IFC Report, January 21, 2026
Tech Emerge Sustainable Cooling Innovation Program: Results and Lessons Learned
Three of the ”lessons learned” most relevant to us
1. While the private sector and other key stake-holders recognize that cooling is essential to development and to achieve multiple sustainable development goals (SDGs), demonstrating the business case for the adoption of sustainable cooling is critical to meeting global climate objectives. Awareness of the climate impacts of cooling is more advanced in countries that have adopted national cooling plans, such as India. However, even in the most sophisticated emerging markets, more needs to be done to raise awareness about the business benefits of adopting innovations that provide cooling for all who need it while also actively mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and reducing energy consumption. TechEmerge deliberately sought out marketleading corporates to act as adopters in pilot projects. For example, the highly respected Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) conducted pilots that resulted in energy savings of up to 33 percent compared to conventional systems. The participation of industry leaders significantly enhanced the outreach of the TE-SCI program while sending a strong message about the business case for adopting sustainable cooling solutions to the broader private sector. It also raised the bar for competitors and encouraged them to minimize their carbon footprints.
2. Stronger incubation and verification systems for innovators, with better connections to investors and adopters, are vital to overcome early-stage risks associated with sustainable cooling technologies and business models. Early-stage ecosystems—where game-changing technologies are incubated and paths to minimum viable products and solutions are established— are often poorly connected to academia. Links to the private sector are also underdeveloped, even though these are vital to grow and scale new technologies. This problem is particularly severe in the global cooling ecosystem, where a small group of well-established companies dominate the market while younger innovators of sustainable cooling technologies struggle to prove their commercial readiness. Innovators and cooling entrepreneurs also need more holistic support to grow their businesses. To mobilize investment and support sustainable cooling innovation and entrepreneurship, TechEmerge supported the creation of the Cooling Innovation Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology in Jammu. The lab subjects sustainable cooling innovations to rigorous testing and evaluation to ensure they are deployable in real-world contexts. TechEmerge also supported four of its most promising innovators to join the inaugural intake of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chains. Along with research, awareness-raising, and technical capacity building, the Centre aims to develop, test, demonstrate, and deploy fit-for-market pathways to net zero cold chains and accelerate cooling at scale in Africa.
3. New blended funding models are needed to shorten the timeframe between successive rounds of growth funding for sustainable cooling innovators. While the market tends to view cooling innovators through a traditional venture capital lens, most investment opportunities in cooling businesses do not conform with the typical return profile of the venture capital asset class. Cooling innovators are predominantly assets and CAPEXheavy businesses with relatively long gestation periods. This often extends the duration between funding rounds for cooling innovators and stunts their growth prospects. It also delays the launch of mass market-ready cooling innovations that are critical to meet climate commitments at all levels, from individual firms to national cooling action plans to global pledges by the Conference of Parties (COP). TechEmerge leveraged grants, combined with commercial and in-kind contributions from adopters and innovators, to help mitigate risks and overcome cost barriers. The calibrated blending of commercial and non-commercial capital was critical to balance risk and reward, helping adopters and innovators gain confidence to pilot innovative cooling technologies. New instruments should be developed and deployed across the debt-to-equity spectrum to meet the funding needs of cooling innovators with varied growth trajectories. Cooling innovators with relatively higher growth potential may require patient equity injections early in their development cycles to prove their business models. Others may require access to working capital in the form of guarantees or asset-backed loans to fulfill pending orders.