Mission and Impact
Elemental Impact is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit investor with 17 years of experience advancing innovative technologies with deep environmental and local impact.
Our Mission
We envision a world where technological innovation improves our climate, preserves natural ecosystems, and empowers communities to thrive.
We believe that entrepreneurs are brave leaders focused on creating a better world— helping us design new energy, food, water, transportation, nature, and industrial systems that can transform economies and improve humanity. Entrepreneurs are willing to go first, move quickly, learn from failures, and can help us build a thriving future. To achieve this, they need the right capital and expertise. That’s where Elemental Impact comes in.
Our mission? Invest in the next generation of bold entrepreneurs building and implementing critical technologies that create lasting environmental and local impact.
Our Impact
110X Impact
For every dollar invested by Elemental, our companies unlock an additional $110, totaling $11.8B in follow-on funding. And, Elemental companies are 2.5x more likely to survive from early to late commercial stages than companies we didn’t invest in.
Our Partners
Philanthropic funding allows us to take risks and invest in the next generation of climate technologies.
At Elemental, we work with influential philanthropists and foundations that are leading the way by funding innovation, new technology deployment, and broader systems change. Our community of donors enables Elemental to work with entrepreneurs every day to drive speed, scale, and impact for climate and communities.
Autodesk Foundation
Breakthrough Energy Foundation
Cadence Giving Foundation
ClimateWorks Foundation
Emerson Collective
EQT Foundation
Frost Foundation
Hindawi Foundation
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
JP Morgan Chase Foundation
Katsura Fund
Leidos
Linkedin
Makahakama Foundation
Matthew Zell Family Foundation
McClain Roberts Foundation
Microsoft
Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
Prodromos Ventures
Salesforce
Schmidt Family Foundation
Stella Lee Family Charitable Fund
Stolte Family Foundation
Taketa Ohana Fund
The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
The Healy Foundation
The Lemelson Foundation
The Lewis Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
U.S. Office of Naval Research
United Airlines
Waverley Street Foundation
Wells Fargo
WOKA Foundation
17 Years of Impact
2009
2009
FIRST HAWAII PROJECTS
Dawn Lippert and Maurice Kaya, State of Hawaiʻiʻs Director of Energy, launch early version of accelerator at the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research (PICHTR) seeded by our first government partner: U.S. Department of Energy.
2013
2013
FIRST EQUITY INVESTMENTS
Office of Naval Research awards first multi-year grant. With a new name, Energy Excelerator, we deepened our approach to funding companies and projects, making our first equity investments.
2017
2017
FROM HAWAII TO CALIFORNIA
With our proven community-informed technology deployment model, we grew to become Elemental Excelerator and expanded from Hawaiʻi to California through our philanthropic partner: Emerson Collective. We also diversified our investments from energy to mobility, water, food, and industry.
2019
2019
FROM CALIFORNIA TO GLOBAL
We expanded our investments to global markets. After deploying nearly 100 projects, we identified 1/3 as companies stuck between demonstration and their first-of-a-kind projects—eventually this would be known as the climate technology “missing middle” and Scale Gap.
2021
2021
PUBLISHED 5 YEAR STRATEGY
Elemental outlined our vision for scaling the nonprofit investing platform and impact from 2021 - 2026 through three pillars: Investing in Startup Success, Partnering Deeply and Inspiring Action.
2021
2021
LAUNCHED EARTHSHOT VENTURES
Launched a $94M independent, for-profit venture fund on the Elemental platform, welcoming returns-seeking investors for the first time.
2022
2022
ESTABLISHED POLICY LAB
Elemental formalized our first policy team to help close the gap between federal policy creation and local technology implementation. First Policy Fellows announced.
2023
2023
TRAVERSING THE SCALE GAP
First investor, insurer, EPC, and financier convening for FOAK projects at Climate Week NYC hosted in collaboration with The Rockefeller Foundation. Later published Traversing the Scale Gap and quantified the $150B+ opportunity with Boston Consulting Group.
2023
2023
FIRST DEBT FINANCING
Designed the first Development-SAFE in partnership with WSGR as a financing tool for pre-development costs.
2024
2024
BECAME ELEMENTAL IMPACT
We renamed to Elemental Impact to reflect our expansion from early-stage investments to later-stage deployments. Our goal is to catalyze more capital into critical technologies, via multiple funds and investing strategies working in concert.
2025
2025
OPEN-SOURCED D-SAFE
After a year of refinement and tremendous interest from investors, foundations, and startups, we open-sourced the D-SAFE templates, Development Support Agreement (DSA), and Practitioner Notes with the goal of reducing friction and enabling broader use across the ecosystem. These materials were downloaded over 600 times in the first four months.