Climate Salad's third trade mission to SF

2024 Climate Tech Trade Mission to Verge: Recap and Reflections

In late October, Climate Salad led our third annual climate tech trade mission to San Francisco, bringing together a cohort of ten pioneering Australian and New Zealand climate tech companies. Meet our 2024 Cohort here.

The week was action-packed, taking our founders across the heart of Silicon Valley—San Francisco, San Jose, and Palo Alto—for intensive sessions with top-tier partners, including SVB, Cooley, Austrade, 9Zero, Stanford, and SCALERR. These sessions provided the cohort with essential guidance on scaling operations, navigating legal frameworks, and establishing a foothold in the US market. Each session was designed to equip founders with the knowledge and networks needed to drive their ventures forward globally.

VERGE24, where thousands of climate tech leaders and investors converged, served as a centrally-focussed hub of activity. Throughout the conference, founders connected with potential customers, investors, and strategic partners, strengthening their growth potential in new markets. We were very proud to partner with Callaghan Innovation and the New Zealand Cleantech Trek for a huge ANZ presence at VERGE. Our combined cohorts proved that there is incredible climate tech innovation happening in New Zealand as well as Australia!

A standout takeaway from the mission was the recognition that climate tech solutions are no longer just promising innovations; many are already being actively deployed by major corporates racing to meet decarbonization goals. Now, the focus must shift to securing the funding and infrastructure necessary to scale these solutions to the levels demanded by both business and climate imperatives.

Even amid recent political changes in the United States, climate tech investment continues to gain traction. The mission underscored that the global movement is too strong to be halted by any single political shift. With steadfast optimism, we look forward to robust growth in climate tech not only in Australia and the United States but across the world.

As we head into 2025, these new insights and alliances will propel Australian climate tech companies forward, providing the knowledge, networks and support for even greater global impact.

‍

‍