Climate Tech Startups Land Rp15 Billion for Indonesian Pilots

What happened

Indonesia's biggest climate technology competition has picked its 2026 winners, and none of them is a battery maker, a grid-storage developer or a carbon-capture company. At the Climate Impact Innovations Challenge (CIIC), three companies each won Rp5 billion, or Rp15 billion in total, to run pilot projects in Indonesia. CRecTech won the Energy Transition track, Blueyou won Food & Nature Solutions, and MacroCycle Technologies won Circular Economy.21

East Ventures, Temasek Foundation and Tencent jointly presented this year's challenge, the fourth edition. It opened on April 8 and ended with a Grand Finale on October 6, held as a session of the Indonesia International Sustainability Forum in Jakarta.2 More than 850 applications came in from about 60 countries. Nine finalists were chosen and given mentoring from industry figures before the final pitch.16 To enter, companies needed a working pilot or minimum viable product built with commercialization in mind.1

The three winning technologies

CRecTech takes biogas from palm oil mill effluent, the liquid waste from palm oil mills, and turns it into bio-methanol at the mill site. The company says its process cuts production costs by 50% and emissions by up to 93%.21 Co-founder and CEO Lim Kang Hui said the prize will speed up pilot and commercial deployment with Indonesian partners, and he named state energy company Pertamina as one of them.15 CRecTech also picked up more money than any other company at the finale: a US$50,000 grant from Sinar Mas Agribusiness & Food and a US$50,000 investment from Vinerock Capital.2

Blueyou restores mangroves on degraded coastal land and combines this with "blue food" production, meaning seafood raised without feed or chemicals. It says the model can raise smallholder farmers' incomes up to threefold.24 Mana Impact also committed a US$50,000 investment to the company.2

MacroCycle Technologies recycles polyester textiles back into textiles. It says the process uses 80% less energy, emits 80% less CO₂ and uses 99% less water than conventional production, at the same price.2 Co-founder and CEO Stwart Pena Feliz said the prize lets the company launch its first project in Asia. He pointed out that more than 80% of textile manufacturing happens in the region, which makes Indonesia an obvious place to show that circular production can pay.26

The largest single commitment of the night did not go to a track winner. Tencent agreed to buy US$1 million of carbon credits in advance from Yagasu, a finalist in the Food & Nature track.25 Yagasu's finalist profile says it works on nearly 40,000 hectares of mangroves, generating carbon credits and aiming to raise coastal incomes by up to 40%. One outlet noted that Tencent joined this edition as a presenting partner on the condition that it would pre-purchase carbon credits from selected finalists, subject to eligibility requirements.1

Where the coverage agrees and where it doesn't

The basic facts are the same across outlets: three winners, Rp5 billion each, 850-plus applicants and the same performance figures. That consistency mostly reflects the fact that every report draws on the organizers' press release.2456 The performance numbers are the companies' and organizers' own claims. AsiaTechDaily was the only outlet to say plainly that the figures had not been independently verified and that the pilots will be the real test.1 Indonesian business outlets used similar wording, describing CRecTech's cost and emissions figures as company claims.56

The dollar conversions are where reports differ, and the differences matter for anyone comparing deals. TNGlobal put the total at about US$840,000.4 Finansialinsight used a rate of Rp17,880 to the dollar, which also gives roughly US$840,000.6 Dealroom's summary is inconsistent with itself: it gives each award as US$325.7K, "roughly $280,000," and a three-winner total of US$977.1K.3 The conversions supported by the other reports point to roughly US$280,000 per winner and about US$840,000 overall. Dealroom's larger total looks like a conversion error and should not be used.

The outlets also framed the story differently. Ecobiz Asia presented the awards as evidence that more capital is flowing to businesses that combine emissions cuts with commercial returns.5 Dealroom took a cooler view: by venture standards the grants are modest and sit near the middle of comparable deal sizes, and their purpose is to reduce the risk of early pilots.3 I think Dealroom's reading is closer to the truth. This is seed-stage money to test whether the technologies work in practice. It will not build infrastructure.

The missing hardware: batteries, storage and carbon capture

For readers following EV battery technology, grid-scale storage or carbon capture, the most telling thing about CIIC 2026 is how little of that hardware made it to the final.

Energy Transition was the smallest of the three tracks, with 27.5% of applications. Circular Economy had 38.2% and Food & Nature Solutions 34.3%. The energy track's winner is a waste-to-fuel company. It does not work on storage or electrification.2 Among the finalists, the closest thing to carbon removal was Planet Carbon, which turns agricultural waste into biochar for carbon removal and says it raises crop yields by 23%. It was entered in the Circular Economy track, not the energy track, and it did not win.2

The absence is noticeable because the organizers have written about storage themselves. In September 2025 the CIIC site published a piece comparing gravity and thermal long-duration energy storage for Indonesia.13 Earlier editions also leaned more toward energy. The 2024 winners included SunGreenH2 and Hydrogen Refinery. The 2025 edition gave Rp10 billion to Aslan Renewables, Arukah Capital and SXD AI.13 With the prize pool now raised to Rp15 billion, this year's winners have moved toward waste streams and nature-based assets.132

Other Indonesian programs are backing more of the storage and mobility work. At New Energy Nexus's [RE]Spark festival in late 2025, KINETIK-backed pilot funding went to GAWIREA. GAWIREA plans to develop "sand batteries," which store renewable energy as heat in sand, starting with sago drying in South Papua. New Energy Nexus's venture arm has backed Swap Energy, which runs swappable batteries for electric two-wheelers, alongside rooftop-solar and energy-efficiency startups. Together those companies raised US$31 million in 2023, during what the fund called a sector-wide funding downturn. The second cohort of KINETIK Sweef Fellows, announced in early October, includes companies working on cleaner transport and access to electric motorcycles.9 Carbon capture and storage is mostly discussed in policy and academic settings so far. Ecobiz Asia covered a forum where JDS and ITB discussed the challenges and opportunities of CCS/CCUS in Indonesia.5

My reading is that capital-heavy, slow hardware such as cell chemistries, grid batteries and capture plants does not suit a Rp5 billion pilot grant. Projects that turn an existing waste stream into a product that can be sold do. CRecTech uses palm mill effluent that is already there and has a large offtaker lined up. MacroCycle aims to compete on price with virgin polyester. Both are the kind of business a catalytic grant can realistically move forward.12

Why it still matters

The awards are small next to the size of Indonesia's challenge. AsiaTechDaily cites the World Bank's Country Climate and Development Report, which estimates Indonesia needs about US$267 billion to US$311 billion in extra mitigation investment between 2022 and 2040, depending on its decarbonization path.1 A prize pool of under US$1 million barely registers against that.

The competition's value is in how it connects people, not in the size of the cheque. East Ventures partner Avina Sugiarto said more applicants are now offering solutions that can move from concept to practical, commercially viable use. She described CIIC's job as connecting founders with funders, strategic partners and local routes to deployment.1 Indonesia had the most applicants, followed by India, Singapore, the United States and South Korea. That spread suggests foreign founders increasingly see the country as a place to test their technology, and MacroCycle's first Asian project is one example.2 Policymakers also took part: a deputy chair of the House's Commission VII spoke on a panel, and a Ministry of Environment director gave a keynote.1

The CRecTech pilot is the one to watch. If it does take shape with Pertamina, it would test whether palm-oil waste can supply low-carbon methanol at a meaningful scale. Palm oil is an industry where Indonesia is both a huge producer and a frequent target of emissions criticism.15 Tencent's carbon-credit commitment to Yagasu is worth watching for a different reason. It is a purchase commitment, not a grant, and nature-based credits depend on the trust of the buyers who purchase them.12

The bottom line

CIIC 2026 handed out real but modest money to three waste-and-nature businesses, and the energy track was won by a fuel company, not by anyone working on storage or electrification. The organizers framed it as a platform for climate innovation.2 For now, the actual result is three funded pilots built on performance claims nobody has independently checked yet.1 Building Indonesia's EV battery supply chain, grid storage and carbon capture will mostly fall to other programs and to much larger pools of capital.