Selected Startups to Pitch at EarthX’s 9^th Annual E-Capital Summit for $15,000 non-dilutive cash prize. Ocean Exchange Returns to Earthx2025 to Host Blue Economy Pitch Showcase.

EarthX has announced the ten semi-finalists for the 2025 EarthX Climate Tech Prize, selected from more than 200 global applicants. These early-stage startup companies span industry sectors including heavy industry/manufacturing, energy, agtech/food, and the circular economy — and will compete for a $15,000 non-dilutive cash prize and the opportunity to pitch before leading global investment, industry, and innovation leaders at the 9^th Annual EarthX E-Capital Summit taking place Tuesday, April 22 through Thursday, April 24^th in Dallas, 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 revenue and under $500,000 in dilutive funding. Semi-finalists were selected by EarthX and innovation leaders from Austin Technology Incubator, Capital Factory, Greentown Labs, and Unreasonable Group. Last year’s winner was En Solucion, co-founded by Alex Athey, a Texas-based agtech company that produces chemical-free food sanitation. Winners from previous years include an agtech business in Kenya, a materials science business in New York, and an industrial innovator in Texas.

This year’s Semi-Finals will feature 3-minute lightning pitches on Wednesday, April 23 on the E-Capital Summit Investment Forum Stage, with audience members voting live to determine which 3–4 companies will advance to the Finals on Thursday, April 24 at 1:30 p.m. on The TV Stage at Earthx2025.

2025 EarthX Climate Tech Prize Semi-Finalists Include:

• Aeon Blue (Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) – Produces sustainable eFuels by combining hydrogen generation with direct air capture of CO₂ in a single clean-tech process.
• EnnoFlow Technologies (Austin, TX, USA) – Merges edge AI with energy infrastructure to create automated, flexible, and efficient virtual power networks.
• HighGround Ranch Developers (Plano, TX, USA) – Funds and connects regenerative ranches with tech platforms to scale climate-friendly agriculture.
• OptiCloud (Jackson, WY, USA) – Optimizes digital infrastructure with AI tools that reduce cloud waste, energy use, and operational costs.
• Mithril Minerals (Austin, TX, USA) – Develops advanced robotics for low-cost extraction of critical minerals from ocean polymetallic nodules.
• Petra Power (Solon, OH, USA) – Develops compact, fuel-flexible solid oxide fuel cells that deliver high-efficiency, zero-emission electricity for vehicles.
• PowerBox Technology (Champaign, IL, USA) – Provides integrated solar and storage systems that ensure uninterrupted industrial power and lower energy expenses.
• ResonanceX (Santiago de Chile, Chile) – Designs resonant electromagnetic circuits for carbon-free power generation.
• Venki Energy (Silver Spring, MD, USA) – Creates removable rooftop solar racking to enable a subscription-based solar model and expand rooftop access.
• Zero Electric (Austin, TX, USA) – Repurposes EV batteries into storage systems to support fast EV charging and enhance grid resiliency.

“EarthX is proud to platform and support early-stage sustainability-focused innovators,” said Vikram Agrawal, Senior Director of EarthxCapital, who helps EarthX curate the event. “These entrepreneurs aren’t just imagining a cleaner, more sustainable future — they’re building it with breakthrough technologies that tackle real-world challenges across energy, industry, agriculture, and infrastructure. We need more leaders like them who are developing pragmatic solutions that benefit industry, our people, and our planet.”

Ocean Exchange Blue Economy Pitch Showcase Returns to Earthx2025
For the second year, EarthX is proud to host the Ocean Exchange Pitch Competition, held as part of the “Brave New Ocean” conference at EarthX 2025. Building on the success and best practices of the E-Capital Summit, Ocean Exchange will spotlight seven cutting-edge blue economy startups working at the intersection of data science, clean water, and ocean intelligence.

Startups participating in the Ocean Exchange Pitch Showcase include:

• Actea: Applies machine learning to ocean climate modeling to provide insights into the future of ocean climate that will enable long term investment.
• Atdepth: Provides advanced ocean assessment tools, including their Ocean Digital Twin (ODT) Ari, which enables real-time, high-resolution simulations of ocean processes that maximize operational efficiency and value for maritime industries.
• Ceretune: Their biodegradable, self-buoyant fabric supports seed-based plant growth on water, converting excess ocean phosphorus and nitrogen into biomass to combat nutrient pollution.
• Fathom Science: Provides ultra-high-resolution ocean, wave, and weather analytics to enhance safety and efficiency for maritime industries, including ports, shipping, and offshore platforms.
• Nucleic Sensing Systems: Develops autonomous, field-deployable monitoring tools, such as the “Tracker,” which continuously analyze environmental DNA and RNA to provide real-time data on biological activity, aiding in the detection and mitigation of pathogens and invasive species in aquaculture and other environments.
• Onvector: Develops a technology that destroys per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) using its proprietary Plasma Vortex innovation, which breaks down PFAS molecules into measurable, harmless components and addresses contamination in groundwater, soil, landfill leachate, and industrial wastewater.
• Salient Predictions: Salient Predictions leverages ocean and land-surface data, combined with machine learning and climate expertise, to deliver highly accurate subseasonal-to-seasonal weather forecasts ranging from 2 to 52 weeks in advance.

The Ocean Exchange pitch event will take place on Thursday, April 24, during the Brave New Ocean program, which focuses on accelerating ocean enterprise and sustainability innovation. The winner of the competition will be awarded a $25,000 grant to help accelerate their commercialization.

“We’re excited to partner again with EarthX to help spotlight the incredible entrepreneurs who are driving tangible progress on protecting our oceans and untapping the blue economy,” says Millicent Pitts, CEO of Ocean Exchange. “The blue economy represents one of the greatest opportunities of our time—not just for coastal resilience and marine conservation, but for sustainable innovation that fuels economic growth and community prosperity.”

About the E-Capital Summit
The invitation-only EarthX E-Capital Summit convenes investors, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, policymakers, dealmakers, and others in the investment and innovation ecosystem to accelerate industry innovation and investment in clean technologies and resilience. Over the past eight years, innovators who have participated in the EarthX E-Capital Summit have gone one to raise over $5 billion in collective funding. The Summit includes a complementary Family Office Summit which convenes a global group of high net-worth investors, industrialists, and philanthropists interested in exploring investment, innovation, and philanthropic opportunities in environmental sustainability and conservation.

Notable 2025 E-Capital Summit Speakers Include:

• Christopher Miller, Former Acting Secretary, United States Department of Defense
• Michael W. Sonnenfeldt, entrepreneur and philanthropist, founder of Tiger 21
• Rear Adm. Tim Gallaudet, US Navy, former Acting Undersecretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and Acting Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 
• Jack Selby, Managing Director, Thiel Capital
• Dr. Sylvia Earle, National Geographic Explorer at Large; Founder, Mission Blue
• Bobby Tudor, CEO Artemis Energy Partners; Retired Founder and CEO of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co.
• Pablo Vegas, President & CEO, ERCOT
• Pat Wood, CEO, Hunt Energy Network and former Chairman of the Texas PUC and US FERC
• General David Petraeus, Partner and Chairman of KKR Global Institute and former Director, US Central Intelligence Agency
• Sid Miller, Commissioner, Texas Department of Agriculture

For more on EarthX and the full EarthX2025 agenda, which will take place from April 21-25 at the Hilton Anatole Hotel in Dallas, TX, visit www.EarthX.org. To apply to attend the E-Capital Summit, visit https://earthx.org/conferences/e-capital-summit/. To learn more about Ocean Exchange, visit www.oceanexchange.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.

E-Capital Summit Innovation Partners
Activate Boston, AREI, ARPA-E, BRITE Energy Innovators, 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, 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, US India Chamber of Commerce, USGBC.

An international team maps four unnamed underwater canyons, explores nearly 20 methane seep ecosystems thriving without sunlight, and uncovers a dazzling array of otherworldly creatures, including suspected new species.

PUNTA ARENAS, Chile – An international team of scientists on board a recent Schmidt Ocean Institute R/V Falkor (too) expedition surveyed nearly 20 methane seeps, some of which are new discoveries, and four submarine canyon systems previously never before seen by humans. They found an abundance of animals, including possibly 60 new species or more, living in surprisingly diverse ecosystems off the Chilean coast, including commercially valuable fish swimming in seep areas. The 55-day expedition traveled from Valparaiso to Punta Arenas, Chile, exploring the ocean from the central to the southern coastline of the country.

The cruise, the first in the region to use a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, to transmit imagery in real-time, was co-led by Drs. Jeffrey Marlow of Boston University, USA, Patricia Esquete of the University of Aveiro, Portugal, and Eulogio Soto from the University of Valparaiso, Chile. The team also used sonar-based bubble mapping, bathymetric mapping, and measurements of in situ methane concentration to map canyons and locate methane seeps. The work included researchers from Chile, the United States, Portugal, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and Italy.

Methane seeps are chemosynthetic environments where methane bubbles up from the seafloor, feeding microbes that, in turn, support an array of life. While clues from water chemistry measurements and images from camera tows taken on previous expeditions to the region suggested the presence of some seeps off of Chile, many sites had not been fully surveyed and sampled before. In addition, several seep sites were entirely new to science. Some were in shallow waters, others in deep waters; some were in rocky areas, and others were in sediment.

One observation the team was particularly impressed by was abundant red cusk-eels called congrio colorado (Genypterus chilensus) — a commercially important fish that is highly valued in Chile —swimming in and around an 892-square-meter (9600-square-foot) tubeworm mound near a methane seep. Poet and Nobel Laureate Pablo Neruda celebrated this iconic Chilean fish; upon returning to the country from exile in 1954, he wrote an ode to the eel as a celebration of his home country and life.

While these fish have been observed around reefs and soft-bottom mangrove ecosystems, there has been little documentation of their behavior swimming near methane seeps. Scientists require further research to understand the species’ relationship with methane seeps and to determine if these environments are essential to sustaining their populations.

“These exploratory expeditions are incredible — and essential — opportunities for the science community to improve our understanding of the planet,” said Esquete. “After extensive sampling, we suspect our team has found at least 60 species new to science and will be working over the next few years to confirm this.”

The team explored four unnamed submarine canyons in southern Chile for the first time, mapping them to a high resolution. The largest of the canyons is approximately 2000 square kilometers (770 square miles) and the deepest is over 3000 meters deep (1.86 miles). Submarine canyons are critical ecosystems that connect land to the open ocean. The rocky canyon walls provide structures for habitat-building animals like glass sponges and deep-sea corals, which support species from tiny bristle stars to octopus.

An additional methane seep was discovered in one of the canyons near Chile’s triple junction, a place on the seafloor where three tectonic plates meet.

Other notable observations included large congregations of Humboldt Squid feeding near the seeps, a sighting of a glowing anglerfish scientists are still working to identify, massive chemosynthetic clam beds, and a shimmering polychaete worm that garnered the attention of millions on social media during the expedition.

“This expedition is yet another example of the tremendous value of bringing together cross-disciplinary science teams and cutting-edge technology to little-known regions of our global Ocean,” said Dr. Jyotika Virmani, executive director of Schmidt Ocean Institute. “The diverse marine life swimming contentedly in this geologically interesting ecosystem was beautiful to watch — a strong reminder that what is out of sight should perhaps not be out of mind.”

About the Organizations

Schmidt Ocean Institute was established in 2009 by Eric and Wendy Schmidt to catalyze the discoveries needed to understand our ocean, sustain life, and ensure the health of our planet through the pursuit of impactful scientific research and intelligent observation, technological advancement, open sharing of information, and public engagement, all at the highest levels of international excellence. For more information, visit www.schmidtocean.org.

Founded in 1839, Boston University is an internationally recognized institution of higher education and research. With nearly 37,000 students, it is one of the largest private residential universities in the United States. BU consists of 17 schools and colleges, along with the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences and a number of multi-disciplinary centers and institutes integral to the University’s research and teaching mission. In 2012, BU joined the Association of American Universities (AAU), a consortium of leading research universities in the United States and Canada.

The University of Aveiro (UA) was founded in 1973 and paved the way in the creation of teaching offers in several knowledge fields. Today, UA is widely recognised as one of the most innovative universities in Portugal, the quality of its teaching and research and for its cooperation with regional and national business.Its organisation and matrix structure, encompassing University and Polytechnic subsystems, stimulates knowledge exchange and cross-contamination between knowledge fields, promoting a useful proximity between teaching and research, which results in a very appealing message for national and international students.