Looking to start or scale a climate company in Washington, D.C.?
From Halcyon, Bethesda Green, and Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator, here is the accelerator and incubator ecosystem that can back your startup with capital, space, and hands-on support.
Halcyon DMV: Climate Innovation Fellowship
Halcyon's DMV Climate Innovation Fellowship is an equity-free incubator for DC, Maryland, and Virginia founders addressing climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience, based in Georgetown. Fellows get a stipend, cloud credits, professional advisors, expert workshops in climate and non-dilutive finance, pro bono legal support, in-person residency weeks in the DMV, and a global community, with training in product-market fit and investment readiness. It requires a for-profit venture serving the DMV with an MVP and a full-time founder. Suits DMV founders past MVP who need non-dilutive runway, mentorship, and local ecosystem ties.
Bethesda Green: Be Green Innovation Lab
Bethesda Green's Be Green Innovation Lab is a green incubator in Montgomery County supporting sustainability and social-impact startups from idea to seed, with a rolling, year-round incubator and, at times, a cohort accelerator focused on investment readiness. Founders get mentorship, tailored curriculum, non-equity awards, entrepreneur roundtables, impact-benchmarking tools, and a community network, across climate, blue tech, circular economy, fashion, and food. Members can access grants and investment via partners. Suits early, mission-driven green founders in Montgomery County wanting low-cost, non-dilutive incubation.
Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator
MEIA is a cohort-based clean-energy accelerator of the Maryland Clean Energy Center commercialising advanced energy and climate tech from Maryland businesses, universities, and federal labs, distinguished by an executive-in-residence model that pairs seasoned leaders with lab-born teams. It runs a multi-phase path from customer discovery through commercialisation planning to a capital-ready accelerator, plus a founders fund providing early capital targeting minority, women, and veteran-owned businesses. Focus spans solar, wind, storage, efficiency, grid, and carbon. Suits Maryland-affiliated hard-tech energy founders needing team-building and commercialisation help.
Refraction
Refraction is an innovation hub and coworking space in Northern Virginia providing offices, event space, mentoring, programming, and connections to customers, investors, and partners across sectors, not a dedicated climate program. Its value is workspace and Northern Virginia ecosystem access rather than climate-specific programming or capital. Climate founders route to the Dominion accelerator or MEIA for sector support. Suits Northern Virginia founders of any sector wanting workspace and community, paired with those climate programs.
Dominion Energy Innovation Center
The Dominion Energy Innovation Center is a clean-energy incubator and accelerator in Virginia, a nonprofit public-private partnership with Dominion Energy, whose flagship virtual accelerator connects seed-stage-or-later energy and sustainability startups with their next utility customer and potential corporate investor. Each company gets a dedicated Dominion mentor, workshops, and a pitch to utility leadership, plus optional coworking, and it takes no equity or IP. Suits energy and grid founders with a pilot-ready product seeking a utility customer and Virginia ecosystem access.
Conservation X Labs
Conservation X Labs is a conservation-tech nonprofit and incubator in DC running open-innovation prizes and challenges rather than a fixed-equity accelerator, funding early prototypes through a tech prize and supporting winners with design, engineering, investment, and acceleration via its digital makerspace. It also runs larger grand challenges with partners, focused on technology solutions to biodiversity loss and extinction across hardware and software. Suits conservation and biodiversity-tech inventors at the prototype stage seeking non-dilutive grants and technical support.
Halcyon Global Climate Accelerator
The Halcyon Global Climate Accelerator is Halcyon's global adaptation and resilience program, distinct from its DMV fellowship, a roughly six-month hybrid with a virtual kickoff and in-person residency weeks in Washington and Los Angeles. Founders receive an equity-free stipend, training in Halcyon's methodology, masterclasses, connections to impact investors and multilaterals, and a global community, with skill series in blended and adaptation finance and non-dilutive funding. It requires a for-profit with a working MVP and early commercial validation. Suits adaptation and resilience founders anywhere, from energy resilience to nature tech and water, willing to travel to residencies.