Evergreen Climate Innovations Research
Investment Thesis
Evergreen Climate Innovations (formerly Clean Energy Trust) is a nonprofit, seed-stage venture fund dedicated to closing the capital gap for early-stage climate tech startups in the Greater Midwest, a region that receives only about 3% of national early-stage climate tech investment. Evergreen invests in startups developing innovative solutions with the potential for outsized impact on the climate emergency and related environmental and sustainability challenges, while also creating jobs and driving regional economic development.
The organization pioneered a model it calls the "501vc® Investment Fund": a seed-stage investment vehicle capitalized with philanthropic and corporate dollars, structured as a revolving evergreen fund. Investment returns are recycled back into new investments, allowing philanthropic capital to generate compounding impact over time rather than being spent once. Because the fund is philanthropically capitalized, Evergreen can be more patient and absorb more risk than a traditional venture investor, helping bridge the earliest and hardest part of the climate tech commercialization gap.
Sector Focus
Evergreen is a generalist climate tech investor across the full range of decarbonization and sustainability verticals, with visible portfolio concentration in:
- Grid and energy storage (long-duration storage, magnetics, grid monitoring/analytics)
- Transportation and mobility (EV batteries, electrified aviation, fleet efficiency)
- Built environment (building automation, HVAC, geothermal, water heating efficiency)
- Materials & manufacturing (advanced materials, biochar/carbon removal, bio-based pigments and plastics)
- Water (industrial wastewater treatment, groundwater monitoring, water risk analytics)
- Food & agriculture (regenerative agriculture, supply chain food-loss reduction, precision ag)
- Carbon dioxide removal (biochar, mineralization-based sequestration)
Stage Focus
Evergreen invests from Pre-Seed through Series A, explicitly stating on its site that it supports "early-stage, climate tech companies" that are "Pre-Seed to Series A" and based in the Greater Midwest region of the United States. In practice, most disclosed checks are at the pre-seed stage, often alongside other seed investors, corporate strategics, or regional funds.
Check Size
Evergreen does not publish a standard check size range. Based on disclosed rounds, it typically writes smaller checks as part of syndicated pre-seed rounds rather than leading with a large check — for example, participating (not leading) in CorePower Magnetics' $2.5M pre-seed round alongside lead investor Volta Energy Technologies and Innovation Works.
Lead Tendency
Evergreen more often participates alongside other investors than leads rounds outright. Its CorePower Magnetics investment was a participation in a round led by Volta Energy Technologies. Given its philanthropic, patient-capital structure, Evergreen frequently plays a catalytic, first-institutional-money role that unlocks larger follow-on rounds from traditional VCs and strategics rather than leading priced rounds itself.
Recent Activity
Evergreen is actively investing and publishing "Why We Invested" writeups on new portfolio additions:
- Investment in Carba (Minnesota-based wood-waste biochar/carbon removal) — publicly detailed August 31, 2026
- Investment in Living Ink Technologies (algae-based Algae Black™ pigment, a carbon-black alternative) — publicly detailed March 19, 2026, investment made in 2025
- Ongoing support of Natural Science through Evergreen's Early Access Program (oil spill response, water treatment, oil & gas processing technology)
- Monthly "Cleantech Roundup" blog series and an annual flagship convening, Co_Invest Climate, held in Chicago
- Investment Principal Shashank Churukanti published a mid-2026 cleantech VC trends analysis noting a sharp decline in early-stage (seed/Series A) climate tech deal volume even as total dollars deployed have risen, driven by AI-adjacent infrastructure mega-deals
Portfolio Highlights
Evergreen's portfolio spans roughly 49 companies, with 5 exits to date. Notable active and historical portfolio companies include:
- NanoGraf Technologies — 30% more energy-dense lithium-ion batteries for EVs
- Wright Electric — developing a zero-emissions 186-passenger commercial aircraft
- 75F — vertically integrated smart building automation
- CorePower Magnetics — compact, efficient magnetics for power electronics and EVs
- Kadeya — network of digitally connected, reusable water bottle vending stations
- Cache Energy — ultra-long-duration thermochemical energy storage
- NuMat Technologies — metal-organic frameworks for industrial gas and chemical decarbonization
- Carba — wood-waste biochar burial for durable, verified carbon removal
- Living Ink Technologies — algae-derived Algae Black™ pigment replacing petroleum-based carbon black
- Exited companies include Agentis, AllCell Technologies, EP Purification, Go Electric, and SPLT
Team
- Michelle Carr, Chief Executive Officer — Former Illinois Director for The Nature Conservancy; 16 years as an advisor at Goldman Sachs; MBA from Vanderbilt.
- Ian Adams, Managing Director — Former Obama administration official; over a decade in energy and climate investing, operations, and government; University of Chicago Booth MBA.
- Paul Seidler, Managing Director — Oversees investment activities and portfolio management; has participated in 50+ early-stage transactions totaling $9M+ since joining in 2014; serves as board director/observer for 18 portfolio companies; University of Chicago Booth MBA.
- Marc Altman, Senior Vice President, Strategy & Growth
- Shashank Churukanti, Investment Principal — Former SpaceX technical program manager (Falcon 9/Falcon Heavy avionics); leads market and deal analysis for the investment team.
- Elena Loke, Program Manager
- Estelle Richards, Director, Operations
- Dylan O'Reilly, Program Director
- Simone Perrin, Strategic Partnerships Associate
- Rachel Sebald, Director, Marketing and Communications
The organization also maintains a Board and a separate Investment Committee, consistent with its nonprofit governance structure.
Decision Process
As a nonprofit fund, Evergreen makes investment decisions through an Investment Committee, distinct from its staff and Board of Directors, indicating a formal committee-based diligence and approval process rather than solo-GP decision-making.
Founder Preferences
Evergreen's public "Why We Invested" writeups consistently highlight founders with deep technical or scientific backgrounds (e.g., Living Ink's co-founders met during PhD studies at Colorado State University; Carba's team includes deep process-engineering expertise) paired with a genuine, mission-driven commitment to climate impact rather than short-term hype. The firm explicitly values founders who can "execute at a high level" in operationally complex, hardware- and logistics-intensive businesses, and who demonstrate strong ability to secure corporate partnerships and follow-on capital.
Geographic Focus
Evergreen invests exclusively in startups based in the Greater Midwest region of the United States (explicitly including Illinois/Chicago, Minnesota, Michigan, and the broader Rust Belt/Midwest corridor), reflecting its founding mission to address the regional capital gap in climate tech investment.
Impact Model
Evergreen frames its work through three pillars: cultivating early potential in overlooked founders and technologies, connecting the climate innovation ecosystem (founders, investors, corporates, government), and catalyzing outsized downstream impact. Per its most recent impact reporting, portfolio companies have raised over $632M in follow-on funding against Evergreen's cumulative investment (roughly 54x), created 947 jobs, and 57% of founders backed are female or minority.