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Announcing a startup competition for early stage companies focused on CO2 capture and removal
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Supriya Agarwal
Supriya Agarwal
June 27, 2023

As part of the upcoming SOSV Climate Tech Summit—taking place virtually September 26-27th this year— we’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) to host a Startup Innovation Challenge (aka a startup competition!) focused on Carbon Removal and Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage (CCUS).

The competition is open to all early-stage startups (Series A or earlier) that are focusing on Carbon Removal and Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage anywhere in the world. 

An expert team will review the applications and select five finalists, who will pitch before a live, online audience and judges at the SOSV Climate Tech Summit on September 26. The judges will announce the winner the next day during the summit. 

Startups can apply here—the deadline is July 28.

Why participate? The finalists will pitch live to an online audience of VCs, and video archives from the pitch will be published on SOSV’s site after the event. Overall, we expect 5,000 attendees at the summit. There’s no better place for climate founders to find investors. Past speakers include Bill Gates, Vinod Khosla (Khosla Ventures), Chris Sacca (Lowercarbon Capital) and Sean O’Sullivan (SOSV).

The third annual SOSV Climate Tech Summit convenes the entire climate tech ecosystem, including technologists, founders, investors, and researchers across the climate tech startup ecosystem. The summit will include two days of main-stage sessions featuring noted climate founders and investors, as well as breakout sessions with more than 20 major climate investors. Here is a list of our 30 speakers so far.

Extreme Tech Challenge (XTC) is the world’s largest startup competition that aims to help startups change the world for the better. Founded by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, Young Sohn and Bill Tai, their mission is to empower entrepreneurs building innovative technologies that improve the world.


One more thing: Separately from the Startup Innovation Challenge, SOSV is also hosting the invitation-only Climate Tech Matchup for founders and VCs that was so successful last year, attracting 500 investors and 1500 founder-investor meetings in 2022.  Applications for the matchup will open in August. 

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