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Corporate Venture Units Pivot Capital Toward Climate Adaptation Tech

Corporate Venture Arms Shift Capital to Climate Adaptation Tech as Physical-Risk Losses Mount

SAN FRANCISCO – November 19, 2025 – Corporate venture units poured USD 18.7 billion into climate-adaptation start-ups during the first three quarters of 2025, eclipsing the full-year 2024 figure and marking the first time adaptation technologies have attracted more capital than traditional mitigation plays inside the CVC portfolio, according to data released Tuesday by PwC’s “State of Climate Tech 2025” report.

The pivot comes as companies face a ten-fold rise in weather-related supply-chain disruptions since 2020. S&P Global estimates that Fortune 500 firms lost USD 126 billion to physical climate risks last year alone, prompting boards to treat adaptation not as a sustainability metric but as a core operating safeguard. “Adaptation is the new cyber-security,” said Laura Kim, managing director of Samsung Climate Ventures. “If your factory or data center can’t function at 50 °C, you don’t have a business.”

Corporate funds now account for 31 % of all adaptation-tech venture dollars, up from 17 % two years ago, the PwC study shows. Preferred bets include AI-driven wildfire-detection networks, heat-tolerant seed platforms and dynamic flood-barrier robotics—technologies that can be piloted inside a parent company’s logistics chain and scaled to customers within 12–18 months.

A separate analysis by Harvard Business School, published last month, found that CVC-backed adaptation start-ups reach Series B 30 % faster than mitigation peers, largely because incumbents provide ready test-beds and procurement contracts that de-risk revenue assumptions. “Corporates are no longer just strategic LPs; they are the first customers,” said co-author Jonas Kraus.

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“Every board we talk to is asking the same question: ‘How do we keep producing when the climate turns hostile?’” said Maria Castellano, CEO of AdaptX, a São Paulo-based start-up whose cloud platform reroutes grain shipments around sudden port closures using real-time hydrology data. “Corporate venture arms give us the capital and the cargo to prove the model at continental scale.”

Market Context

The re-allocation coincides with a broader cooling in climate-tech valuations. Global venture funding for mitigation slipped 14 % year-on-year to USD 48 billion, hampered by rising interest rates and policy uncertainty following the 2024 U.S. election cycle. Adaptation, however, proved counter-cyclical, posting a 42 % funding increase as governments from India to Germany rolled out compulsory climate-risk disclosure rules that force firms to quantify exposure within three years.

Regulatory tailwinds are accelerating. The European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, entering force in January 2026, will require companies with EU revenues above EUR 450 million to publish adaptation road-maps. Analysts at Barclays estimate compliant spending could unlock an additional USD 45 billion in adaptation-tech procurement by 2028.

Corporate Case Study

BMW i Ventures doubled its adaptation allocation in 2025, leading a USD 55 million Series B in Torrent Systems, whose modular flood wall protects assembly plants along the Rhine. After piloting the barrier at its Dingolfing plant during last December’s record rainfall, BMW rolled the system out to six additional sites, cutting potential downtime losses by USD 220 million, according to internal figures. “We underwrite to ROI, not ESG scores,” said partner Marcus Behrendt. “If a start-up can’t prevent measurable loss, we don’t write the check.”

About PwC

PwC is a global network of firms delivering assurance, tax and consulting services for 152,000 clients in 151 territories. The annual “State of Climate Tech” report benchmarks 3,500 venture deals and 1,200 technology patents to map private-sector climate innovation.