Multimillion-dollar boost to create ‘climate unicorns’
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson |
Fledgling clean energy start-ups will compete for grants of up to $1 million under a program designed to help promising Australian technologies overcome an investment gap.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced its $30 million Launchpad program on Wednesday to support up to 30 early start-ups, with additional funding for accelerators, incubators and other business support organisations.
If successful, the scheme for pre-seed and seed-stage companies could become an annual funding round.
The announcement comes after Australia recorded record levels of wind and solar energy in the year to March 2026, according to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory, although it found more emission cuts would be needed to meet the nation’s 2030 climate target.
Half of the program’s $30 million budget would be allocated to start-up firms, with successful applicants receiving $500,000 and companies with high capital costs eligible for an additional $500,000.
The scheme’s other $15 million would be earmarked for grants to accelerators and other organisations supporting small businesses.
The targeted government support would be vital for companies developing clean energy technologies, ARENA chief executive Darren Miller said, as they often struggled to attract venture capital.
“We don’t have a lot of climate unicorns to point to in Australia … like we’ve got with Atlassian or Canva or some of these very big software companies where they’ve been great financial successes,” he told AAP.
“It’s very easy for young, energetic entrepreneurs to tackle things in the Bitcoin space or AI or software.
“It’s harder to get them to spend their time on the climate because it is a much longer road but it’s the more important problem in our view.”
Creating renewable energy technology often involved building hardware rather than software, Mr Miller said, which required larger investments and longer timelines.
Start-ups applying to the Launchpad scheme would not be required to fill out as many documents as established firms seeking larger investments, he said, and would receive decisions quickly.
Grants of up to $5 million would also be awarded to ecosystem partners under the scheme, he said, to strengthen the sector and provide a range of assistance.
“(Start-up founders) need support, they need mentoring, they need a community of people to talk to, they need education about different elements of running a business,” he said.
“We think that these incubators and accelerators that exist are vital for the success of start-ups and we wanted to make sure that we were not just funding the individual companies, but we were funding the infrastructure that sits around companies to help them on their journey.”
Start-up funding could be offered annually if proven successful, Mr Miller said, with applications for the first round closing in late October.
AAP