Climate 50 is the most up to date, comprehensive and insightful Global Climate VC ranking for the climate community.

The Climate 50 ranking methodology was created by Contrarian Ventures. We sought to craft a methodology that would incorporate metrics that define a great investor. We reached beyond traditional financial performance metrics, taking into account less traditional metrics such as the founder's voice, contribution to building an inclusive community, and a recognizable VC brand. Lastly, we did not forget you - the climate community. Your voice also counts.

In the Climate 50 ranking, Venture Capital investors are ranked based on 10 distinct metrics. We have split the metrics into two separate groups; direct and indirect metrics.

Direct metrics:
Direct metrics take into account the investment activity of the investor. We used the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework, and only included investments that directly and indirectly contribute to the climate change fight by matching with one of the eight SDGs: 1. Clean water and sanitation (#6)
2. Affordable and clean energy (#7)
3. Industry innovation and infrastructure (#9)
4. Sustainable cities and communities (#11)
5. Responsible consumption and production (#12)
6. Climate action (#13)
7. Life below water (#14)
8. Life on land (#15)

There are six direct investor metrics used in our methodology. Each metric was taken into account while calculating the overall Investor Score. All data for the direct metrics were provided by our data partner Dealroom.co. Each direct metric has its own weighting. All six direct metrics combined represent 75% of the final Investor Score.

Six direct metrics are as follows:
Metric #1. Companies invested (2020): number of investments into new companies in 2020.
Metric #2. Companies invested (last 10 years): number of investments into new companies over the last 10 years.
Metric #3. Portfolio companies (with a valuation from $100M to $1B): number of portfolio companies valued from $100M to $1B.
Metric #4. Exits (2020): number of exits completed by the investor in 2020.
Metric #5. Exits (last 10 years): number of exits completed by the investor in the last 10 years.
Metric #6. Unicorn portfolio companies (with a valuation of $1B+): number of portfolio companies valued over $1B that have Unicorn status.

Indirect metrics:
Indirect metrics take into account the non-investment related activity of the investor. Four indirect investor metrics were taken into account while calculating the overall Investor Score. Each indirect metric has its own weighting. All four indirect metrics combined represent 25% of the final Investor Score.

Four indirect metrics are as follows:
Metric #7. Brand awareness score: an aggregated number of total followers in all social media platforms combined (LinkedIn, Twitter and Medium).
Metric #8. Inclusive community score: a score to identify if an investor has been contributing towards building an inclusive sustainable energy transition community, and has initiated at least one of the following: a podcast, newsletter, specialized event or conference, incubation or accelerator program, dedicated co-working space or diversity-related initiatives.
Metric #9. Founders score: a scoring metric based on our partner’s – Landscape.Ventures platform and methodology, which represent a founder’s voice on different qualitative aspects such as approachability, response time and professionalism aggregated into a single score on the Landscape platform.
Metric #10. Public score: number of public votes cast for the investor by the public on the Climate50.com platform by 28th of February, 2021.

The final Investor Score is derived based on 10 distinct metrics, and investors are ranked accordingly in the final Climate 50 list. The list is dynamic, Metric #10 will change during the voting period, and the final Climate 50 list will be published on the 1st of March 2021. The cut-off time for public votes is the 28th of February, 2021, 23:30:00 GMT.