Investor Profile: Clean Energy Ventures — Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Clean Energy Ventures funding goes to a specific breed of startup: hard-tech companies whose technology can work at gigaton scale — and whose economics can survive contact with the real market. The Boston-based climate-tech VC backs expert technical teams and turns them into commercial ones, applying a hard emissions bar to every deal.

Thesis & focus

Clean Energy Ventures invests "at the intersection of climate necessity and commercial reality": decarbonisation needs technologies that work and businesses that earn. Every investment must be capable of mitigating at least 2.5 gigatons of CO2e cumulatively between the initial investment and 2050 — a quantitative climate bar few VCs impose. The firm was founded in 2017 by co-founders and managing partners Daniel Goldman, David Miller and Temple Fennell. It now manages more than $415 million, with a team of trained engineers and operators, and a $305 million second fund aiming to mitigate 75 gigatons of emissions by 2050.

Sectors & stages

CEV writes early-stage cheques into disruptive, capital-light advanced energy technologies: mobility, renewable energy, carbon capture utilisation and storage, energy storage and critical minerals — plus, with Fund II, industrial decarbonisation (notably emissions tech for cement and steel), plastics and bioplastics, and grid-improving technologies such as virtual power plants. It invests across North America and Europe (a London office opened with Fund II) and takes a hands-on approach: leadership coaching, strategic marketing, IP development, engineering support and active board participation.

Fund size

Fund I closed at $110 million in 2019. Fund II closed in May 2024 at $305 million (about €281 million), oversubscribed against a $200 million target. Its LPs include strategic investors from the oil, chemicals, power generation, electricity distribution and construction industries — effectively the future customers of CEV's portfolio — alongside climate foundations such as The Grantham Foundation and Builders Vision.

Notable portfolio

The firm's site lists more than 30 portfolio companies, including long-duration energy storage company Noon Energy, compressor technology Evari, Israeli green ammonia company Nitrofix, UK sustainable aviation fuel company OXCCU, grid-monitoring company LineVision, low-carbon steel startup Hertha Metals, clean cement venture Queens Carbon, metals refiner Nth Cycle, Transaera, Aqua Membranes and Boston Materials.

Key people

Daniel Goldman, David Miller and Temple Fennell are the co-founders and managing partners, with 40+ years of combined early-stage investing experience and its exit Pika Energy (acquired by Generac). A Strategic Advisory Board is led by former US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.

Programs, perks & network

CEV's edge is its operating bench: in-house engineers help portfolio companies move from pilot to full commercialisation, and the firm developed SERC, an open-access emissions-reduction calculator used during diligence. Its strategic LPs double as commercial partners — a deliberate "consortium" model where the firm's investors are often its startups' largest prospective customers.

How to apply for funding

CEV runs no open accelerator or rolling application; founders pitch the firm directly through the contact route on cleanenergyventures.com. Come prepared: the firm's published screening process looks first for a clear articulation of the technology's "theory of change" for greenhouse-gas reduction, and it will want a credible emissions model — CEV builds conservative, base and high cases during diligence and even writes annual ESG reporting into its term sheets.