Global instability has become the backdrop for nearly every industry in 2025. Trade disputes, shifting government priorities, and slowing economies are reshaping how organizations operate. For Breakthrough Energy, the climate tech initiative founded by Bill Gates, adapting has been essential. While some divisions have scaled back, its flagship effort—the Breakthrough Energy Fellows Program—is thriving and evolving to meet new global demands.
A Global Cohort for a Global Problem
This year, the fellowship is introducing its newest class: 45 fellows from 22 startups, selected from nearly 1,500 applications and referrals. According to Ashley Grosh, vice president at Breakthrough Energy, it is the most international group yet, with half of the teams based outside the United States.
The distribution reflects the reality that climate change requires worldwide solutions. Eleven of the startups came from the United States while the others came from Asia, Canada, Germany, the U.K., and South Africa, with contributions from a new hub that launched in Singapore, with Temasek and Enterprise Singapore, in 2024, which further develops local and global impact.
Regional challenges are also driving innovation. In Asia, there is greater focus on the hydrogen economy and circularity to address industrial waste; while other teams push innovation related to critical minerals, agriculture, and grid modernization.
New Curriculum Building Real Value
The fellowship has fully rejuvenated their curriculum providing resources to ensure all participants have opportunities for long-term success. With an added emphasis on techno-economic analysis now ensuring that all startups give due consideration to the market potential of the technology early in the development.
Fellows also now come in teams with business fellows, individuals with established entrepreneurial experience, so that fellows can determine if there is the potential for product-market fit. If not, they are encouraged to pivot quickly, reducing wasted time and increasing the likelihood of investment.
“We were seeing a lot of companies come in thinking they were going to do one thing, and then they pivot,” Grosh explained. “They’re more venture bankable once we’ve helped them through that pivot and validated it.”
Proof of Success
The approach is working. Nearly every company from the previous four cohorts has raised follow-on funding, while one, Holocene, has already exited successfully. For Grosh, these results highlight the strength of the program in preparing climate entrepreneurs to navigate uncertainty and scale their innovations globally.
Breakthrough Energy has always been about taking long bets on the future of climate solutions. And even as the world is volatile, we can demonstrate resilience in the Fellows Program, which makes long bets on people and ideas that can reinvent, adapt, and thrive. Having recently grown its international scope and sharpen its curriculum, the program is showing us that in times of uncertainty, investing – or more importantly, empowering- innovators is one of the most certain ways to make lasting and impactful change.
