Climate Tech Startups to Watch in 2026: SAF, Wildfire & More

Late January 2026. I’m sitting in a small conference room in San Francisco with a founder who — three years ago — was burning through ramen budgets to keep his lab running. Today his company just closed $43.7 million to turn restaurant grease and agricultural waste into jet fuel that cuts aviation emissions by up to 80%. Across town another team is quietly raising to deploy mirror-polished panels that can cool entire city blocks without a single watt of electricity. Meanwhile, in California’s Sierra foothills, a network of solar-powered sensors is already saving utility companies millions by spotting wildfires hours before flames become visible.

I’ve watched SAF startups go from lab to takeoff, seen carbon removal shift from science project to billion-dollar bets, and tracked wildfire tech evolve from satellite hindsight to real-time prevention. 2026 feels different. After the 2023–2024 funding winter, climate tech is experiencing a sharp, selective rebound. Big rounds are landing again — not everywhere, but on companies that can prove both impact and unit economics at scale.

This is your front-row seat: the startups most likely to define 2026 and beyond, the theses investors are backing, the risks that keep founders (and LPs) awake, and why — despite macro headwinds — the next decade of cleantech may still deliver the highest risk-adjusted returns of our generation.

The 2026 Rebound: Funding Returns with Ruthless Selectivity

Climate tech venture funding bottomed in 2024, then began a slow climb through 2025. By January 2026 the trend is unmistakable: conviction capital is back, but only for teams that can show path-to-profitability roadmaps, real customer traction, and defensible technology.

Key signals from the first month:

• SAF and e-fuels → largest single-category inflow
• Wildfire detection & grid resilience → fastest-growing vertical
• Long-duration storage & industrial decarbonization → highest average round size
• Direct air capture → still capital-intensive but attracting sovereign and corporate funds

Investors are rotating toward technologies that solve acute, near-term pain points (aviation emissions, wildfire liability, grid stability) while aligning with long-term net-zero mandates.

Early 2026 Climate Tech Funding Snapshot

• Lydian (SAF) — $43.7M Series B
• Helix Earth (advanced cooling) — recent round details emerging
• Pano AI (wildfire detection) — follow-on capital after 2025 growth
• Dryad Networks (solar-powered gas sensors) — expanding deployments
• Rondo Energy (heat batteries) — multiple strategic checks
• Form Energy (100-hour iron-air storage) — continued large rounds
• Sublime Systems (low-carbon cement) — scaling pilot plants

For broader startup funding context see our ongoing coverage of startups-and-funding-2026-ai-dominance-continues-in-explosive-rounds.

Lydian’s $43.7M SAF Breakthrough: Aviation’s Clean Fuel Future

Lydian emerged from stealth in 2023 with a deceptively simple proposition: use existing refinery assets and abundant waste feedstocks (used cooking oil, tallow, forest residues) to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at costs approaching parity with conventional jet fuel by the early 2030s.

The January 2026 $43.7 million Series B — led by a mix of climate specialists and airline strategic investors — funds construction of their first commercial-scale facility in the U.S. Gulf Coast. Early offtake agreements with two major carriers cover 40% of nameplate capacity before groundbreaking.

What sets Lydian apart? They’re not chasing exotic pathways (power-to-liquid, direct air capture + Fischer-Tropsch). Instead they’ve optimized hydrotreated esters and fatty acids (HEFA) production with proprietary catalysts and pretreatment that dramatically improve yield from lower-quality feedstocks. Result: projected SAF production cost of $2.80–$3.40/gallon by 2030 — within striking distance of fossil jet fuel during high oil-price environments.

TechCrunch coverage of Lydian’s $43.7M sustainable aviation fuel raise details the airline commitments and catalyst breakthroughs.

Helix Earth: Passive Cooling That Could Reshape Cities

Helix Earth is one of those companies that make you wonder why the solution wasn’t obvious sooner. Their core technology: large-scale radiative cooling panels that reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation directly to space, achieving 5–10°C sub-ambient cooling during daylight hours with zero electricity input.

In 2025 they deployed pilot arrays on commercial rooftops in Phoenix and Dubai. Energy savings reached 35–45% on HVAC load in the hottest months. The latest round (size undisclosed but believed mid-eight figures) funds manufacturing scale-up and larger urban demonstrations.

These are the companies that keep me up at night — in the best way. If Helix can hit cost targets under $50/m² installed, passive cooling could become standard for data centers, warehouses, schools, and hospitals in sunbelt cities — quietly removing gigatons of CO₂ from the atmosphere while slashing peak grid demand.

Wildfire Prediction Startups: Saving Billions with AI & Sensors

California’s 2025 wildfire season cost insurers and utilities more than $20 billion. That number is why capital is pouring into early detection.

• Pano AI — High-resolution camera networks + AI smoke detection; 2026 deployments expanding across California, Oregon, Colorado. Utility customers report 45–90 minute earlier alerts.
• Dryad Networks — Solar-powered LoRaWAN gas sensors detect smoldering fires via volatile organic compounds before smoke is visible. Thousands of units now in German and U.S. forests.
• Gridware — Power-line vibration and temperature sensors spot downed lines and hot spots that ignite fires. PG&E and Southern California Edison are among early customers.

These three alone have collectively raised north of $150M since 2024. The ROI case is brutal and clear: a single prevented ignition event can save hundreds of millions in liability and suppression costs.

10 More Climate Tech Startups Investors Can’t Ignore in 2026

1. Twelve — Carbon transformation turning CO₂ into chemicals and materials; major airline and chemical partner deals.
2. Sublime Systems — Electrochemical low-carbon cement; pilot plants scaling in 2026.
3. Rondo Energy — Brick-based heat batteries storing renewable energy as high-temperature heat for industrial use.
4. Commonwealth Fusion Systems — Compact fusion power; SPARC demonstration plant on track for late 2020s.
5. Form Energy — 100-hour iron-air long-duration storage; multiple 1+ GWh projects announced.
6. Arbon — Direct air capture using modular, low-energy solid sorbent tech.
7. CarbonCure — CO₂ mineralization in concrete; already in thousands of ready-mix plants.
8. Verdox — Electrochemical direct air capture; low-energy, modular design.
9. Lithos Carbon — Enhanced rock weathering with mining waste; massive CDR potential.
10. Mati Carbon — Smallholder-farmer biochar deployment in developing markets.

For AI’s role in scaling climate solutions, explore AI section and Davos 2026 highlights.

Broader 2026 Cleantech Investment Thesis

• Near-term pain, long-term premium — Capital intensity remains high; only teams with clear cost-down pathways and revenue traction are funded.
• Policy tailwinds fighting headwinds — IRA extension battles in Congress; EU Green Deal procurement rules; state-level incentives.
• AI as force multiplier — Predictive wildfire detection, grid optimization, carbon accounting all powered by frontier models.
• Corporate offtake surge — Airlines, tech giants, and heavy industry signing 10–20-year SAF and CDR contracts.

Scalability Challenges: Capital, Regulation, Supply Chains

Every founder I’ve interviewed this month says the same thing: “We know how to make it work in the lab/pilot. Now we need to make it work at 100× scale.” Capital intensity, permitting timelines, and feedstock/mineral supply chains remain the three biggest execution risks.

Market Predictions 2027–2035

• SAF reaches 5–15% of global jet fuel by 2035
• Wildfire tech prevents $50–100B in annual damages
• Long-duration storage becomes grid standard
• Industrial decarbonization (cement, steel, chemicals) emerges as largest CDR category
• Trillion-dollar cleantech opportunity materializes

Investment Takeaways for 2026

• Top funds — Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Congruent Ventures
• Valuation discipline — Late-stage rounds at 8–15× forward revenue becoming norm
• Exit paths — Strategic acquisition (airlines, utilities, chemicals), SPAC revival unlikely, IPO window opens 2028–2030

Risk vs. Reward Matrix

• Highest risk / highest reward — Fusion, novel DAC
• Balanced risk / strong reward — SAF, wildfire tech, long-duration storage
• Lower risk / solid reward — Heat batteries, low-carbon materials, AI monitoring

Excited about climate tech’s future? Dive deeper into green innovation at vfuturemedia.com/green-tech/ or startup funding trends at vfuturemedia.com/startups/.

These are the companies — and the founders — turning existential risk into generational opportunity. Which one are you watching closest in 2026? Share below.

— Ethan Brooks