date, mapping out the different models that studios are using to create new companies globally, as well as the challenges they are facing in addition to the new opportunities to investment, partnership and impact that they enable. To undertake this study we interviewed 46 climate innovation experts from across venture studios, corporations, funds, accelerators and universities to understand the different processes, challenges and opportunities. Additionally, we mapped the current global landscape of climate-focused venture studios and built a database of 136 organizations that use at least some element of a studio approach.

You can download the report here, and for more information on it please reach out to Jamil Wyne.

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OVERVIEW

Venture studios could be catalytic in creating the next generation of high-impact climate tech startups and this report explores the different studio models being used to proactively build new companies tackling climate risks around the world.
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Climate innovation is often defined by long, complex and R&D-intensive product development cycles, and a deep reliance on industrial incumbents that requires navigating federal and local regulations.
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Venture studios can address these needs by systematically derisking ventures, brokering partnerships, and providing a bench of talent to early-stage companies. In parallel, studios can have a broader ecosystem of capital providers, policymakers, and offtake partners that can help commercialize high-impact climate solutions.

Many types of entrepreneurship support organizations and funds are needed in spades to support climate innovation.

However, studios occupy a unique position in the value chain - helping to build the pipeline of climate companies and solutions that will eventually move on to other ESOs and funds in the ecosystem. The pipeline needs to be built quickly and intentionally and will require myriad inputs across disciplines and talent sets.

VENTURE STUDIO'S POSITION IN THE INNOVATION PIPELINE

Adapted from: Pog, Max. “Big Startup Studios Research 2023.”

Venture studios are not one-size-fits-all and there are many different organizational structures that operators are using.

For instance, some develop business ideas internally while others source them from corporate or university R&D centers. Some start with a business problem - an idea-centric approach - while others start with a person - identifying talented entrepreneurs who will then go on to serve as CEO of the startup in-house. The table below outlines the main archetypes in the venture studio landscape.

TYPES OF VENTURE STUDIOS

We need to optimize for a lot of factors when building climate tech solutions.

Selecting the right problems to work on, forming the necessary teams, access to patient capital and customers are all success determinants for climate ventures. Climate venture studios can help address these needs by using structured methods for assessing startup ideas and business models, staffing and resourcing them to test market demand and ultimately launching them.

VENTURE STUDIOS OPTIMIZE FOR SUCCESS IN CLIMATE INNOVATION

We assembled a global database of over 130 climate venture studios active as of June 2025, based on the latest publicly available information.

We focused on entities that function as co-founders, rather than external supporters, of early-stage ventures. Because labels vary - startup studio, venture builder, corporate innovation arm, foundry - we classified organisations by what they do rather than what they call themselves.

GLOBAL MAP OF CLIMATE VENTURE STUDIOS

Global climate venture studios by the numbers

136

Venture studios identified globally as of June 2025 – includes both pure climate and mixed-focus studios

over70%

The majority of studios are headquartered in Europe  and North America, reflecting concentration of capital and supportive ecosystems

48%

Of climate venture studios concentrate primarily on emissions‑ reduction ventures

Globally focus solely on adaptation technologies

57%

Provide direct capital to portfolio companies

3-5

Ventures built per year, on average, in each studio, globally

20-40%

Usual ownership range retained by studios in each created venture

New studios launched
 in 2022, the highest single‑year increase in climate‑venture‑studio creation globally

Kenya, India, and Singapore

Fast‑growing studio ecosystems outside of North America and the EU

44%

Dual mandate (mitigation +
 adaptation)

64%

Share of studios working in at least one of these three: energy, agriculture/food and land, and industrial decarbonization. Buildings, waste, and CCUS remain underrepresented

90%

Operate for‑profit structures. A minority use nonprofit or hybrid structures

2-3

Years per venture build cycle, average time from ideation to spin‑out and early‑stage fundraising.

$1.34MN

Median annual budget for a mature venture studio

Studios need an ecosystem that delivers the right capital, policy environment, and support infrastructure at every step of the zero-to-one journey.

If capital providers, policymakers, and ecosystem builders act on these levers in concert, venture studios can evolve into essential climate-innovation infrastructure - systematically de-risking both breakthrough technologies and the business models that deliver them, and moving them into mainstream markets at the pace the planet demands.

ENABLING ECOSYSTEM FOR CLIMATE VENTURE STUDIOS

We need a community of institutions that can help seed new climate innovation, equip it with the necessary funding, talent and other resources and get it into the market as quickly as possible.

To build an ecosystem that supports the creation of new climate venture studios and helps their companies to scale, we’ll need to work across the public and private sectors, collaborating with governments, large corporates, a wide variety of funders, as well as universities, research institutions and other entrepreneurial support organizations.

CLIMATE VENTURE STUDIOS:‍BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR CLIMATE INNOVATION