EarthX Announces 10th Annual E-Capital Summit on Sustainability Investing: Driving Global Re-engagement Through Pragmatism

EarthX is proud to host the 10th Annual E-Capital Summit at Earthx2026, a three-day Congress of Conferences taking place in Dallas at the Hilton Anatole on April 20–22, 2026. The E-Capital Summit convenes hundreds of investors, innovators, industry & corporate leaders, dealmakers, and others in the innovation and investment ecosystem to help catalyze action and is renowned for fostering meaningful connections and catalyzing investments & industry innovation in environmental sustainability, conservation, and cleantech across various industry verticals from energy to water to the built environment.

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This year, the invitation-only E-Capital Summit’s theme is “Sustainability Investing: Driving Global Re-engagement Through Pragmatism” to reflect on a renewed focus on actionable, market-based solutions that bridge political and ideological divides while strengthening critical industries including energy, water, infrastructure, and manufacturing.

Over the past nine years, the E-Capital Summit has convened more than 3,200 participants from over 40 states and 25 countries, including more than 570 leading investors and over 630 emerging innovators. Companies that have participated in the Summit have collectively raised more than $9 billion in follow-on funding, underscoring the event’s impact in identifying emerging innovators and accelerating capital deployment into high-potential environmental solutions.

“From years of gathering at EarthX conferences, it’s clear there’s no shortage of ideas in sustainability; what we need now are pragmatic solutions and executable innovations that will help solve critical challenges facing our communities, businesses, and planet,” EarthxCapital Senior Director Vikram Agrawal said. “The E-Capital Summit is about connecting the right people and the right capital to solutions that can scale in the real world.”

“The E-Capital Summit advances EarthX’s broader mission by translating ideas into action,” EarthX CEO Peter Simek said. “Our goal is to bring together investors, innovators, and industry leaders who are ready to roll up their sleeves, back practical innovation, and turn momentum into measurable impact and profitable solutions that will succeed regardless of the broader political and social climate.”

10th Annual E-Capital Summit Key Events and Speakers

The three-day summit will feature a range of curated programming and dealmaking opportunities to foster meaningful connections, including:

• Investment Forum: High-level discussions and fireside chats with global investment, policy, and innovation leaders

• E-Capital Connections: One-on-one meetings connecting investors, innovators, and dealmakers

• E-Commercialization Connections: Sales-focused meetings linking innovators with industry partners to help build sustainable business models

• EarthX Climate Tech Prize: A competitive global pitch competition spotlighting early-stage climate startups

• EarthX Ocean Innovation Prize: A new oceans-focused pitch competition debuting in 2026

• Women’s Leadership Symposium: A forum highlighting leadership among women in sustainability investment and innovation

The 10th Annual E-Capital Summit will feature nearly 40 globally recognized investment and innovation leaders, including:

• Dana Bezerra, President – Americas, CREO

• Felipe Calderón, Former President, Republic of Mexico

• Wayne Christian, Commissioner, Railroad Commission of Texas

• Chris Creed, Managing Partner and Co-Head, Credit and Capital Solutions, Galvanize

• Olivier Desmarais, Chairman, Power Sustainable

• Louis Dubin, Principal & Managing Partner, Redbrick LMD

• Ben duPont, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Chartline Capital

• Whitney Hastings, Chair, Federal Laboratory Consortium

• Danielle Holly, Executive Lead – North America, Ellen MacArthur Foundation

• Bryan Hughes (R), Texas State Senator

• Nathan Johnson (D), Texas State Senator

• Becky Klein, Former Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas

• Jon Miller, Partner, Advancit Capital and Former CEO, AOL

• Barry Smitherman, Former Chairman, Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Railroad Commission

• Margret Trilli, CEO & Chief Investment Officer, ImpactAssets

2026 EarthX Climate Tech Prize

The EarthX Climate Tech Prize, sponsored by MassChallenge, will award a $10,000 non-dilutive cash prize to an early-stage startup with less than $250,000 in annual revenue and under $500,000 in dilutive funding.

Last year’s winner, Zero Electric (Austin, TX), developed a grid-aware platform enabling faster DER interconnections and improved grid flexibility. Co-Founders Jimi Adegbohun (CEO) and Felix Ogbeide (COO) created a grid-aware platform that generates dynamic, spatiotemporal hosting capacity maps and real-time flexibility insights, enabling faster interconnections, better DER monetization and intelligent grid operations. Other recent winners include En Solucion (agtech; Austin, TX), FluxWorks (frictionless gear technology; College Station, TX), Heat Inverse (materials science; Ithaca, NY), Safi Organics (agtech; Wang’uru, North Kiangop, Kenya).

Semi-finalists were selected by EarthX’s E-Capital Summit Strategic Partners, including Austin Technology Incubator, Ceres, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Energy Innovation Hub TX, EnergyTech Cypher, and Greentown Labs. The 2026 Semi-Finalists include:

• ATS Energy (Loveland, CO) — Solid-state generator converting industrial waste heat into onsite clean energy

• Brint Tech (Fort Collins, CO) — Advanced optical gas sensing systems for industrial monitoring

• Chakra Techworks (San Diego, CA) — Microbial carbon capture transforming emissions into biodegradable plastics

• Downland (Austin, TX) — Regenerative agriculture platform providing training, land access, and capital

• Eluvyn (Mesa, AZ) — Extremophile-based wastewater treatment solutions

• Mermaid Energy (Easton, MD) — Converts sargassum into usable fuel

• Navia Energy (San Jose, CA) — AI-driven energy resilience and cybersecurity platform

• Pinpoint Irrigation (San Jose, CA) — Precision irrigation technology optimizing water usage

• Silvis Materials (Boulder, CO) — Bio-based adhesives for packaging and construction

• Terminus Industrials (Austin, TX) — Automated manufacturing of large power transformers

• Turbo Power Semiconductor (Austin, TX) — High-efficiency SiC chips for AI data centers

Semi-finalists will deliver three-minute lightning pitches on Tuesday, April 21 on the E-Capital Summit Investment Forum stage, with audience members voting live to determine which four companies will advance to the Finals on Wednesday, April 22 at 1:30 p.m. on the Solutions Stage at Earthx2026.

Inaugural EarthX Ocean Innovation Prize

Sponsored by the Christo Foundation, EarthX will also debut the EarthX Ocean Innovation Prize, a new pitch competition focused on advancing the sustainable blue economy with a $10,000 non-dilutive cash prize. The competition will spotlight emerging companies with less than $5 million in annual recurring revenue that are developing scalable, investable solutions to critical ocean-related challenges across both the natural and built environments.

Participants, nominated by several of EarthxCapital’s global oceans-focused Innovation Ecosystem Partners, will present three-minute lightning pitches during the Investment Forum on Tuesday, April 21. The winner will be selected via live audience vote and announced that evening at the EarthX Awards Banquet.

Confirmed semi-finalists to date include:

• BlueBiome (Derby, United Kingdom) – BlueBiome is building an integrated coral health platform that links early detection of coral reef damage to precise intervention.

• Greenwater Marine Sciences Offshore (Arlington, VA) – Greenwater Marine Sciences is building scalable marine research infrastructure and operating mission-ready vessels.

• Riverrecycle (Helsinki, Sweden) – Riverrecycle’s innovative technology concentrates and removes floating waste from rivers that’s then sorted for reuse, recycling, or proper disposal.

• CarbonBridge (San Jose, CA) – CarbonBridge makes the GPU’s of biomanufacturing, converting waste gases to green chemicals and fuels.

• rrreefs (Zurich, Switzerland) – rrreefs is a female-founded social enterprise dedicated to regenerating degraded coral reefs globally utilizing 3D-printing technology.

For more information on The E-Capital Summit at Earthx2026, visit https://earthx.org/impact/earthx-capital/e-capital-summit/.

About EarthX

EarthX is an international nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to educating and inspiring people and organizations to take action towards a more sustainable future worldwide. EarthX is a member of IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. Founded in 2011 as Earth Day Dallas by environmentalist and businessman Trammell S. Crow, the Texas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization promotes environmental awareness and impact through conscious business, nonpartisan collaboration, and community-driven sustainable solutions. EarthX presents ideas, initiatives and actions from some of the world’s best minds and most active participants in sustainability and conservation to audiences around the globe through livestream programming and in person events. Learn more: EarthX.org

2026 E-Capital Summit Strategic Partners

Austin Technology Incubator, Ceres, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Energy Innovation Hub TX, Energytech Cypher, and Greentown Labs

EarthxCapital Innovation Ecosystem Partners

Activate, American Renewable Energy Institute (AREI), Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), ASU LightWorks, Braid Theory, BRITE Energy Innovators, C10 Labs, Capital Factory, Cleantech Leaders Roundtable, Cleantech Open, Cleantech San Diego, CleanTX, Cleveland Water Alliance, Climate KIC, Climate Solutions Prize, CO-LABS, CSU Strata, Current, Federal Laboratory Consortium, Envest, FLII, gener8tor, Halliburton Labs, Impact Hub Houston, Innovation Crossroads, Leaders on Purpose, Marine Research Hub of South Florida, Marine Technology Society, MaRS Discovery District, Maryland Energy Innovation Accelerator, MassChallenge, New Energy Nexus, North Texas Innovation Alliance, Ocean Exchange, Purdue DIAL Ventures, SeaAhead, Seaworthy Collective, SMU Hunter & Stephanie Hunt Institute for Engineering & Humanity, StartBlue Ocean Enterprise Accelerator, Sustainable Ocean Alliance, TechFW, Texas Association of Business, Texas Venture Alliance, The Ocean Foundation, The Water Council, Urban Future Lab, US India Chamber of Commerce DFW, USGBC Texas, and World Ocean Council.

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