The industrial sector is among the hardest to decarbonize, largely due to their reliance on high-temperature heat to manufacture goods such as fertilizers, chemicals, cement, and steel to name a few. For the industrial sector to meet decarbonization targets, it needs to address its heating-related fuel consumption and emissions. This means moving away from fossil fuel dependency and accelerating the adoption of clean technologies capable of delivering high-performance solutions at scale.
This article highlights five startups that are developing breakthrough technologies to cut industrial emissions and support a faster, more sustainable energy transition.
Calefa (Finland)
Calefa began its journey in 2013 providing energy-efficient solutions for industries. With time, the company wanted to address the sector’s biggest challenge – to produce carbon-free energy using ambient energy sources.
This pursuit led Calefa to pivot toward industrial waste heat recovery. Today, the Finnish company helps industries reuse waste energy by ensuring surplus energy is captured and reused multiple times rather than wasted. By adopting this model, industries can lower energy dependence, boost profitability, and accelerate progress toward their decarbonization goals.
Calefa’s proprietary AmbiHeat® heat pump plant produces carbon-free energy by harnessing a range of local energy sources, including industrial waste heat, outdoor air, water, geothermal heat, and solar energy, without carbon emissions.
With the capability to deliver temperatures up to +130°C from even low-temperature inputs, the technology supports both district heating networks and industrial processes. Calefa secured $7.89 million in Series A funding in May 2025.
Innovatium (UK)
Compressed air generation accounts for up to 10% of all industrial electricity use in the UK and as much as 30% of a site’s total energy consumption. Innovatium addresses this challenge with its PRISMA technology, an Advanced Liquid Air Energy Storage (LAES) solution that delivers greater energy flexibility, significant cost savings, and on-demand backup power.
The system works by storing liquid air in an insulated, low-pressure tank. When power is needed, the liquid air is pumped to high pressure and evaporated, producing gaseous air to drive a piston engine or turbine for useful work or electricity generation. PRISMA enables up to 30% energy savings compared to conventional alternatives and can reduce CO₂ emissions by up to 30% annually, with even greater potential when integrated with renewable energy sources. Innovatium raised $4.05M in Series A funding in July 2025.
Realta Fusion (USA)
An estimated 37.6 billion metric tons of CO₂ is released annually from energy combustion and industrial processes. To address this pressing challenge Realta Fusion is leveraging nuclear fusion to deliver a clean and sustainable source of heat.
Its innovative approach uses powerful superconducting magnets to trap heated hydrogen gas inside a simple cylindrical chamber. Within this environment, hydrogen atoms collide and fuse, releasing massive amounts of clean energy that can be supplied as heat or electricity.
Recently, Realta achieved a key milestone through its public-private partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison, successfully generating plasma for the first time.
Still in its experimental phase, Realta aims to supply power at $100 per megawatt-hour initially, with ambitions to reduce costs to $40 per megawatt-hour. The company secured $36M in Series A funding in May 2025 to accelerate the development of this technology.
Thorizon (The Netherlands)
Thorizon is helping decarbonize energy-intensive industries by developing Thorizon One, a 100-MW molten salt reactor (MSR) designed to transform existing nuclear waste into carbon-free energy.
Thorizon’s technology takes a circular approach to nuclear energy. Unlike conventional reactors which generate large volumes of long-lived radioactive waste, Thorizon One is designed to reuse spent nuclear fuel, extracting up to 25% additional energy from materials that would otherwise remain stored for centuries.
At the core of this innovation is Thorizon’s cartridge-based fuel system. The reactor’s modular design allows the fuel cartridges to be replaced every five to ten years which simplifies operations, improves safety, and enables faster deployment. Thorizon secured $17.5 million in Series A funding in March 2025.
ecop Technologies (Austria)
Heat generation accounts for nearly 74% of industrial energy use and presents significant potential for decarbonization. Conventional heat pumps have several limitations as they cannot deliver temperatures above 90°C, often rely on harmful refrigerants and are not efficient at scale.
ecop Technologies has developed an alternative called the Rotation Heat Pump, a high-temperature, large-scale solution designed specifically for industrial applications. Unlike traditional systems that depend on energy-intensive phase changes, this technology uses centrifugal force to compress a climate-neutral inert gas with zero Global Warming Potential (GWP). Operating at up to 1,800 revolutions per minute, the system performs compression and expansion in a single-phase process. It can deliver up to 10 MW of thermal energy and reach temperatures of up to 200°C.
By using ambient energy and industrial waste heat, ecop helps manufacturers recover heat, lower operating costs and reduce CO₂ emissions. In May 2025, ecop Technologies raised $11.84 million in Series B funding.
Startups in Industrial Heating Driving the Energy Transition
The five startups highlighted in this article represent a new wave of Climate Tech innovation, transforming how industries generate, consume, and reuse energy.
From recycling industrial waste heat to advancing high-temperature heat pumps, and nuclear fusion technologies, these companies are addressing some of the most energy-intensive processes driving emissions in industries. Their innovations reduce carbon footprints, lower operating costs, improve energy efficiency, and open new pathways for sustainable industrial growth.
For industrial leaders with climate commitments, the opportunity lies in adopting these technologies early to stay competitive, achieve Net Zero targets, and build long-term resilience in an increasingly carbon-constrained economy.
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