The complete Sesamers guide to European cleantech: the companies, the climate-specialist funds that back them, the rounds and grants that fund them, and the events – from ChangeNOW's 40,000 to the investor days where deals close.
Cleantech is the broad vertical in the Climate and energy family – any company whose product reduces emissions or resource use and does not fit a narrower sibling. Carbon accounting and ESG reporting software, climate risk analytics, recycling and materials recovery, grid monitoring, energy software and industrial decarbonisation all sit here. The narrower siblings take the rest: Energy storage for batteries and storage systems, Hydrogen, Carbon removal and CCUS, Grid and energy management, Renewables generation, Circular economy, and Water tech. Many companies carry cleantech plus one sibling tag, which is the intended pattern – a battery recycler is both cleantech and energy storage.
Family
Climate and energy
Coverage since
2019
Desks
4 of 4
Reviewed
21 Sep 2026
The four desks
Each is a live, filterable data page – the numbers move weekly
Where the industry disagrees with itself right now – each with a verdict from the data
Should grants count as funding rounds?
BATTIA's €8.15M from Spain's IDAE under the EU NextGenerationEU-backed RENOCICLA programme is the second-largest cleantech deal on the funding desk this month. It is a grant, not equity.
The case forEuropean climate hardware is funded differently from software. EIC Accelerator, national recovery programmes and Horizon grants routinely provide more capital than a seed round. A funding desk that hides them misrepresents how the sector actually works.
The case againstGrants do not price the company, carry no board seat and signal nothing about investor conviction. Mixing them with venture rounds inflates the apparent capital raised and confuses the stage picture.
Where we land: Sesamers lists grants on the funding desk with the awarding body named and the stage marked Grant, never blended into equity totals. Founders reading the desk need to see the full capital stack; investors can filter them out.
Is the consolidation of carbon accounting a sign of maturity or of a market that overshot?
Greenly acquired Normative for €65M on 10 September 2026 – two of Europe's better-known carbon accounting platforms combining. Carbon accounting software is a tag on both ChangeNOW and Innovation Zero.
The case forConsolidation is the normal endgame for a software category once regulation makes the product mandatory. CSRD turned carbon accounting from a nice-to-have into compliance infrastructure; the survivors are buying scale.
The case againstThe category attracted too many near-identical startups on the promise of CSRD, then the EU Omnibus narrowed the scope of who has to report. Consolidation at this stage is triage, not triumph.
Where we land: Both readings fit the same deal. What the data shows is that new carbon accounting rounds have slowed while adjacent categories – climate risk analytics, grid software, storage – are where the September rounds actually landed. Watch the sub-theme tags on the funding desk, not the headlines.
Why is the NATO Innovation Fund leading cleantech rounds?
Laki Power, a Reykjavik grid-monitoring company, raised a €6M Series A led by the NATO Innovation Fund on 17 September 2026. It carries the cleantech tag alone.
The case forEnergy infrastructure resilience is now a security question. Grid monitoring, storage and distributed generation are dual-use by definition – the same technology that cuts emissions also hardens the network against attack. Defence capital flowing into cleantech is the logical consequence.
The case againstDefence money comes with defence priorities. A climate company whose lead investor is a security fund may find its roadmap pulled toward resilience over decarbonisation, and its next round harder to raise from impact-mandated LPs with exclusion policies.
Where we land: Expect more of this, not less. Sesamers tags companies like Laki Power as cleantech and, where the round record supports it, also as defence tech, so both desks show them. Founders should read their lead investor's mandate before accepting the term sheet.
Three eras of European cleantech
How the vertical got here
2015-2019
The impact fund era
The Paris Agreement gives the sector a policy anchor. Climate-specialist funds are founded: 4impact in The Hague, Satgana in Luxembourg, Soulmates in Prague. The events calendar forms around ChangeNOW's launch in Paris and the GREENTECH FESTIVAL in Berlin. Capital is small-ticket and mission-first.
2020-2023
The regulation and software era
CSRD and SFDR turn carbon accounting and ESG reporting into compliance infrastructure, and a wave of software companies raise to serve it. Bpifrance and Breega make climate an explicit core thesis at scale. SWEN Blue Ocean launches at the IUCN Congress in 2021 as Europe's first dedicated ocean fund. Article 9 fund classification becomes the label specialist LPs look for.
2024-2026
The hardware and resilience era
Capital shifts from reporting software to physical systems: storage, grid, recycling, materials. Public grant programmes under NextGenerationEU fund battery projects like BATTIA at seed-round scale. Carbon accounting consolidates – Greenly buys Normative for €65M. And defence capital arrives: the NATO Innovation Fund leads Laki Power's Series A, marking energy resilience as a security priority.
Three ways in
Depending on who you are
I'm a founder raising
Start with the specialist funds on the investors desk – Satgana from €100K, Planet A €500K-€4M, Soulmates up to €3M – they understand climate hardware timelines
Check your national grant programmes before your seed round; BATTIA's €8.15M grant shows what public capital can do
ChangeNOW in April is the widest audience; Katapult Future Fest in May is where the impact LPs are
If your product is dual-use, read the NATO Innovation Fund's mandate – it is now leading cleantech rounds
I'm an investor scouting
Sort the funding desk by date – September's rounds landed in grid, storage and energy software, not carbon accounting
The Article 9 funds on the investors desk are your co-investors if your LPs have SFDR requirements
Cross-reference the Energy storage sibling desk – a third of cleantech startups carry it as a second tag
Innovation Zero in London is the specialist room for carbon removal and CCUS deal flow
I'm a corporate or policymaker
The events desk ranks by attendance – ChangeNOW for reach, Austrian World Summit for senior government access
Bpifrance's record shows how a public investment bank anchors a national climate venture ecosystem
The funding desk lists grants with the awarding body – a live view of which programmes are deploying
Every record links to the company's own site and LinkedIn – go direct
An investment fund classified under the EU's SFDR as having sustainable investment as its objective – the strictest category. Soulmates Ventures' €50M fund is one; LPs with impact mandates often require it.
CSRD
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the EU regulation that made detailed climate and ESG reporting mandatory for large companies – the demand driver behind the carbon accounting software wave, since narrowed by the Omnibus package.
Dual-use
Technology with both civilian and defence applications. Grid resilience, energy storage and infrastructure monitoring increasingly qualify, which is why defence funds now appear on cleantech cap tables.
NextGenerationEU
The EU's post-pandemic recovery instrument, which funds national programmes like Spain's RENOCICLA. A major non-dilutive capital source for European climate hardware, listed on the funding desk as grants.
Direct air capture
Technology that removes CO2 directly from ambient air rather than from a point source. A sub-theme shared with the Carbon removal and CCUS sibling vertical; Innovation Zero has the deepest programming on it.
How many cleantech startups does Sesamers track in Europe?
106 companies carry the cleantech tag, alongside 103 verified funding rounds and 41 investors with a stated climate thesis. The Climate and energy family as a whole is larger – Energy storage, Hydrogen and the other siblings each have their own records.
What is the difference between cleantech and the other Climate and energy verticals?
Cleantech is the broad vertical – carbon accounting, climate analytics, recycling, grid software, industrial decarbonisation. Energy storage, Hydrogen, Carbon removal and CCUS, Grid and energy management, Renewables, Circular economy and Water tech are the narrower siblings. Companies often carry cleantech plus one sibling.
Which cleantech event should a founder attend first?
ChangeNOW in Paris for reach – 40,000 attendees across every sub-theme. Katapult Future Fest in Amsterdam if you are raising from impact investors specifically. Innovation Zero in London if you are in carbon removal.
Are grants really funding rounds?
Sesamers lists them on the funding desk marked Grant with the awarding body named, because public non-dilutive capital is how much of European climate hardware is actually funded. They are never blended into equity totals.
How often does this page change?
The four desks refresh weekly from the live database. The editorial sections – debates, eras, glossary – are reviewed quarterly or when a major round, acquisition or fund close changes the picture.
Can I suggest a company, fund or event?
Yes. Use the suggest links on each desk. We verify before publishing; paid placement does not get you onto a ranking or directory.
Counts are generated from the live desks and refresh weekly. Debates, eras and glossary are editorial and reviewed quarterly. Every company, fund and event named here links to its own verified record. Corrections and additions: contact the desk
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