Techstars

Techstars Central LLC, founded in 2006 and based in Boulder, Colorado, operates as a startup accelerator and venture capital firm focused on supporting early-stage technology-oriented companies. It specializes in a mentorship-driven accelerator program, selecting ten startups each summer to participate in a three-month incubation period, offering funding of $120,000 in exchange for equity. Techstars invests primarily in sectors such as fintech, artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented reality, and IoT, while avoiding investments in medical devices, healthcare technology, and local service-oriented businesses. In addition to its primary accelerator, Techstars has various specialized programs, including those focused on music, retail, mobility, and social impact, with global reach extending to regions such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The firm prefers taking minority stakes, typically between six and ten percent, without seeking board representation or investor rights. Techstars has built a robust network of entrepreneurs, mentors, and corporate partners to foster innovation and growth within its portfolio, which includes over 1,000 companies with a significant collective market capitalization.

Ethan Austin

MD of the Techstars Western Union Accelerator

Mark Tortorella

Advisor

Nathanial Zola

MD

Past deals in Sustainability

NeedEnergy

Pre Seed Round in 2023
NeedEnergy is there to provide sustainable and clean energy solutions based on energy data. NeedEnergy is an energy-tech start-up company that leverages innovation, data and modern technology through ai and machine learning relevant with time as its core values.

EQUO

Seed Round in 2022
EQUO creates a product that has minimal impact on the environment. It provides a variety of truly eco-friendly solutions for everyday items by providing products that are 100% natural, plastic-free, non-toxic, chemical-free & biodegradable, and compostable.

Project Cece

Pre Seed Round in 2022
Project Cece is an online marketplace for fair and sustainable fashion. It offers over 15,000 products from over 100 different webshops with sustainability at its core. The goal is to have a positive impact on the fashion industry by making fair and sustainable clothing easy to find. Project Cece provides transparent information on brands and their sustainability and gives relevant information to make buying sustainable easy and fun.

Climatescape

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Climatescape operates a community platform helping people find opportunities to dive into climate through jobs, community, and investment. Its platform is an open directory of organizations working for people to learn about climate solutions and contribute their skills and capital for a sustainable future.

Carbon Limit

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Carbon Limit transforms CO2 pollution into carbon negative sustainable resources and products. The company was founded in 2020 and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.

Igugu Global

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Igugu Global provides climate transition analytics to search, structure, and finance sustainable infrastructure projects. It is also a provider of environmental, social, and governance mapping, structuring, and due diligence for green building, transport, and energy portfolios that enable clients to solve the problem of fragmentation in financial markets. Founded in 2019 by Anele Makhwaza, Igugu Global is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Finch

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Finch is a tool that decodes products' environmental and social impacts to incentivize consumers and brands to make better decisions. It operates a browser extension software to offer insights on a multitude of consumer products. Its software assesses what products are made of, how they are created, and how long they last, besides pinning expert scores on products' environmental and social impacts with functional reviews from real people. Using machine learning capabilities, it scores products based on a series of attributes and equips consumers with the right information at the point of purchase.

Upside

Pre Seed Round in 2021
UpsideHōM was founded on a simple premise; to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere.

Upside

Seed Round in 2021
UpsideHōM was founded on a simple premise; to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere.

EQUO

Pre Seed Round in 2021
EQUO creates a product that has minimal impact on the environment. It provides a variety of truly eco-friendly solutions for everyday items by providing products that are 100% natural, plastic-free, non-toxic, chemical-free & biodegradable, and compostable.

Valyuu.com

Seed Round in 2021
Circular Economy Marketplace

Cabinet Health

Seed Round in 2021
Cabinet Health is a company focused on creating environmentally friendly healthcare solutions that prioritize both human well-being and environmental sustainability. It manufactures refillable medicine containers and compostable medicine pouches, designed to keep medications fresh and secure. The cabinet pouches are made from a blend of wood cellulose and sealants, reflecting the company's commitment to reducing waste in the healthcare sector. By promoting sustainable practices in the distribution and storage of medicines, Cabinet Health aims to lead a new movement towards a more responsible and eco-conscious healthcare industry.

Flourish

Pre Seed Round in 2021
Flourish offers a subscription membership that helps women develop healthy habits that last through personalized accountability, community support, and education.

Project Canary

Pre Seed Round in 2020
The Project Canary solution is more than just sensors in the field, it is a comprehensive environmental information platform. This platform provides operators the actionable and reliable data they need to demonstrate responsible resource development, minimize risk, and prove they are a good neighbor.

Upside

Pre Seed Round in 2020
UpsideHōM was founded on a simple premise; to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere.

PowerMarket

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Climate change is one of the biggest threats today. PowerMarket, supported by the University of Oxford and European Space Agency Business Incubator, is on a mission to facilitate sustainable energy for all, creating energy independence. The traditional energy model is based on centralised, large-scale electricity generation systems. The model is not only capital intensive, but also has high carbon emissions. To combat the threat of climate change, countries are increasingly switching to renewable electricity. However, at a national scale, most still focus on large-scale energy generation plants that require heavy capital investment. Sustainable energy transition challenge is not only for governments and public sector institutions, but for all of us. PowerMarket’s objective is to help individuals and companies to cost effectively install decentralised renewable energy generation and battery storage, so that they can become increasingly energy independent and protect themselves from rising energy prices. First few steps towards an energy revolution - PowerMarket’s pilot Satellite Assessment Tool (SAT) allows individuals and companies to assess their property’s solar feasibility within a few clicks, and for free. Now you can use this information to find suppliers, finance and maintenance solutions fit for your need.

Cabinet Health

Seed Round in 2020
Cabinet Health is a company focused on creating environmentally friendly healthcare solutions that prioritize both human well-being and environmental sustainability. It manufactures refillable medicine containers and compostable medicine pouches, designed to keep medications fresh and secure. The cabinet pouches are made from a blend of wood cellulose and sealants, reflecting the company's commitment to reducing waste in the healthcare sector. By promoting sustainable practices in the distribution and storage of medicines, Cabinet Health aims to lead a new movement towards a more responsible and eco-conscious healthcare industry.

Hydro Wind Energy

Seed Round in 2020
Hydro Wind Energy is focused on becoming a leading sustainable energy provider, dedicated to addressing the environmental crisis through the development of zero carbon emission technologies. The company aims to deliver low-cost clean electricity and grid-scale energy storage solutions. Additionally, Hydro Wind Energy is engaged in creating handheld seawater desalination devices intended for humanitarian use and the marine sector, thereby enhancing access to essential resources. Through these initiatives, the company seeks to make a significant positive impact on the global environment, economy, and overall welfare of humanity.

Curie London

Pre Seed Round in 2020
Curie is online platform offering wide range of plant based meat products to promote sustainability and improve animal life. The most users using CURIE are eco-conscious and progressive individuals.

2ndNature

Pre Seed Round in 2019
2ndNature is a developer of stormwater management software focused on assisting municipalities in effectively managing stormwater assets. The company's platform enhances transparency and accountability in urban land management by streamlining compliance with Clean Water Act requirements. It facilitates the management of stormwater resources through benchmarking program effectiveness and reporting progress towards clean water objectives. This geospatial solution empowers local and state government staff, enabling them to measure program performance and build healthier, more sustainable communities.

Craste

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Employing and incorporating the model of Circular Economy to achieve our vision. We are on a mission to judicially and responsibly use limited available resources. Creating a positive impact in the environment is the core purpose of our organization. The ability to make a change and being a significant contributor of that change drives them.

Noir Food

Pre Seed Round in 2019
The Noir community supports and connects local food and wine producers that have global ambitions. They always promise to think sustainably, go directly to producers, and bring you phenomenal experiences for the best price.

Seek Sophie

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Seek Sophie is the world's first sustainable travel platform. Seek Sophie enables travellers to book Outdoors, Wildlife & Ecotourism activities directly with a community of impact-driven local businesses. Seek Sophie's mission is to create a fairer and more ethical world of travel, that benefits travellers, the local communities and the planet. Seek Sophie is committed to positive-footprint travel. Over-80% of the money you spend goes to creating jobs in the local communities, and offsetting the carbon footprint of travel. For every $1 spend on Seek Sophie, we offset 1lb of carbon emissions.

Seek Sophie

Pre Seed Round in 2019
Seek Sophie is the world's first sustainable travel platform. Seek Sophie enables travellers to book Outdoors, Wildlife & Ecotourism activities directly with a community of impact-driven local businesses. Seek Sophie's mission is to create a fairer and more ethical world of travel, that benefits travellers, the local communities and the planet. Seek Sophie is committed to positive-footprint travel. Over-80% of the money you spend goes to creating jobs in the local communities, and offsetting the carbon footprint of travel. For every $1 spend on Seek Sophie, we offset 1lb of carbon emissions.

Aqulytics

Seed Round in 2018
We are committed to the protection and sustainability of water, and support the monitoring of wastewater and industrial discharges drilling down on physical, chemical, biological and organoleptic parameters. Our participatory monitoring features are ideal for brokering partnerships between the industry, government and communities in support of improving access and quality of freshwater sources.

Resonance

Pre Seed Round in 2018
Resonance reputation is one of its biggest assets, and the hardest to manage and protect. Resonance is applying the latest Cognitive Computing and Big Data techniques to the problem of finding, quantifying and analysing key reputational data.

SustAnalyze

Seed Round in 2017
SustAnalyze, provides data-driven software tools and services to speed up the development of sustainable chemical processes. At SustAnalyze they believe that profitability and sustainabiliy need not be mutually exclusive sets. Their approach is to combine innovative ideas with the right data and analytical models to ascertain profitability and sustainability. Sustanalyze offerings have been developed with this approach and envision a greener and sustainable chemical industry.

SwiftComply

Seed Round in 2016
SwiftComply helps over 450 water authorities protect human health and the environment by providing an online platform that streamlines their compliance programs

Simple Energy

Series B in 2014
Simple Energy is a customer engagement platform focused on motivating individuals to save energy. The company develops data-driven software that informs users about their energy consumption and encourages them to adopt more sustainable practices. By making the process of energy conservation social, enjoyable, and straightforward, Simple Energy aims to create lasting behavioral changes in how people use energy. The platform helps users understand their energy usage and identify opportunities for savings, contributing to a more sustainable future.

Bevi

Seed Round in 2014
Bevi aims to eliminate waste from the production, shipping, and disposing of bottled beverages. We envision a future where a smarter platform (powered by the municipal water supply) transforms how beverages are delivered. It is an ambitious goal, but we are on it!

Simple Energy

Series A in 2013
Simple Energy is a customer engagement platform focused on motivating individuals to save energy. The company develops data-driven software that informs users about their energy consumption and encourages them to adopt more sustainable practices. By making the process of energy conservation social, enjoyable, and straightforward, Simple Energy aims to create lasting behavioral changes in how people use energy. The platform helps users understand their energy usage and identify opportunities for savings, contributing to a more sustainable future.

Smart Habitat

Pre Seed Round in 2011
In 2002, Smart Habitat was born. Encompassing an array of possibilities, it differs from most other companies in the industry. Smart Habitat is focused on the effects that modern technology has on the environment and is committed to creating only energy-efficient systems. Smart Habitat was created amidst the economic falter caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the War on Iraq. Despite a shaky foundation, Smart Habitat successfully began the movement towards improving domestic energy consumption. Through the economic surplus and housing boom Smart Habitat soared. Today, Smart Habitat continues to trudge through the current economic slough and will emerge as a powerful leader dedicated to helping the world, building one smart habitat at a time.

Simple Energy

Seed Round in 2011
Simple Energy is a customer engagement platform focused on motivating individuals to save energy. The company develops data-driven software that informs users about their energy consumption and encourages them to adopt more sustainable practices. By making the process of energy conservation social, enjoyable, and straightforward, Simple Energy aims to create lasting behavioral changes in how people use energy. The platform helps users understand their energy usage and identify opportunities for savings, contributing to a more sustainable future.

Simple Energy

Seed Round in 2011
Simple Energy is a customer engagement platform focused on motivating individuals to save energy. The company develops data-driven software that informs users about their energy consumption and encourages them to adopt more sustainable practices. By making the process of energy conservation social, enjoyable, and straightforward, Simple Energy aims to create lasting behavioral changes in how people use energy. The platform helps users understand their energy usage and identify opportunities for savings, contributing to a more sustainable future.