VCs still love cleantech

December 19, 2023

Hi, Agen. How about some good news to brighten your holiday season? It turns out that while 2023 has been a down year for startup investment in most industries, cleantech and sustainability-focused categories have actually held up comparatively well, with investors putting money into battery, carbon capture and climate software tech, among other areas. In other news, Adobe has called off its planned $20 billion acquisition of design collaboration software maker Figma, following regulatory pushback in Europe.

🌎 Sustainability-focused funding holds up despite VC downturn

Per Crunchbase data, global investors have poured approximately $13.9 billion this year into companies working on everything from battery recycling to water-conserving crops. That puts 2023 on track to come in roughly even with last year — not bad for a year in which venture funding has fallen in almost every other industry.

🪓 Adobe axes $20B Figma acquisition

Adobe has called off its planned $20 billion purchase of design software startup Figma following pushback from antitrust regulators in Europe. The deal price was double Figma’s most recent valuation and would have marked one of the largest startup acquisitions in recent years. Some investors and analysts have said increasing regulatory scrutiny of M&A deals could stifle startup funding by throttling the most common exit path for venture-backed companies.

🤖 How leading investors thought about AI in 2023

A year ago, the immediate and massive adoption by consumers of AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E represented a critical off-to-the-races moment for artificial intelligence — one that’s only furthered investor interest in putting tens of billions of dollars into the technology and tools driving what they see as a paradigm shift for humanity. But many of the investors we spoke with in a series of wide-ranging interviews this year have also been investing in AI since before the ChatGPT moment.

Do you feel more upbeat or gloomier now compared to a year ago? What are the big tech trends and stories you’ll be watching in 2024? And do you expect the market for new tech IPOs — which briefly opened a smidge this fall — to swing wide open next year? Tell us in our latest brief, anonymous Crunchbase News reader survey.

👀 Our top stories of 2023, from the VC downturn to AI brainstorming

For the startup world, 2023 was an action-packed year — with AI adoption exploding, the failure of the largest startup bank, and layoffs piling up each week — and readers flocked to our coverage of these topics. With that, let’s take a look at 10 of Crunchbase News’ most-read stories of 2023.