Cleantech Capital Report 01

New monthly. This is Issue No. 1 of the BigEV Cleantech Capital Report. Read it free, and subscribe at bigev.news to get every issue.How to read this first issue. This is a summary built from BigEV's own daily briefings and articles, not a closed-month market tally. It reflects what we have published so far, so figures are a floor rather than a complete count. Every number is quoted as the source brief stated it, with a link to that brief in each row. Where a brief did not state a field, the cell reads not reported, and nothing has been inferred. Scope is cleantech and the adjacent sectors you track: energy, solar, wind, grid and storage, batteries, EV and charging, hydrogen, carbon removal, critical materials, robotics, and eVTOL and air mobility. Deals in the briefings that sit outside that scope, such as pure defense hardware, biotech, fintech, quantum, and enterprise software, were left out and are easy to add back if you want them. Items marked † need a second look and are listed at the end. 1. FUNDING ROUNDS

1. Funding rounds

Equity, venture, and public-market rounds raised by companies in scope. One row per round.

Note on Lyten: the 200 million was raised largely to fund its acquisition of bankrupt Swedish manufacturer Northvolt, which appears in the deals table below.

2a. M&A

2a. Acquisitions, mergers, and strategic stakes

2b. PROJECT FINANCE

2b. Project finance and government loans or grants over $100M

Context the briefings noted but did not frame as a single deal: the DOE Loan Programs Office reported 191 active applications seeking a cumulative $297.7 billion, and Mercom Capital reported $8.9 billion of corporate funding for energy-storage companies and $16.9 billion for solar in the first half of 2026. These are pipeline and market figures, so they are not counted as deals above.

2c. NEW FUNDS

2c. New funds closed by climate and mobility investors

Supplemental: capacity

Supplemental: major capacity and expansion commitments

These are corporate capital commitments rather than financings raised, so they are kept separate. They are large enough to matter to the picture.

3. MOST ACTIVE INVESTORS

3. Most active investors

Ranked by number of in-scope funding rounds (table 1). The honest headline is that investor disclosure was thin this period.

No investor appeared in more than one in-scope round. Of the 15 rounds in table 1, 10 named no investor at all, and the rest named investors who each appear once: Accel, Zacua Ventures, Unilazer Ventures, Schema Ventures, and Z21 in the Origin round; HICO Investment Group and Archangel in the Skyfly round; Matin Group in Samson Sky; Zone II and CC.VC in Holyvolt; and Sparc Technologies, Fortescue, and Adelaide University in Sparc Hydrogen. If we widen the lens beyond venture rounds to all capital providers in this issue, two names recur: the US Department of Energy, which appears across the $500 million and $134 million programs, and Gotion, which appears in both the Volkswagen partnership and the Morocco plant. That is the extent of repeat activity the record supports, so I have not manufactured a longer ranking.

4. WHERE THE MONEY WENT

4. Where the money went

Disclosed capital by sector

Combining rounds, project finance, acquisitions, and funds, using only disclosed figures. Read these as "at least," because many deals carried no amount and the issue is not a closed-month count.

The three largest funding rounds

Among company rounds, the three largest confirmed as closed were Voltus at $225 million, Lyten at $200 million, and Reverion at $175 million. FieldAI's reported raise of as much as $700 million would top all three, but the briefings described it as in progress rather than closed, so I am holding it outside the ranking until it is confirmed.

Where little or nothing showed up

Wind drew no standalone financing in the record. Dedicated carbon removal was nearly silent, with one $100 million fund and a single small equity round. Hydrogen and eVTOL both stayed early, with one meaningful round each and a scattering of pilot-size checks. Charging raised most of its capital through acquisition and strategic combination, not venture rounds, which is worth watching if you expected charging to be a venture story.

5. INSIGHTS

5. Five reads for founders raising now

1. Grid and storage is where equity actually closed. Voltus raised $225 million in a Series D for distributed energy and virtual power plants, and Flatiron Energy locked in $850 million for a single 1,200 MWh battery project near Boston. The signal for founders is that contracted storage and demand flexibility are fundable at real scale right now, and pure generation increasingly travels inside storage-led deals rather than on its own.

2. Solar project finance is open, and geography is not the gate it used to be. Rezolv Energy arranged up to $637 million for a 1.3 GW project in Romania, Grenergy secured $457 million in Chile, Infinity Power lined up $566 million in Egypt, and CleanChoice closed about $166 million in New York and Pennsylvania. If you are financing a solar asset, lenders are showing up wherever the offtake and incentive profile are clear, so spend your energy making the contract bankable.

3. Batteries drew the biggest numbers, and almost all of it came from incumbents building capacity. Volkswagen and Gotion committed about $3.66 billion across European and North African lines, Gotion set a $1.3 billion first phase in Morocco, and Lyten raised $200 million mainly to absorb Northvolt out of bankruptcy. A pure cell-manufacturing pitch now competes with those balance sheets, so the openings for venture money sit in materials and software, where Holyvolt's $45 million round is the example to study.

4. Robotics kept raising at every stage, which tells you the category has not cooled. Destro AI took $8 million in seed, Minerva Humanoids came out of stealth near $10 million, Origin raised $20 million with Accel in the round, and FieldAI is reported to be raising as much as $700 million. That spread from pre-seed to mega-round means a credible robotics story can still start small and move quickly, so stage your raise to the milestone rather than the hype.

5. Hydrogen and air mobility are still early, and the checks prove it. Reverion's $175 million Series B was the one sizable hydrogen round, with the rest down at pilot size like Sparc Hydrogen's sub-million round, while in air mobility Skyfly closed $10 million and Samson Sky secured an $80 million strategic investment. If you are building here, plan for staged, milestone-based capital, because that is the shape of money that actually cleared this period.

6. LINKEDIN

6. LinkedIn post, draft for your profile

Draft only. Nothing has been posted. Written in your voice.

LinkedIn · personal profile

I read every BigEV briefing so you do not have to, and this issue I pulled the capital out of them and put it in one place. Three things stood out.

Storage is where the equity is actually closing. Voltus raised $225 million for distributed energy and virtual power plants, and Flatiron Energy locked in $850 million for a single 1,200 megawatt-hour battery project near Boston. Generation is increasingly riding along inside storage deals rather than raising on its own.

Solar project finance is open worldwide, not just in the US. Rezolv arranged up to $637 million in Romania, Grenergy $457 million in Chile, Infinity Power $566 million in Egypt. The lenders show up when the offtake is bankable, wherever the project sits.

Batteries drew the biggest numbers, and almost all of it was incumbents buying capacity. Volkswagen and Gotion committed about $3.66 billion, and Lyten raised $200 million mostly to take Northvolt out of bankruptcy. For founders that moves the venture opening toward materials and software.

I am putting this together as a monthly, the BigEV Cleantech Capital Report. If you want the full issue with the tables and sources, comment or message me and I will send it over.

7. EMAIL

7. Investor email, draft

Draft only. Nothing has been sent. Short and personal, one link to bigev.news.

Email · to a cleantech investor

Subject: A monthly read on where cleantech capital is moving

Hi [First name],

We publish a daily cleantech and mobility briefing at bigev.news, and I have started pulling the capital activity out of it into a monthly summary: the funding rounds, the acquisitions, the project finance, and the new funds, with the numbers and sources in one place.

The first issue has a few things I thought you would find useful, including where solar project finance is actually closing right now and how much of the battery money is incumbents buying capacity rather than new equity. It is built for someone who looks at these deals for a living.

If it is useful to you, I am glad to send it over each month. No ask beyond that. If you would rather just follow along, everything sits at bigev.news.

Best,
Adam

UNSURE

Deals to check before you rely on them

Flagged with † above. I would confirm these before quoting them publicly.

FieldAI, ~$700M. The briefing described this as a company reportedly raising at around a $10 billion valuation, not a closed round. Confirm whether it has closed before counting it.

Ampol / Evie Networks, AU$225M. The EV Market brief noted it could not establish a qualifying official announcement timestamp inside its window, so the timing and status need a check.

Archer / Wisk. Captured from a briefing headline about an aerospace acquisition. I did not find deal terms in the body, so the amount is not reported and the structure needs confirming.

British International Investment, ~$1.6B. Described as capital the initiative is expected to mobilize for Southeast Asia, which is a target rather than a closed commitment.

US DOE programs, up to $500M and up to $134M. These are funding opportunities the DOE announced, not awards to a named recipient. Treat them as available capital, not deployed capital.

ReNew, $100M. Exactly at the $100 million line for the project-finance table, included on the inclusive side.

Reverion country. The briefing placed this in Europe without naming the country, so the country cell is left as not reported rather than guessed.

Out of scope on purpose. The briefings also carried large non-cleantech deals that I left out of the tables: AMD and World Labs ($8.2B), Pfizer and Metsera (~$10B), Onsemi and Synaptics ($5.7B), International Seaways and Bruton ($370M), GTCR and CCC ($4.6B), Lockheed Martin and Terran Orbital (~$450M), IonQ ($2B), Ramp ($1.85B), and a set of quantum, defense, and software rounds. Nvidia's $1.5 billion investment in SB Energy sits on the edge of energy and AI infrastructure, so I held it out too. Say the word and I will fold any of these in.

BigEV Cleantech Capital Report, Issue No. 1. Built from BigEV daily briefings. Figures are quoted as each briefing stated them and link to the source brief. This is a first issue and a floor, not a closed-month market total.Get the Cleantech Capital Report every monthOne issue a month on where cleantech and mobility capital is moving. Free.Subscribe at bigev.news