This year there is a lot of uncertainty, including the world trade war, changing policy priorities, and the economy that is beginning to stumble. Breakthrough Energy, a climate technology organization founded by Bill Gates, is also changing accordingly.
The group has always been making long bets, but it appears they are reevaluating some of them. For example, the policy team was discarded in March and did not continue to fund publications covering the world of climate technology. Still, investments in startups continue to continue, as well as the longest betting programme for up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
As the programme is called, groundbreaking energy fellows are presenting today’s new cohort. It consists of 45 fellows from 22 different startups, whose makeup reveals how the program is evolving in response to unique data and global uncertainty.
“It’s the most global [cohort] Something we had to date. Ashley Grosch, vice president of groundbreaking energy, told TechCrunch.
Grosch and her colleagues had to sift through around 1,500 applications and referrals, making the program more selective than the top universities in the world. Eleven teams are based in the US, six in Asia, and the rest in Canada, Germany, the UK and South Africa.
Part of the international focus was driven by a new hub of Singapore’s Fellowship Programme. The organization was established in August 2024 at Temasek, the national investment fund, and Enterprise Singapore, a government agency.
But it is also a recognition that climate change, a global problem, requires solutions from around the world.
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“What are the local needs? What are the local challenges?” Grosch said. As an example, she points to the fact that several cohort members are working on hydrogen.
In Asia, “there is a lot of interest in the hydrogen economy,” Gross pointed out. Cyclic, or recycled materials return to their original form, are also a priority for the region, given their role as all the waste associated with a global factory.
The new cohort also includes startups working to modernize key minerals, agriculture and grids.
Beyond a more global focus, the Breakthrough Energy Fellows Program has changed the curriculum. Based on observations and feedback from previous cohorts, we encourage new groups to think early and frequently about the economics of the technology being developed. Using a framework called techno economic analysis, they work with “business fellows” (often entrepreneurs with relevant experience) to determine whether or not their ideas are suitable for the product market and where they can be. Otherwise, they will be subtle to the pivot.
“We saw a lot of companies thinking they were going to do one thing and they pivot,” Grosch said. “After we help them and validate it, they’re more venture bankable.”
Grosh said almost all teams in the previous four cohorts have raised subsequent funding, and one Holocene has already set out. “It’s a great measure of success for us,” she said.
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