Recapping the HolonIQ 2023 Australia & New Zealand Climate Tech 100

With unprecedented investment efforts, breakthrough technologies being developed and deployed daily, and businesses with venture-scale returns and strong foundations making themselves known in regions far and wide.

Tracking the progress of this industry and rewarding the companies at the forefront of its growth is paramount to continuing the upward trend of opportunities and attention being paid to these new technologies.

On October 25th 2023, Greenhouse and HolonIQ announced the Australia and New Zealand Climate Tech 100; HolonIQ’s annual list of Australia and New Zealand’s most promising startups working in climate technology.

The final 2023 HolonIQ ANZ 100 are in the image below.

The Process

In 2023, Greenhouse was selected to lead the outreach and evaluation of the list. Greenhouse surfaced the most promising Climate Tech startups in the region and brought together a cohort of regional experts who assisted with judging and scoring.

We reached more than 500 climate startups and, in the process, we had a chance to see the true breadth of our ecosystem. We had many one-on-one consultations, lots of email outreach, a hosted Ask-Me-Anything with Bethany Hogan from HolonIQ, and an event to unveil the Top 100 with more than 200 attendees at Greenhouse in Sydney.

Each of these companies passed the eligibility and assessment criteria before being assessed by 30 independent evaluations across five core dimensions:

• Market: The quality and relative attractiveness of the specific market in which the company competes.
• Product: The quality and uniqueness of the product itself. Demonstrated impact by the product or service.
• Team: The expertise and diversity of the team.
• Capital: The financial health of the company and in particular its ability to generate or secure sufficient resources.
• Momentum: Positive changes in the size, velocity, and impact of the company over time.

Equipped with company information including recent fundraising data, pitch decks, longitudinal data of revenue, customer and team growth, and notable updates, our independent evaluators reviewed every company – with a minimum of four reviews per company submitted.

To narrow this list down to 100 companies was nearly impossible but, after much deliberation and collaboration, our evaluators had compiled a list of incredibly promising startups – all of whom are less than 10 years old and are already building stellar businesses and bleeding-edge technologies to reduce emissions, mitigate the effects of climate change, or help us adapt to a world affected by climate change.

Our View

A few years ago, we were unsure if there would be 100 climate tech companies in Australia and New Zealand. Today, this cohort numbers much greater than 100, and is globally significant in their technology, business models, and capacity to make an impact on climate change.

In reviewing the 2023 Australia and New Zealand Climate Tech 100, we noticed some interesting statistics:

1. Food Systems, Carbon Markets, Circular Economy and Energy Distribution and Storage together makes up 65% of the market.
2. Carbon Markets grew by 4% between 2022's ANZ 100 Cohort and 2023's Cohort.
3. Climate tech companies in Australia are maturing. This year's cohort had 14% fewer companies that were 3 years old or younger than last year.

This tells us that Climate Tech as a sector is graduating. The average successful company is more mature than it used to be and we’re noticing the scales tip in favor of startups with more longevity instead of more startups being created.

There is still work to do in diversifying the sectors that make up the ANZ Climate Tech ecosystem, and this region has scope to become a key decarbonisation player in the resources industry (with Australia being a large distributor of iron ore).

The overrepresentation of carbon markets, food systems, and circular economy proves Australia’s average consumer is one poised for relatively large behavioral change in favor of climate-friendly solutions. We believe that the resources, renewables, and storage & distribution sectors require more support on retrofitting infrastructure across the supply chain but have the potential to be market drivers for the region.

Climate tech is here to stay, and this challenge has given us a unique insight into its current state with this list.

Our Thanks

Thank you to HolonIQ for working with Greenhouse on this exciting initiative.
Thank you to everyone who submitted through the platform and nominated companies for this list.

We'd also like to thank all the independent evaluators from multiple industries, governments, and startup advisories who volunteered their time to review all our submissions. It's hard work to sort through a long list of promising startups, and we couldn't have made this challenge work without them.