Tim De Chant

Senior Reporter, Climate, TechCrunch

Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor. De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.

Tim De Chant

Latest from Tim De Chant

All cars suffer when the mercury drops, but electric vehicles suffer more than most as heaters draw more power and batteries charge more slowly as the liquid electrolyte inside thickens.…

Porsche Ventures invests in battery startup South 8 to boost cold-weather EV performance

The European venture capital firm raised its fourth fund as fund as climate tech “comes of age.”

ETF Partners raises €285M for climate startups that will be effective quickly — not 20 years down the road

Bedrock Materials is developing a new type of sodium-ion battery, which promises to be dramatically cheaper than lithium-ion.

Forget EVs: Why Bedrock Materials is targeting gas-powered cars for its first sodium-ion batteries

The heat pump startup unveiled its first products and revealed details about performance, pricing and availability.

Quilt heat pump sports sleek design from veterans of Apple, Tesla and Nest

Charging has long been the Achilles’ heel of electric vehicles. One startup thinks it has a better way for apartment dwelling EV drivers to charge overnight.

Orange Charger thinks a $750 outlet will solve EV charging for apartment dwellers

SAP Chief Sustainability Officer Sophia Mendelsohn wants to incentivize companies to be green because it’s profitable, not just because it’s right.

SAP’s chief sustainability officer isn’t interested in getting your company to do the right thing

Here’s what one insider said happened in the days leading up to the layoffs.

Tesla’s profitable Supercharger network is in limbo after Musk axed the entire team

Usually, when something starts to rot, it gets pitched in the trash. But Joanne Rodriguez wants to turn the concept of rot on its head by growing fungus on trash…

Mycocycle uses mushrooms to upcycle old tires and construction waste

Plenty of founders have a difficult decision to make early in their journey: where to set up shop. For deep tech founders, the decision is complicated by the fact that…

How to choose a deep tech startup program

Companies focused on reducing CO2 emissions raised big sums, second only to Q3 2023.

Climate tech investment roars back with an $8.1B start to 2024

Walmart heir Lukas Walton, worth $28 billion, is bringing on new limited partners to expand S2G’s investment reach.

Walmart heir Lukas Walton’s Builders Vision puts S2G on a path to independence

Featured Article

The ‘valley of death’ for climate lies between early-stage funding and scaling up

It’s easier for climate companies to get enough funding to get started. It’s much harder once they need money to scale.

The ‘valley of death’ for climate lies between early-stage funding and scaling up

Joselyn Lai appeared on TechCrunch’s Found to discuss her company and its hopes of driving down the cost of a proven technology to address the…

Bringing down skyscrapers’ sky-high carbon footprint with Joselyn Lai from Bedrock

The startup, founded by an Arcadia alumnus, seeks to become a common data collection and sharing platform for renewable power sources like wind, solar, and batteries.

Texture makes a bid to become the world’s go-to platform of the energy transition

The stealthy new startup hopes a fully integrated approach, from direct air capture to electrolysis and methane generation, will let it drive prices down for so-called e-fuels.

General Galactic emerges from stealth to make methane from carbon dioxide

NZero developed a new algorithm that helps building owners estimate their carbon pollution down to the hour.

Building owners are often in the dark about their carbon pollution — a new algorithm could shed light on it

The startup is developing a technology it claims is as fast and energy efficient as 3D printing at a cost that can compete with sand casting.

Magnus Metal wants to revamp the 4,000-year-old way metal parts are made

Climate nonprofit Prime Coalition is hoping to bridge the valley with a new program, Trellis Climate.

Trellis Climate aims to bridge the ‘commercial valley of death’ for climate tech

The startup is decarbonizing heavy industry using aluminum as a fuel, an approach inspired by a future mission to Europa.

How Found Energy went from ‘self-cannibalizing robots’ to cleaning up heavy industry

Bay Bridge Ventures’ fundraising efforts come at a time when venture investors appear to be increasingly bullish on climate tech.

Bay Bridge Ventures is raising $200M for a new climate fund, filings show

SOSV’s new fund makes it one of the largest pools of deep tech venture capital to be raised in recent years.

SOSV founder says climate investing is a ‘war effort’ as firm closes $306M fund

Quilt promises its heat pump will be a sleeker design that can be installed in more places around a room than competitors’ offerings.

Quilt rides heat pump heat wave with hefty $33M Series A

Kode’s platform allows customers to control HVAC and lighting, monitor energy use, track carbon emissions and keep an eye on water consumption.

Kode Labs makes a bid to become the Salesforce of commercial building automation

The startup has raised $28 million to help fund a nationwide expansion of its cardboard-based cellulose building insulation.

CleanFiber wants to turn millions of tons of cardboard boxes into insulation

The New York City-based startup has been working on a product that retrofits existing street lampposts to enable EV charging.

Voltpost wants to bring curbside EV charging to a lamppost near you

Given flagging sales of the company’s existing product line, a mass-market electric vehicle would be a welcome shot in the arm.

Tesla risks losing its lead without an inexpensive EV

The EPA awarded $20 billion in grants to kickstart loans and equity investing in climate technologies across the country.

New U.S. ‘green bank’ aims to steer over $160B in capital into climate tech

Ford is unusual in that it performs best when thinking like a startup, something it appears to have taken to heart recently, EV delays notwithstanding.

Ford delays new EVs once more, showing why legacy automakers need to adopt a startup mentality

Featured Article

The 18 most interesting startups from YC’s Demo Day show we’re in an AI bubble

From AI-generated music and grant applications to neat new fintech applications and even some healthtech work, there was something for everyone.

The 18 most interesting startups from YC’s Demo Day show we’re in an AI bubble

The battery startup has raised $78 million to bring its alternative to lithium-ion cells to everything from scooters to steel mills.

Alsym wants to ‘light up homes for a billion people’ with its new battery