Looking to start or scale a climate company in New York?
From The Clean Fight, New Energy Nexus NY, and Newlab, here is the accelerator and incubator ecosystem that can back your startup with capital, space, and hands-on support.
mHUB
mHUB is the independent hardtech incubator in Chicago's Fulton Market district and the most complete physical base for building climate hardware in the Midwest, with a prototyping floor covering machining, electronics, fabrication, plastics, and testing alongside a manufacturer and supplier network. Its climate and energy accelerator runs on a cohort basis through an open application call, combining structured curriculum, industry partners who evaluate and pilot technology, and direct investment from its fund, with recent cohorts organized around the intersection of computing demand and energy supply. Membership is fee-based and the accelerator takes equity through the fund.
Argonne National Laboratory: Chain Reaction Innovations
Cross-listed from the universities section because it functions as Chicago's deepest incubator for laboratory-stage science. Fellows work full time inside Argonne for two years with a stipend, a research allocation, and access to instruments and pilot facilities that no early company could buy, plus scientist mentorship and business coaching. It takes no equity, and admission is through an annual national call rather than rolling applications.
Alchemist Chicago
Alchemist Chicago is the Chicago edition of the Alchemist accelerator, launched with the Polsky Center and open to founders with no university affiliation as well as those inside it. It concentrates on enterprise and deep-tech companies, cleantech included, and puts selected teams through Alchemist's sales-led curriculum before a demo day in front of its investor network.
gener8tor Great Lakes Innovation Accelerator
The Great Lakes Innovation Accelerator is a water-focused program run by gener8tor with federal backing, and its distinguishing feature is that the money is non-dilutive, which is rare for an accelerator of this intensity. Selected companies work through an intensive three-month program with mentorship and introductions to utilities, industrial water users, and investors across the Great Lakes region, and applications are open to founders anywhere solving Great Lakes water problems.
Sustainable Water Technology Accelerator
The Sustainable Water Technology Accelerator is the founder-facing vehicle of the region's federally funded water innovation engine, run jointly by Current and mHUB. Selected companies receive investment from mHUB's funds alongside product development support, pilot access to utilities and industrial water users, and the research bench of Argonne and the University of Chicago, ending in a demo day.
Polsky Center: Resurgence
Resurgence is the cleantech accelerator inside Polsky Deep Tech Ventures, built with the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and supported by Invenergy. It works with early clean-energy teams on the particular difficulty of commercializing materials and energy science, moving from customer discovery through investor readiness with mentors drawn from the university, the national laboratories, and the region's energy operators.
Polsky Center: Compass
Compass is Polsky's deep-tech accelerator for the earliest stage, aimed at teams still shaping a technology into a venture rather than scaling one. It provides structured curriculum, mentorship, and a route into the wider Deep Tech Ventures network of accelerators, investors, and licensing support.
Polsky Center: Transform
Transform is Polsky's data science and artificial intelligence accelerator, and it is not climate-dedicated, though climate and environment companies are explicitly eligible. Selected teams receive funding, curriculum, and mentorship modelled on Polsky's quantum accelerator, plus introductions to investors working in applied AI. Climate founders whose wedge is software and data fit better here than hardware founders, who should look at Resurgence.
Chain Reaction Innovations
Chain Reaction Innovations is the entrepreneurship program embedded inside Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, part of the Department of Energy's lab-embedded entrepreneurship network. Fellows spend two years working full time on their technology with a stipend, a research allocation, and access to facilities almost no startup could otherwise reach, including the Advanced Photon Source, the Center for Nanoscale Materials, and the laboratory's battery prototyping facility, alongside a scientist mentor and business coaching from the Polsky Center and mHUB. Entry is through an annual application call and the program takes no equity.
UIC Technology Innovation Lab
The Technology Innovation Lab is UIC's incubator in the Illinois Medical District, and unusually for a university facility it is open to founders with no UIC affiliation alongside faculty, students, and staff. It offers wet and dry laboratory bench space as well as co-working, which matters for water, materials, and environmental sensing companies that need a sink and a fume hood rather than a desk.
Ed Kaplan Family Institute Startup Studio
The Kaplan Institute is Illinois Tech's innovation building on the South Side, and its Startup Studio is the founder-facing part, offering mentorship, project funding, and technology competitions. Programming is largely for students and faculty rather than the open founder community, and the university's energy strength sits next door in its sustainable energy and electricity research centers.