Who’s got cash? Part 2: Hard-tech and physical AI funds backing climate tech

The best investor for a climate tech company isn’t always a fund with “climate” in its tagline. Deep-tech, frontier-science, and industrial funds — backing robotics, advanced materials, energy hardware, and physical AI — now overlap heavily with many climate verticals. Rebuilding, digitizing, and electrifying the physical economy is central to both groups’ thesis.

We’ve compiled a list of investors that announced or closed new funds over the past year, broken into three segments. This is the second of three posts. Part one covered the climate and energy specialists; part three will cover the defense, space, and American onshoring funds.

 

Lux Capital

Raised: $1.5B — Lux Ventures IX (Jan ’26)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed–Growth (multi-stage)
Focus: frontier science: defense, aerospace, materials, bio, AI
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • Crosby — agentic AI legal, Series B, Mar ’26, $60M (co-lead)

    • Erebor — crypto-focused bank, Series A, Dec ’25, $350M (lead)

    • Tenzai — AI penetration testing, Seed, Nov ’25, $75M (co-lead)

    • Valthos — AI biodefense, Seed, Oct ’25, $30M (co-lead)

    • 1001 AI — industrial operations AI, Seed, Oct ’25, $9M (co-lead)

Eclipse

Raised: $1.31B — Fund VI + Early Growth Fund III (Apr ’26)
Typically first invests at: Seed–Series A (Fund VI); Series B & Growth (Early Growth Fund III)
Focus: industrial evolution: manufacturing, robotics, energy, supply chain, defense
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • Humble — autonomous electric freight, Seed, Apr ’26, $24M (lead)

    • Ever — EV retail platform, Series A, Feb ’26, $31M (lead)

    • Jetson — home electrification, Series A, Jan ’26, $50M (lead)

    • Mind Robotics — industrial AI robotics, Seed, Nov ’25, $115M (lead)

    • Stand — climate-risk insurance, Series B, Oct ’25, $35M (lead)

    • Reframe Systems — modular housing factories, Series A, Aug ’25, $20M (co-lead)

Playground Global

Raised: $475M — Fund IV (May ’26)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed–Series A
Focus: compute, semiconductors, robotics, materials, energy
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • Syenta — electrochemical chipmaking, Series A, Apr ’26, $26M (co-lead)

    • Alva Energy — nuclear reactor uprates, Series A, Feb ’26, $33M (lead)

    • PicoJool — micro-LED photonics, Seed, Nov ’25, $12M (lead)

    • PowerLattice — power-delivery chiplets, Series A, Nov ’25, $25M (co-lead)

    • Sizable Energy — underwater energy storage, Seed, Oct ’25, $8M (lead)

    • xLight — EUV laser source, Series B, Jul ’25, $40M (lead)

    • Snowcap Compute — superconducting compute, Seed, Jun ’25, $23M (lead)

Obvious Ventures

Raised: $360M — Fund V (Jan ’26)
Typically first invests at: Seed–Series A
Focus: world-positive, AI-forward: physical AI & robotics, clean energy, bio & health
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • Gray Swan AI — AI model security, Series A, May ’26, $40M

    • AMI Labs — world-model AI, Seed, Mar ’26, $1.03B

    • Fleetzero — electric marine propulsion, Series A, Jan ’26, $43M (lead)

    • Boltz — AI drug discovery, Seed, Jan ’26, $28M

    • Obello — AI graphic design, Seed, Nov ’25, $8.5M (lead)

    • All In Food — organic snack bars, Seed, Jun ’25, $4M (lead)

    • Inductive Bio — small-molecule drug discovery, Series A, May ’25, $25M (lead)

    • Oumi — open-source AI platform, Seed, Jan ’25, $10M

BMW i Ventures

Raised: $300M — Fund III (Apr ’26)
Typically first invests at: Seed–Series B
Focus: physical & agentic AI, industrial software; batteries, advanced materials, circular economy
Leads vs participates: Occasional Lead
Recent investments:

    • Featherless.ai — open-model AI inference, Series A, Apr ’26, $20M

    • Sevii — autonomous cyber remediation, Seed, Feb ’26

    • Rive — interactive UI tooling, Series B, Sep ’25

    • Qualytics — data-quality automation, Series A, Jun ’25, $10M (lead)

    • VIA Science — data-privacy compute, Series B, Mar ’25, $28M

    • Athenic AI — AI data analytics, Seed, Jan ’25, $4.3M (lead)

Root Ventures

Raised: $190M — Fund IV (Nov ’25)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed–Seed
Focus: hardware, robotics & manufacturing (‘hard engineering’)
Leads vs participates: Occasional Lead
Recent investments:

    • Illoca — AI architectural design, Seed, May ’26, $13M

    • Flight Science — airline dispatch optimization, Seed, Jan ’26, $5.5M (lead)

    • DigiChem — custom molecule manufacturing, Seed, Nov ’25, $4M

    • Subtrace — backend HTTP tracing, Seed, Mar ’25, $0.5M

Kompas VC

Raised: $188M — Fund II (Apr ’26)
Typically first invests at: Seed–Series B
Focus: industrial AI, robotics, advanced materials, manufacturing, decentralized energy
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • AZX — vertical critical-infrastructure AI, Pre-seed, Jan ’26, $6M

    • Array Labs — 3D radar-satellite constellation, Series A, Jan ’26, $20M

    • NeoLogic — energy-efficient server CPUs, Series A, Aug ’25, $10M (lead)

    • Arvist — warehouse AI quality-control, Seed, Sep ’25, $4M

    • Tibo Energy — AI energy-management platform, Seed, Jun ’25, $6.5M (lead)

    • Nala Earth — nature & biodiversity-risk platform, Seed, Jan ’25, $4.1M

Origin Ventures

Raised: $140M — Fund VI (Oct ’25)
Typically first invests at: Seed–Series A
Focus: frontier tech: robotics, advanced materials, chips, defense (also AI software)
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • Century Health — AI clinical-data abstraction, Seed, May ’26, $5M (lead)

    • Intalus — ceramic-infused metal materials, Seed, May ’26, $11M (lead)

    • R2 Wireless — passive RF-sensing defense, Seed, Jan ’26, $5.3M (lead)

    • Lemurian Labs — hardware-agnostic AI compiler, Series A, Dec ’25, $28M

    • Silkline — AI supply-chain software, Seed, Oct ’25, $4M (lead)

    • AudioShake — AI audio stem-separation, Series A, Oct ’25, $14M

    • Opticore — photonic computing chips, Seed, Dec ’24, $7M (co-lead)

MVP Ventures

Raised: $125M — Fund II (Nov ’25)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed–Series A
Focus: deep tech & AI: robotics, space, hardware (also software)
Leads vs participates: Rarely Leads
Recent investments:

    • Star Catcher — space-based power grid, Series A, May ’26, $65M

    • Fibr AI — agentic website optimization, Seed, Feb ’26, $7.5M

    • Poly — AI file browser, Seed, Nov ’25, $8M

    • Strella — AI customer research, Series A, Oct ’25, $14M

    • Upscale AI — AI networking infrastructure, Seed, Sep ’25, $100M

    • Bench IQ — judicial analytics AI, Seed, Aug ’25, $5.3M

    • Sekai — AI mini-app platform, Seed, ’25, $6M

Veriten

Raised: $105M — Veriten Venture Fund II (May ’26) (initial close)
Typically first invests at: Seed–Growth
Focus: energy, power & industrial technology
Leads vs participates: Occasional Lead
Recent investments:

    • Virtual Peaker — virtual power plants, Strategic, Aug ’25 (lead)

    • Armada — modular AI datacenters, Strategic, Jul ’25, $131M

    • VEERUM — industrial digital twins, Series B, Mar ’25, $12M (co-lead)

    • ElectraMet — metals water treatment, Series C, Jan ’25, $10M (lead)

Boost VC

Raised: $88M — Fund IV (Sep ’25)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed
Focus: ‘sci-fi’ deep tech: robotics, space, energy & climate hardware (also crypto, consumer)
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • Nyad — AI wastewater operations, Pre-seed, Mar ’26, $1.3M (lead)

    • Armatrix — snake-like industrial robots, Pre-seed, Feb ’26, $2.1M

    • Rotostitch — automated apparel manufacturing, Pre-seed, Dec ’25, $1M (co-lead)

    • Verustruct — automated sustainable construction, Pre-seed, Sep ’25, $2.4M

    • m00m world — transmedia sci-fi gaming, Pre-seed, Jul ’25, $0.5M (lead)

    • Castle — automated bitcoin treasury, Pre-seed, Jun ’25, $1M (lead)

2048 Ventures

Raised: $82M — Fund III (Jan ’26)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed–Seed
Focus: deep tech: robotics, physical AI, advanced manufacturing, sensors (also vertical AI & bio)
Leads vs participates: Frequent Lead
Recent investments:

    • Pocket — AI front office, Pre-seed, Mar ’26, $1.4M (lead)

    • Broome AI — real-estate deal AI, Pre-seed, Mar ’26 (lead)

    • Caravel Bio — industrial protein engineering, Pre-seed, Oct ’25, $1.9M

    • Nionyx Bio — AAV gene therapy, Seed, Sep ’25, $4M (lead)

    • Kascaid — immune sensor patches, Pre-seed, Jul ’25, $2.3M (co-lead)

    • Nimbus Health — pulmonology clinics, Series A, Jun ’25, $12M (lead)

    • Aslan Protects — violence-prevention AI, Pre-seed, May ’25, $2.5M (lead)

Refactor Capital

Raised: $50M — Refactor 5 (May ’26)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed–Seed
Focus: hard tech: bio, energy, nuclear, defense, materials, aerospace, robotics
Leads vs participates: Occasional Lead
Recent investments:

    • Pila Energy — plug-in home batteries, Seed, Oct ’25, $4M

    • Brelle — heavy-duty electric powertrains, Seed, Jul ’25, $9.7M

    • Hexium — laser lithium enrichment, Seed, Apr ’25, $9.5M (co-lead)

    • Pilgrim — military biodefense biotech, Pre-seed, Mar ’25, $3.2M (co-lead)

    • Causal Labs — AI weather prediction, Seed, Mar ’25, $6M

Orion Industrial Ventures

Raised: $43M — OIV Fund I (Jan ’26) (maiden fund)
Typically first invests at: Seed–Series B
Focus: critical minerals, advanced materials, new energy
Leads vs participates: Rarely Leads
Recent investments:

    • Zanskar — AI geothermal exploration, Series C, Jan ’26, $115M

    • Flocean — subsea desalination, Series A, Nov ’25, $14.2M

Wave Function Ventures

Raised: $15.1M — Fund I (Oct ’25)
Typically first invests at: Pre-seed–Seed
Focus: deep-tech hardware: nuclear, robotics, aerospace, energy
Leads vs participates: Rarely Leads
Recent investments:

    • Lux Aeterna — reusable reentry satellites, Seed, Mar ’26, $10M

    • Fortastra — orbital defense satellites, Seed, Dec ’25, $8M

    • Deep Fission — underground nuclear reactors, Growth, Sep ’25, $30M

    • Tobe Energy — green hydrogen electrolysis, Seed, Sep ’25, $1.8M

    • AndrenaM — AI undersea sonar, Seed, Jun ’25, $10M

    • Persona AI — industrial humanoid robots, Pre-seed, May ’25, $27M

Also worth knowing — closed just before our window: Two industrial funds closed before this list’s trailing-12-month cutoff and are worth a founder’s attention. Construct Capital raised a $300M Fund III (Mar ’25) for foundational industries — manufacturing, logistics, mobility, and critical infrastructure, at seed and Series A. Bosch Ventures closed a $270M Fund VI (May ’25), the corporate venture arm of Robert Bosch, and is steering more of it toward North American deep tech — automation, manufacturing, energy, and materials.

Planetary Scale is a fractional CFO and strategic-finance firm for climate-tech founders, seed to Series C. We help founders run effective fundraises and build the finance function investors expect. If a raise is on your horizon, let’s talk.

Data from the Planetary Scale fundraising database built from public announcements and regulatory disclosures. Amounts are capital raised (announced/disclosed); “new checks” = stage of first investment, not follow-on. Last updated June ’26.

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