DALLAS, May 16, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Following a competitive selection process that spotlighted ten of some of the world’s most promising early-stage climate tech companies, EarthX announced Austin-based Zero Electric the winner of the prestigious 2025 EarthX Climate Tech Prize, awarded during the 9th annual E-Capital Summit at Earthx2025. This year, EarthX received more than 230 applications from sustainability-focused innovators from throughout the world tackling opportunities across a diverse set of industry sectors.
Zero Electric is reimagining how Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) connect to and participate in the grid. Co-Founders Jimi Adegbohun (CEO) and Felix Ogbeide (COO) created a grid-aware platform that generates dynamic, spatiotemporal hosting capacity maps and real-time flexibility insights, enabling faster interconnections, better DER monetization and intelligent grid operations. Zero Electric was awarded a $15,000 non-dilutive cash prize and had the opportunity to pitch before leading global investment, industry, and innovation leaders at the 9th annual E-Capital Summit.
Also at Earthx2025, Ceretune was chosen as the winner of the second annual Ocean Exchange pitch competition. Ceretune, founded by Reid Barnett, uses biomass growth data and water chemistry to guide plant selection, system placement, and measure impact. Their biodegradable, self-buoyant fabric supports seed-based plant growth on water, converting excess ocean phosphorus and nitrogen into biomass to combat nutrient pollution. As the winner of the 2025 pitch competition, Ceretune received a $25,000 grant.
“We’re proud to celebrate these visionary founders whose solutions reflect the cutting-edge promise of clean technology tackling both business and environmental challenges,” said Vikram Agrawal, Senior Director of EarthxCapital, who helps EarthX curate the event. “At EarthX, we believe breakthrough innovation and market-based solutions are essential to accelerating a more sustainable future and are proud to have hosted more than 100 innovators in Texas.”
The 2025 EarthX Climate Tech Prize, powered by Climate Solutions Prize in Montreal, is awarded annually to early-stage ventures with less than $250,000 in annual revenue and under $500,000 in dilutive funding. It is designed to spotlight early-stage ventures that combine high-impact environmental potential with scalable, investable business models. The awards are part of EarthX’s broader mission to convene capital, innovators, and policymakers to drive environmental solutions through actionable collaboration.
This year’s semi-finalists pitched their technologies during live sessions at the 2025 E-Capital Summit. For the first time since the award’s inception, the E-Capital Summit Investment Forum audience voted live to select which four semi-finalists (out of ten) would go on to compete in the EarthX Climate Tech Prize Finals. The four companies pitched in the finals on the public EarthX TV Stage, and the winner was selected by a panel of four judges including:
CS Freeland, Executive Director, Texas Venture AllianceGalith Levy, CEO, Climate Solutions PrizeGlenn Hamer, President & CEO, Texas Association of BusinessMike Ulica, Former President, National Geographic Society
The Ocean Exchange pitch competition, now in its second year at EarthX, is an extension of the partnership between two organizations, who believe that the best strategy for protecting a healthy global ecosystem is to adopt innovative solutions that drive the sustainable blue economy.
For more information on the Climate Tech Prize and Earthx2025 or the Ocean Exchange pitch competition, visit earthx.org.
ABOUT EARTHX
EarthX is a global environmental non-profit founded to inform, inspire, and drive impact towards securing a sustainable future for the planet. We apply an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, creating events, media, education, and public advocacy initiatives to galvanize awareness and action around key ecological and economic challenges. EarthX was founded in 2010 as Earth Day Dallas in an effort to increase environmental awareness in the local community. From 2010 to 2023, EarthX convened EarthX EXPO, the world’s largest green gathering in the days surrounding Earth Day in April. EarthX’s conferences and events convene governments, business and NGO leaders and a diverse array of attendees to cut across industry and political silos to bridge perspectives, leverage expertise, and foster multi-partisan collaboration that drives progress toward environmental solutions.
About Ocean Exchange
Ocean Exchange is a global ecosystem whose mission is to accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions for healthy oceans and the sustainable blue economy. A 501c3, Ocean Exchange fulfills this mission through a rigorous, multi-level program that includes annual monetary awards, promoting registered Solutions Inspiring Action across multiple communication channels, and facilitating access to the global network comprising its Board of Directors, Delegates, Solutions Review Team, Executive Team and other experts from around the world. Its award finalists have raised $3.1 billion in investment, IPO and exit transactions. Ocean Exchange’s mission is funded largely by private donations including those from Royal Caribbean, Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, Oceankind, Marine Research Hub of South Florida, Angus Littlejohn, Jr. Family, Apollo Opportunity Foundation, and other business and family philanthropic entities who share the passion for healthy oceans.
About Climate Solutions Prize
The Climate Solutions Prize is a unique initiative aimed at accelerating innovation in climate technology by incentivizing researchers and startups to develop groundbreaking technological solutions. The Climate Solutions Prize rewards the developers of the highest-potential projects with financial support, mentorship and collaboration they need to bring their solutions to market. Each year, winners of the Climate Solutions Prize are announced at the Climate Solutions Prize Festival. The Festival offers not only a platform for showcasing competitors’ innovations, but also a unique opportunity for networking and collaboration among all the key players in the climate technology ecosystem: researchers, entrepreneurs, investors, government officials and industry leaders.
EarthxCapital Innovation Ecosystem Partners
Activate Boston, AREI, ARPA-E, Austin Technology Incubator, BRITE Energy Innovators, Capital Factory, C10 Labs, Cleantech Leaders Roundtable, Cleantech Open, Cleantech San Diego, CleanTX, Cleveland Water Alliance, Climate – KIC, CSU Strata, Current, Energy Tech Nexus, Federal Labs Consortium, Gener8tor, Greentown Labs, Halliburton Labs, Impact Hub, Innovation Crossroads, Leaders on Purpose, LightWorks, Marine Research Hub, MaRS Discovery District, Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator, MassChallenge, New Energy Nexus, New Ventures, North Texas Innovation Alliance, NYU Urban Future Lab, Ocean Exchange, SeaAhead, Seaworthy Collective, SMU Hunt Institute for Social Entrepreneurship, Texas Venture Alliance, The Water Council, Unreasonable Group, US India Chamber of Commerce, USGBC.
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SOURCE EarthX
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