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We’re excited to welcome 12 climate tech startups to Cohort 4 of our Queensland Investment Ready Program. The program runs for three months and includes workshops and investor meetings equipping founders with the right tools and know-how to navigate the entire fundraising process.

Climate and cleantech is continuing to attract strong investor interest, with Cut Through Venture recently reporting $585 million raised in 2025, which puts our sector in the top four most-invested-in alongside AI, fintech, and biotech.

“With climate tech consistently one of Australia's most-invested-in sectors over the last few years, it's the right time to be supporting this talented group of founders - from hardware solutions for flood risk to digital infrastructure for biodiversity. EnergyLab is proud to continue our partnership with the Queensland Venture Capital Development Fund and QIC to deliver the Queensland Investment Ready Program, ensuring the startups in the Sunshine State have the tools they need to capitalise on this extraordinary market interest and scale their impact.” - Megan Fisher, CEO & Director, EnergyLab

The program exposes founders to 20+ cap raising experts, from climate tech investors, to exited founders, startup lawyers, and scientists. After 10 weeks of 20+ workshops the startups have 1:1 meetings with a range of VCs before the program wraps up with a big pitch showcase at The Precinct in Brisbane on April 23, 2026, where Cohort 4 will pitch in front of a panel of investors and the wider Queensland climate tech ecosystem.

“The program’s sector focus (climate tech) and topic focus (cap raising) result in an experience where participants interact with experts with relevant climate tech experience, bypassing the need to translate generic startup advice to their particular context. Everyone in the workshops, both the founders and the speakers, all operate in adjacent sectors. In addition to the highly relevant targeted advice from the speakers, this also amplifies peer learning, one of the key benefits of participating in an accelerator program in the first place.” - Audun Fiskerud, Program Lead, EnergyLab, quoted in the 2025 State of Australian Startup Funding Report.



Investment Ready Program Cohort 4

Quick snapshot of the cohort:

- 6 hardware startups, 6 software startups.

- All founders with deep domain expertise.

- Half of the startups are in-market with paying customers.

- Several of the startups have raised before, up to $3.5 million.

- 40%+ of the startups are founded by women.

AI Minds - Climate-adaptive decision intelligence helping councils and infrastructure owners make faster, better planning decisions.

AtlaSynk - Digital infrastructure connecting land stewards, institutions, and investors to measure, finance, and govern transparent climate and biodiversity outcomes.

Bionera - A packaging solution engineered in labs, designed to solve for food waste.

Clean & Recover - Acid mine drainage cleaning, capturing metals and sulphates to a standard suitable for environmental release or reuse.

Community Energy Queensland - Techno-social solutions ensuring Queenslanders benefit from, and participate in, the energy transition.

Friendship Tree - The home for trusted environmental and humanitarian donations.

Hailo - Solving the reasons people don’t use public transport by removing uncertainty, inaccessibility, and safety concerns.

IoT - Satellite-connected flood and carbon monitoring devices, protecting infrastructure and supporting environmental and emissions reporting in remote regions.

Latitude Blue - Pioneering APAC’s first compliance-grade marine natural capital asset class.

Resilience Design and Build - Rapidly deployable mobile solar-powered battery-storage infrastructure for EVs.

Smart Drain - Retrofit-ready, clog-resistant drainage solution designed to reduce urban flood risk.

Three Point Technology - Closed-loop system capturing and eliminating methane emissions from energy and water infrastructure.

The 5th cohort of the Investment Ready Program kicks off in August 2026, with applications opening in May 2026. Register your interest here.


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