Dream Climate Tech Launchpad Program 2024 – United States

Dream Climate Tech Launchpad 2024 is the second iteration of the climate-focused, milestone-based, and investment-readiness program in partnership with Dream.org with the support of Salesforce. This year’s program will support Black and Latinx-led climate tech startups building solutions related to energy, the built environment, and electronic transportation and infrastructure.

These solutions will help decarbonize the global economy and create a localized impact for communities of color that have been historically excluded from the clean energy transition.

The program is designed to help startups identify early milestones to support growth and prepare for the next round of capital (if relevant). In short, through virtual and in-person workshops, they deliver a targeted, award-winning curriculum and provide countless connections to prepare startups for growth.

Areas

• Village Capital is looking for 10 Black or Latinx-led startups focused on addressing the following areas:
  • Energy: Solutions that increase accessibility to solar energy, energy storage, and grid management. Examples include community solar, solar financing, agrivoltaics, thermal, battery storage, energy storage optimization software, real-time monitoring, and enhanced renewable energy integration.
  • Built Environment: Solutions that decarbonize heating and cooling in buildings, energy efficiency technologies, and innovative construction methods. Examples include efficient heat pumps, efficient lighting, improved insulation, intelligent building efficiency solutions, clean construction materials, modular construction, 3D printing, and software that helps manage building projects.
  • Electric Transportation and Infrastructure: Solutions that improve EV infrastructure, EV battery technology, and models that promote affordable access to EV. Examples include increasing access to charging stations, EV charging efficiency software, vehicle-to-grid (V2G), efficient battery technologies, wireless charges, alternative production and recycling methods for batteries, and EV financing solutions.

Program Benefits

• Startups selected for the program will receive:
  • Catalytic Capital
    • Upon completion of the program, each startup will receive USD 5K as a non-dilutive, equity-free grant from Dream.Org. Two (2) companies from the cohort will be selected by their peers to receive additional investment capital of USD 25K each from Dream.Org to further scale their solutions.
  • Mentorship
    • Opportunities to network and receive mentorship from investors, strategic partners, founders, and business leaders.
  • Training
    • The curriculum has an emphasis on fundraising, business development, and opportunities to build deeper connections within the cohort. The program is structured to include one intensive workshop, followed by four monthly virtual check-ins and one in-person Summit, allowing for the cohort to engage with each other, receive training, and share updates on their milestones.
  • Financial Analysis
    • One-on-one coaching with an investment analyst focused on building a financial model, identifying unit economics, and using financial metrics to drive both their business and investor diligence.
  • Media Exposure
    • Exposure on Village Capital’s website and other collateral communications.
  • Access to Abaca
    • Scale your business faster by identifying the right capital for you and planning your next milestones for growth.

Eligibility Criteria

• Owned and operated by Black or Latinx Founders.
• Legal incorporation as a for-profit entity.
• Scalable solution that tackles one of the above mentioned areas, specifically impacting low-to-moderate income communities and communities of color in the US.
• Headquartered and with operations in the United States.
• Market-based solution that tackles the challenges above.
• Have a minimum viable product (MVP), and raised less than USD 1.5M in equity.
• Have at least one full-time founder based in the US.
• Have meaningful customer or business validation (not limited to revenue, it can also be successful pilots, number of users, and/or strategic partnerships).

For more information, visit Village Capital.