Over the past two weeks, more than $1 billion has flowed into climate and energy technologies worldwide. Several funds have closed rounds ranging from $500 million to $1.23 billion, focusing on energy storage, AI, and decarbonization of infrastructure.

Global venture capital flows are noticeably shifting towards climate tech and energy infrastructure. According to Net Zero Insights, over the past two weeks, more than 217 deals have been recorded and seven new specialized funds focused on climate, energy efficiency, and AI for sustainable development have been launched. The largest rounds have taken place in the USA, UK, India, Switzerland, and Europe. For businesses in Kazakhstan and Central Asia, this is a signal: the window of opportunity in the energy and climate technology sector is rapidly narrowing, and competition for capital is intensifying.

Climate technologies: new funds over $1 billion

The main news in the climate venture market in recent weeks is the closure of several large funds focused on sustainable technologies, energy, and AI. According to Net Zero Insights, the total amount of new funds announced over two weeks exceeds $3 billion. A key player is London-based Apis Partners, which closed the Apis Growth Markets Fund III with $1.23 billion. The fund's mandate includes financial and technology companies in the emerging markets of Africa and Asia, potentially opening a window for fintech and insurtech projects from Central Asia.

Another important signal is the closure of Solutions Fund I by American fund S2G Investments, which raised $1 billion. The fund focuses on scaling growth-stage companies in the foodtech, agritech, energy, and ocean solutions sectors. This fund targets mature companies with revenue and clear unit economics, setting a benchmark for regional startups: climate tech is no longer just about early experimental projects but also about scalable B2B businesses with clear commercial benefits.

Swiss investor Lightrock announced a new $500 million fund focused on Indian energy startups, confirming the overall trend: capital-heavy projects in renewable energy and energy infrastructure are becoming attractive to VC and growth funds again. In parallel, American Baukunst formed its fifth fund worth $50 million for early-stage investments, focusing on deep tech, where climate and AI solutions make up a significant portion of the portfolio.

For companies like Alashed IT (it.alashed.kz), which support the scaling of cloud and infrastructure parts of products, this is a signal to reassemble the product line: new funds expect not just 'green' ideas, but infrastructure solutions capable of withstanding growth of tens and hundreds of percent annually, ensuring reliability, security, and transparent carbon footprint accounting.

Large rounds in climate tech: AI, hydrogen, batteries, and data centers

At the startup level, several large deals have taken place in the climate tech and energy infrastructure segments in recent weeks. American Panthalassa raised $140 million in a Series B round from investors including Peter Thiel, John Doerr, and TimeVentures by Mark Benioff. The company is building the Ocean-3 network — AI computing nodes in the ocean powered by wave energy. This is both an experiment with new energy infrastructure and an attempt to relieve overheated land-based data centers experiencing power shortages.

Norwegian Gen2 Energy received $72.8 million in EU grant funding to create a renewable hydrogen production plant for the maritime sector in Nordland. This is one of the largest green hydrogen projects for shipping in Europe, directly impacting supply chains and future port infrastructure requirements worldwide. In the energy sector, French Mantle8 stands out, raising $36 million in a Series A round to develop natural hydrogen exploration technologies and subsurface reservoir modeling.

Several deals have affected the battery and energy storage segment. British Nyobolt received $60 million in Series C to accelerate the development and scale-up of ultra-fast charging systems. Canadian Moment Energy raised $40 million in Series B to expand its production of energy storage systems based on recycled batteries, targeting commercial facilities and small power grids. This is critical amid growing demand for energy-intensive infrastructure for AI and cloud services.

British Iceotope deserves special attention, raising $26 million in Series B to develop precision liquid cooling technologies for AI infrastructure and energy-efficient data centers. With data center electricity consumption growing by double digits annually, Iceotope's solutions directly reflect the new reality: without a radical increase in energy efficiency, computing infrastructure will hit a ceiling in terms of power and cooling.

Digital infrastructure and satellite services for sustainability

Climate investments today are not just about hardware and energy but also digital infrastructure. Berlin-based startup LiveEO received $32.8 million in a late-stage venture round from b2venture, HELANTIC, and the European Innovation Council. The LiveEO platform uses satellite imagery and AI to monitor critical infrastructure: power lines, railways, pipelines. For infrastructure operators, this reduces accidents and lost revenue, as well as providing a tool to prevent man-made disasters.

In the same digital segment, water and utility infrastructure solutions are growing rapidly. New York-based CREW Carbon raised $19 million in Series A plus $6 million in grants and non-dilutive funds. The company automates wastewater treatment optimization based on data, reducing energy consumption and emissions, and enabling utility system operators to meet tightening environmental requirements. Such digital solutions are already reaching the level of scalable SaaS platforms with ARPU in the tens of thousands of dollars per year per facility.

At the intersection of the digital and energy agendas, a whole class of startups is working on intelligent asset management. For example, logistics and industrial developers are creating funds, as Lincoln Property Company does with its second logistics fund worth $280 million for investments in industrial and logistics real estate. Such projects increasingly incorporate energy efficiency, solar generation, and energy storage requirements from the outset, forming a market for integrators and IT contractors.

For integrators like Alashed IT (it.alashed.kz), which can build monitoring and automation based on IoT, clouds, and satellite data, this is a direct entry point: from predictive energy consumption analytics systems for warehouses to SLA monitoring services for energy companies and government infrastructure.

A new agenda for startups: from R&D to scalable B2B

The structure of recent deals shows an important shift: climate tech is no longer a niche for experimental R&D projects and is entering the mainstream of mature B2B. Many Series B and C rounds raised, such as those for Panthalassa, Nyobolt, or Moment Energy, are aimed not so much at development as at scaling sales, building production capacity, and entering new markets. These are capital-intensive projects with a payback horizon of 7–10 years, but with understandable economics and long-term contracts.

On the venture capital side, there is also a re-examination of approaches. S2G Solutions Fund I, worth $1 billion, explicitly states its focus on 'systemic change solutions' — this means that investors are interested not only in the CO2 effect but also in the startup's ability to integrate into existing value chains: energy companies, agribusinesses, developers, utility operators. For startups from Kazakhstan and the region, this means the need to initially design products not only for grants and pilots but also for scalable B2B contracts with revenue of $1 million per year or more.

The IT infrastructure requirements for such projects are also becoming stricter. Clients expect certified clouds, high-availability architectures, continuous monitoring, and cybersecurity. This creates additional demand for local IT partners, such as Alashed IT (it.alashed.kz), who can take on DevOps, cloud migration, building resilient systems, and integration with existing corporate infrastructure. Ultimately, the winners will be those startups that can combine deep industry expertise in energy/climate with a mature enterprise-level digital platform.

An important practical conclusion: even if a startup is working on a climate agenda, its pitch deck should start with a clear business model, a roadmap to EBITDA positivity, and a description of infrastructure readiness for scaling. There is already a lot of funding and money, but it goes to those who can work at the intersection of industry and digital architecture, not just talk about the mission of sustainable development.

What should startups and investors in Kazakhstan and CA do?

Against the backdrop of a global surge in investment in climate tech and energy infrastructure, the question arises: how should the Kazakhstan and Central Asia market respond in the coming months. Firstly, large funds like Apis Partners and S2G Investments explicitly state their focus on growth markets in Africa and Asia, which means Central Asia logically falls within their geography of interest if there are projects of the right scale. Companies working at the intersection of energy, logistics, agriculture, and IT can purposefully build a communication funnel with such funds, preparing English-language reporting, ESG reports, and clear KPIs for emissions reduction.

Secondly, it makes sense for businesses in the region to look at climate tech not as a separate grant segment but as a tool for improving efficiency. Kazakhstan's energy-intensive industries, including raw material extraction, metallurgy, and transport, are already feeling ESG pressure from international partners and banks. Investments in monitoring systems, energy-efficient data centers, digital CO2 emissions accounting, and logistics optimization are becoming not an option but a condition for access to cheap capital. This is where system integrators and outsourcing companies, such as Alashed IT (it.alashed.kz), come into play, who can quickly deploy the necessary IT infrastructure.

Thirdly, local VC funds and corporate investors should review their investment theses. Climate and energy transformation funds worth $500–1000 million are already emerging worldwide. If regional funds limit themselves to classic digital projects without a climate component, in 3–5 years, they may face a shortage of exits: global strategists and late-stage funds will buy sustainable solutions first. Therefore, it already makes sense to include a climate/energy angle in 20–30 percent of the portfolio.

Finally, it is important for startups and technology teams to focus on the international level from the very beginning: English-language product, architecture ready for scaling, attention to energy efficiency and security. With a strong technical core and partnerships with local integrators like Alashed IT, projects from Kazakhstan can compete for rounds of tens of millions of dollars, especially in the energy storage, digital infrastructure monitoring, and AI-based climate analytics segments.

Что это значит для Казахстана

For Kazakhstan and Central Asia, the surge in global investment in climate tech brings both risks and opportunities. On the one hand, large funds worth $500 million–$1.23 billion are already actively scanning the markets of Africa and Asia, and projects from the region are competing not only with each other but also with Indian, Middle Eastern, and African startups. On the other hand, the region has unique assets: significant renewable energy potential, transit corridors, energy-intensive industry, and growing demand for energy digitization.

According to the Ministry of Energy of Kazakhstan, the share of renewable sources in the country's generation has already exceeded 4 percent, with a target of 15 percent by 2030. To achieve these goals, energy storage systems, digital network monitoring, and consumption optimization at industrial facilities are needed. All this is directly in the focus of global climate funds, which have raised over $3 billion in recent weeks. Startups and technology companies from Kazakhstan can develop solutions in the field of energy-efficient data centers, emissions accounting, intelligent networks — and take them to the international market.

Companies like Alashed IT (it.alashed.kz) can already act as technology partners for regional energy and industrial players: designing cloud infrastructure for monitoring systems, implementing IoT platforms at facilities, ensuring cybersecurity and resilience. With proper project packaging and partnerships with international funds, the region is capable of attracting tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming years, turning the climate agenda from a regulatory challenge into a source of new growth.

British fund Apis Partners closed the climate-focused Apis Growth Markets Fund III worth $1.23 billion for investments in fintech and technology in the emerging markets of Africa and Asia.

The global venture capital map is rapidly redrawing in favor of climate and energy technologies, where new billion-dollar funds and $100+ million rounds are forming in a matter of weeks. For businesses and startups from Kazakhstan and Central Asia, this is the moment when climate tech stops being a peripheral topic and becomes the center of competition for capital. Successful teams will be those that combine industry expertise in energy, agriculture, or infrastructure with a mature digital platform and a transparent monetization model. Partnerships with local IT integrators like Alashed IT will allow regional players to meet international standards and compete for a share of the global climate investment flow.

Часто задаваемые вопросы

What is climate tech and which startups does it include?

Climate tech refers to technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and adapting to climate change. This includes startups in renewable energy, hydrogen, energy storage, energy-efficient data centers, AI-based climate analytics, agritech, and waste management. For example, Nyobolt with a $60 million Series C round and Iceotope with a $26 million Series B round are typical representatives of this segment. For investors, climate tech is becoming one of the fastest-growing areas with annual growth in funding volumes in the double digits.

When should businesses in Kazakhstan consider implementing climate tech solutions?

The optimal time is already at the planning stage of investment projects over a 3–5 year horizon, especially if the business operates in energy-intensive industries. International banks and partners increasingly require ESG reporting and emissions reduction plans, and without implementing climate solutions, access to cheap financing may become 1–2 percentage points more expensive. If a company consumes tens of millions of kWh per year, the payback period for energy-efficient and climate IT solutions is often 3–5 years. Companies that start implementing now will have a competitive advantage by the time requirements tighten in 2028–2030.

What are the risks of investing in climate tech startups and how to mitigate them?

The main risks are technological uncertainty, regulatory changes, and the capital intensity of projects with a payback period of 7–10 years. Focusing on companies that have already reached revenues of $1–5 million per year and have clear B2B contracts helps mitigate risks. It is also important to assess technological maturity (TRL 7–9), the presence of pilots with industrial or energy partners, and the resilience of the business model to changes in tariffs and subsidies. Engaging IT partners, such as Alashed IT, to evaluate the infrastructure part of the project reduces technical risks and scaling costs by 20–30 percent.

How long does it take to prepare a startup for a round of tens of millions of dollars?

From the decision to close a large Series B or C round, it usually takes 9–18 months. The first 3–6 months are spent on setting up metrics, auditing technology and finances, scaling pilots, and strengthening the team. Another 3–6 months are spent on active fundraising: meetings with funds, technical and financial due diligence, and agreeing on terms. The remaining time is spent on legal formalities and infrastructure refinement for growth. Engaging external IT integrators can speed up part of the process and reduce time-to-market by 20–40 percent due to ready-made architectures and DevOps practices.

How can a startup from Kazakhstan or CA attract climate investments and save on infrastructure?

Firstly, the product should be designed for the international market from the outset: English language, cloud architecture, scalability, and integration with existing customer systems. Secondly, it is important to build a clear economics: LTV, CAC, project payback periods for customers — these are key figures in the dialogue with funds worth $500 million–$1 billion. Thirdly, it is more profitable to outsource the infrastructure part (clouds, cybersecurity, monitoring) to companies like Alashed IT, which allows reducing capital expenditures and switching to an OPEX model with predictable monthly expenses. As a result, the startup can allocate up to 60–70 percent of the raised funds to product development and commercialization, rather than building its own IT infrastructure.

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