EarthX’s annual E-Capital Summit is an invitation-only, sustainability-focused investment and innovation conference that brings together hundreds of investors, innovators, dealmakers and others who are focused on having substantial, positive impact on investments, businesses, people, and our planet.
The E-Capital Summit, held at EarthX in April, offered a unique opportunity to network with industry peers, identify new investment opportunities, learn about new technologies to solve sustainability or resilience challenges, and meet potential customers.
Over the past six years, the invitation-only E-Capital Summit has convened more than 2,500 participants from over 20 countries, including from more than 260 leading investment firms and 320 emerging innovators tackling some of the world’s greatest opportunities in sustainability, environmental resilience, conservation, and clean and climate technology across many industries. Participants in past E-Capital Summits have gone on to raise more than $2 billion in follow-on funding.
The Summit is known for its exceptional roster of speakers. Featured speakers last year included entrepreneur & environmentalist John Paul DeJoria, Vistra Corp CEO Curt Morgan, former Dallas Fed President Rob Kaplan, St. Maarten Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs, Barclays’ Clean Tech Initiative Chairman Ted Roosevelt IV, Bank of America’s Global Head of Power/Natural Resources Ray Wood, Ellen MacArthur Foundation CEO Andrew Morlet, investor David Shaw, and many others including innovation & investment leaders from NASA, NOAA, and US Department of Energy.
This year’s event, the 7th Annual E-Capital Summit took place on April 19-21, 2023 at Fair Park in Dallas, Texas. The summit comprised of five main events:
- Investment Forum, a closed-door conference with industry leaders discussing investment and innovation trends. This year’s theme was “Sustainability Investing: Where do we go From Here?”
- E-Capital Connections, curated and self-selected one-on-one networking meetings between investors, dealmakers, & innovators. New this year, the E-Capital Connections also connected sustainability-focused fund managers with potential fund investors and limited partners.
- EarthxConnect Innovator Commercialization Showcase, a sales-focused networking event focused on helping start-ups commercialize,
- EarthX Climate Tech Prize, an early-stage pitch competition, and
- the inaugural Innovation Ecosystem Summit, a convening of innovation ecosystem leaders who shared best practices.
EarthX organizers work with several key strategic partners to ensure the caliber of the E-Capital Summit, including the country’s leading incubators and accelerator programs and strategic endowment advisors.
“This is an industry-leading event that seeks to raise awareness, educate, connect, and help catalyze impact in sustainability-focused investments and business innovation by bringing together America’s and the world’s top environmental thinkers, sophisticated investors, corporate and industry leaders, and the innovation ecosystem for intentional and meaningful conversations,” said Vikram Agrawal, Director of EarthxCapital. “As one friend stated, the E-Capital Summit is one of the few investment events where you can hear the topics you typically don’t get to hear and meet individuals you typically don’t have the opportunity to meet.”
Certain start-ups were invited to join the EarthxConnect: Innovator Commercialization Showcase. This sales-focused dealmaking event helps businesses commercialize their products and services, showcasing them to leading Fortune 1000 and middle-market companies seeking critical solutions to various sustainability and resilience-related challenges in their daily operations.
In addition, a select few innovators were invited to participate in the EarthxClimate Tech Prize, which is a pitch competition for early-stage businesses. From that pool, three to five finalists will be selected to compete on a public stage in the EarthX Expo’s Business & Innovation pavilion. Recent winners include Safi Organics, an ag-tech innovator from Kenya and Heat, a materials innovator from New York.
