UNSW accelerator receives $1.6 million to uncover the best climate tech startups

The Trailblazer for Recycling & Clean Energy and Virescent Ventures have joined forces to invest $1.6 million in Australian climate tech startups through an accelerator program run by UNSW.

The funding will go to the UNSW Founders Climate 10x Program, which aims to uncover Australia’s best up-and-coming climate tech startups. The partnership is set to be the largest-ever investment into climate tech startups through an accelerator program in Australia.

Virescent Ventures is Australia’s largest dedicated climate tech venture capital firm. The Trailblazer for Recycling & Clean Energy is a $280 million government-backed initiative that aims to accelerate Australia’s research commercialisation in the transition to a net zero economy.

Eleni Assargiotis, program manager of the UNSW Founders Climate 10x program, told Women’s Agenda that the accelerator program will help uncover many of Australia’s up-and-coming female entrepreneurs in the climate tech space.

“Entrepreneurship is a catalyst for change in more ways than one – more needs to be done to nurture future leaders in business and STEM and UNSW Founders’ Climate 10x program is one such vehicle to achieve that. Based on the talent from last year’s cohort, I’m truly excited to uncover the next generation of female founders in STEM,” Assargiotis said.

Assargiotis says the UNSW Founder’s Climate 10x is women-led, which has a positive flow-on effect on the startup teams we see applying for the program.

“In our inaugural year, 60% of our teams had a female co-founder – well above the industry average for accelerator programs,” she said.

“We’re working hard to keep this track record up as the program evolves to positively influence cultural change about women entrepreneurship, academia and STEM roles.”

“UNSW continues to be Australia’s most entrepreneurial university and we can’t wait to uncover the next big innovation in the climate space.”

The latest data points to a massive gap in funding for female founders in Australia. The State of Australian Start-up Funding Report, released earlier this month, shows that all-female-founded startups secured a tiny 4% of the $3.5 billion in startup funding in Australia in 2023.

Partner at Virescent Ventures, Blair Pritchard said accelerator programs like the UNSW Founders Climate 10x Program are vital if we are to solve the challenges that climate change poses.

“Australia needs to do a better job of channelling its world-class university talent towards solving the biggest challenges of climate change, and accelerator programs are an important catalyst for that,” Pritchard said.

“We’re proud to support TRaCE & UNSW Founders on its mission to solve a decade’s worth of climate change in just four years. Climate change affects all of us and every aspect of the economy – the investment opportunity for these startups is unparalleled.”

This article was first published by Women’s Agenda.