PwC measured $56 billion of climate-tech financing in the 12 months through September 2024, down 29% from $79 billion in the preceding 12-month window. Energy-related startups nevertheless took nearly 35% of funding in the first three quarters of 2024, up from 30% in 2023.

A smaller pool can change composition

The sector-share gain does not by itself show that every energy company raised more. It says energy captured a larger portion of a smaller and shifting pool. PwC also found that industrial climate startups drew 7% of investment in the first three quarters of 2024, down from 17% in 2023. Comparing the shares helps expose the allocation decision hidden by a single climate-tech total: capital can concentrate in technologies with nearer revenue or clearer policy support while hard-to-abate industrial problems remain capital hungry.

Adaptation and corporate participation

PwC classified 28% of first-three-quarter 2024 deals as involving adaptation and resilience, including companies that also address mitigation. Nonfinancial corporations participated in 28% of deals, close to the prior year's 26%. These are deal shares, not claims about dollars contributed or impact achieved. Corporate involvement may bring customers and industrial knowledge as well as capital, but deal participation alone cannot show whether a pilot, deployment or emissions outcome followed.

Read the method before a trend chart

The headline period is Q4 2023 through Q3 2024, not calendar 2024. PwC expanded its tracked startup universe from about 8,000 to more than 12,000 and includes equity investments and grants while excluding debt, asset purchases and exits. Its wider later-stage and emerging-market coverage complicates a simple comparison with previous editions or a conventional VC database. The reported 29% decline remains the provider's within-study comparison; a chart should retain PwC's exact periods and methodological note.

Keep the context

PwC's expanded index and broad financing definition limit cross-provider and cross-edition comparisons.

Financial education, not investment or legal advice. Historical notes are retrospective analysis prepared in September 2026, not contemporaneous Venture Trace reporting.

Sources & scope

01

PwC

State of Climate Tech 2024

Source date
3 Dec 2024
Retrieved
19 Sept 2026
Period / geography
Q4 2023 to Q3 2024 · Global

PwC Climate Tech Investment Index, startup equity and grant flows, with selected private-equity investment

Historical report snapshot with expanded 2024 coverage. Index expanded from 8,000 to more than 12,000 startups; the 12-month window is not calendar 2024 and definitions differ from past editions.