Elemental Impact

We are a 501©(3) nonprofit investing platform with over 15 years of experience advancing innovative technologies. We focus on scaling climate technologies that generate environmental and local impact.

As a nonprofit investor, we address market failures for early commercial climate projects. We provide catalytic capital and specialized expertise, including policy engagement, workforce development, and capital coaching.

Our portfolio includes over 160 companies in sectors like energy, agriculture, transportation, industry, and nature-based solutions. These companies develop technologies that make energy more reliable and affordable, help farmers adapt to changing conditions, strengthen domestic supply chains, and create jobs. Our portfolio companies are almost 2.5 times more likely to progress from early to late commercial stages than companies we don’t invest in.

Our nonprofit model is supported by over 40 funders, including foundations, family offices, individual donors, and corporate and government partners. This model allows us to take an impact-first approach, offering patient, flexible capital to technologies and projects that might not initially attract market-rate investors. We design new investment structures, such as the Development SAFE, and recycle any returned capital into future investments. We base investment decisions on environmental and local impact, and the potential to attract later-stage investment.

Since our early version launched in Hawaiʻi in 2009 with the U.S. Department of Energy, we have expanded investments from energy to mobility, water, food, and industry, and from Hawaiʻi to California and then to global markets. In 2021, we launched Earthshot Ventures, a $94M independent, for-profit venture fund. In 2022, we established a policy team to bridge the gap between federal policy creation and local technology implementation. We have catalyzed $11.5 billion in additional funding and created 17,000 jobs. We have 51-200 employees.

Our mission is to scale innovative technologies that have a deep environmental and local impact. As a 501©(3) nonprofit investor, we focus on addressing the “scale gap” for early commercial climate projects.

This means providing patient, flexible capital and expert services to help entrepreneurs close this gap and deliver tangible impact in communities.

Our approach emphasizes technology deployment, local workforce development, infrastructure modernization, and policy engagement. We take an impact-first approach to investing, making decisions based on environmental and local impact, and the potential for later-stage investment.