Announcing BloombergNEF's 2025 Pioneers Competition

Originally published on about.bnef.com

We are pleased to announce that BNEF has launched our annual technology and innovation competition – BNEF Pioneers – and we are now accepting applications. The online application form will be open from July 30th – November 1. BNEF Pioneers are innovators that move the world closer to net zero through technological innovation.

Since 2010, BNEF has awarded over 150 companies with the title of “BNEF Pioneer”. Earlier this year we announced the 2024 Pioneer winners - 11 startups tackling three net-zero challenges: Relieving bottlenecks in the deployment of clean power; decarbonizing the construction and operation of buildings; and creating the next generation of net-zero fuels alongside 3 wildcard winners. To view our associated research notes, see the Pioneers flagship page.

What is BNEF Pioneers?

For more than a decade, the BNEF Pioneers program has identified a group of game-changing technologies or innovations annually – each with the potential to accelerate global decarbonization and halt climate change. Pioneers can be innovators serving the energy, transport, materials, manufacturing, consumer and agriculture sectors; or providers of solutions and technologies that help increase understanding of the climate, scale carbon capture, utilization and storage, and promote climate adaption.

Applicants are shortlisted by the BNEF Pioneers team, and finalists are judged by a panel of BNEF experts. Winners must prove they offer a novel, substantial, scalable and competitive solution.

2025 Pioneers

In 2025, the program will focus on three global climate challenges and will award the Pioneers prize to innovators with scalable, impactful and equitable solutions to these challenges.

BNEF will also select one or more wildcard winners, unrelated to the chosen challenges. These wildcard applicants can address any issue that helps the world address climate change, and we encourage submissions for all climate-tech solutions that lie outside of the three challenges outlined below.

Applications will close on November 1, 2024.

Challenge 1: Making light industry more sustainable
One-third of industrial emissions are derived from ‘light’ industries such as pulp and paper, food and beverage production, textiles, and glass and ceramics. This Pioneers challenge is looking for technologies that address the environmental impact of this group of lighter industries. These could include – but are not limited to – innovations in heat pumps, thermal energy storage, circular economy, new processes for dying, drying, and distilling, as well as more environmentally friendly feedstocks.

Challenge 2: Innovations in energy storage
Energy storage is likely to play a significant role in balancing power markets and enabling 24/7 clean power. BNEF estimates that demand for energy storage technologies could reach almost six terawatt-hours by 2035. In addition, the development of lower-cost, higher-performance batteries are a key component of future market growth for the electric vehicle industry and could be an important lever to decarbonize commercial transportation including long-haul trucking and aviation. This Pioneers challenge is looking for any innovation in the storage of electrical, thermal, mechanical or chemical energy with applications in power, transport and/or industry.

Challenge 3: Boosting climate adaptation capabilities
Whether the world is brought onto a 2-degree emissions pathway or not, climate change is already impacting, and will continue to impact, the world. Technologies that improve societies’ ability to manage the effects of climate change will be vital in maintaining human quality of life in the coming decades. The UNEP estimates that up to $387 billion per year needs to be spent on climate adaptation in developing countries this decade. This Pioneers challenge is looking for any innovations that include but are not limited to – improved climate adaptation capabilities in agriculture, water, energy, human health, and climate-induced-disaster response.

(Energy storage technologies with applications in challenge 1 “Making light industry more sustainable” can apply to either challenge 1 or 2, and BNEF will sort the application into whichever challenge it feels is most relevant)

Wildcards
Beyond these three challenges, we select a group of wildcard Pioneers. We encouraged submissions for all climate-tech solutions outside of the three challenges outlined above and choose entries addressing multiple issues that will help the world decarbonize.

Criteria

Applicants can be any one of the below:

Early-stage companies: Climate-tech companies that can be for-profit or non-profit, private, public or subsidiaries.

Pilot projects and joint ventures: Any innovative pilot projects or joint ventures working on net-zero challenges.

NGOs, laboratories and innovation communities: NGOs, university or state-sponsored labs, and any other innovation groups creating net-zero products or technologies with commercial implications.

What we’re looking for

Applicants are judged on three fundamental criteria:

Potential impact

What is the scale of the opportunity being addressed? To what extent can this solution address the climate challenge? Can you quantify the greenhouse gas emissions your technology could eliminate? Is your business local or can it be rolled out in multiple geographical markets? Will it spawn an entire ecosystem of new supporting businesses? Might there be negative unforeseen impacts of the technology when it scales?

Innovation

How original is your technology or business model? Is it a ground-breaking modification of what others are doing, or is it something completely new? Is it patented or otherwise proven? Are there barriers to its adoption or success and can these be overcome? What complementary policies or business structures already exist?

Likelihood of adoption

Over what timeframe could your innovation scale? What partnerships, clients and investors do you have? How do you plan to take your product to market? What is your level of cost competitiveness? What would the carbon price have to be? Can your business model or technology attract the necessary amount of investment?

Being a Pioneer

Winning BNEF Pioneers benefit from a number of opportunities:

• Be recognized as a BNEF Pioneer 2025, a leading innovator with a product or service capable of driving the low-carbon transition forward.
• Receive one year of access to our BNEF Web product and all our insights.
• Join the prestigious group of Pioneer alumni.
• Get the opportunity to attend and a chance to speak at our eight global BNEF Summits and participate in startup pitching events hosted by BNEF.
• Appear in BNEF public reports, research and videos.

Previous winners of BNEF Pioneers have an excellent track record of going on to affect change in their industries and becoming major players in the global energy transition.

Previous Pioneers

Our 2024 winners were announced on April 9, 2024 and focused on the three challenges of relieving bottlenecks in clean power, decarbonizing buildings, and creating net-zero fuels. For more information on our winners, see Climate-Tech Startups to Watch in 2024: BNEF Pioneers Winners.

For more information on our winners from 2023, see Climate-Tech Startups to Watch in 2023: BNEF Pioneers Winners.

Our whitepapers detailing the 2022 BNEF Pioneers winners and innovations for the 2022 challenges on clean power, aviation and carbon removal can be found below:

Climate-Tech Startups to Watch in 2022: BNEF Pioneers Winners

Climate-Tech Innovation: 24/7 Clean Power

Climate-Tech Innovation: Scaling Carbon Removal

Climate-Tech Innovation: Decarbonizing Aviation

Our whitepapers detailing the 2021 BNEF Pioneers winners and innovations for the 2021 challenges on commercial freight, sustainable materials and understanding the planet:

Climate-Tech Innovation: Optimizing commercial freight

Climate-Tech Innovation: Advancing sustainable materials

Climate-Tech Innovation: Monitoring and understanding our changing planet

Apply

Applications for Pioneers 2025 are now open and will close on November 1, 2024.

BNEF invites all early-stage companies and innovative projects addressing net-zero challenges to fill in the form below to receive an application. Please see our Tips and Frequently Asked Questions, and direct any questions to pioneers@bloomberg.net