Global Forum

The 2025 Cleantech Open Global Forum took place in San Jose on October 27-30, co-located with the VERGE 25 event. This marquee gathering showcased the 94 graduating CTO startups plus the CTO pitch competitions - both US Finalists and Global Ideas Finalists. The Best of the Best early-stage innovators!

2025 Global Forum Highlights
The Global Forum took place at VERGE 25, a leading climate tech conference. The four-day event showcased solutions from current cohort companies and Cleantech Open alumni in Hall 3 of the San Jose Convention Center, with opportunities to attend the National Finals pitches and the CTO Awards Ceremony Luncheon.
Opening Address: Joel Makower, Chairman and Co-founder of the Trellis Group, the parent of VERGE, kicked off the ceremony with an inspiring keynote on cleantech’s role in addressing urgent climate challenges.
Alumni Panel Discussion: Moderated by Ken Hayes, Executive Director of Cleantech Open, the discussion featured successful alumni: Tanya Barham, Founder & CEO, Community Energy Labs (CTO Alum 2020)
Keynote Inspirationalists: Lastly, Cleantech Open welcomed keynote speakers Rex Northen and Marc Gottshalk. As well as John J. Berger. Berger, Author of the book Solving the Climate Crisis, delivered a presentation on "Agile Clean Tech Entrepreneurship" highlighting the challenges cleantech and how to work to overcome them.
Learn more at the 2025 Global Forum event site and the participating cohort startups in the 2025 Companies Overview.
Cleantech Open extends gratitude to its 2025 Sponsors, including National Sponsors Wells Fargo, Breakthrough Energy Fellows, the IN2 Innovation Incubator, NREL, and CalSEED for enabling this year’s accelerator program and Global Forum.

U.S. National Winners
Winner: PolyGone Systems. – PolyGone Systems: Building systems that remove up to 98% of microplastics from water. Protecting oceans, communities, and the future.
Runner-Up and People’s Choice: HYDGEN – HYDGEN makes ultra-pure green hydrogen on-site, on-demand, cutting logistics costs and emissions with modular AEM electrolyzers.

Check out the 2024 Global Forum HERE.

Check out the 2023 Global Forum HERE.

Check out the 2022 Global Forum HERE.

Check out the 2021 Global Forum HERE.