MERCURY NEWS PHOTO BY JOANNE HOYOUNG LEE—AUGUST 9, 2002 —Boxes of obsolete motherboards, computers, printers, and other misc etrash wait to be processed into the high powered shredder at the HP Recycling Center in Roseville, CA. S(Photo by MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
MediaNews Group via Getty Images
Ask Alexander Olesen why he founded Buckstop, and he replies: Why does a retired EV charger, still packed with several thousand dollars of recoverable metal, get valued by lenders and insurers at zero? Olesen calls that gap a “price discovery problem”—the reason his Washington, D.C.-based startup built an AI system that deconstructs solar panels, batteries and EV chargers into their component metals and assigns them real-time salvage, resale and replacement values. Olesen wants to become “the Kelley Blue Book for electronics” in a U.S. energy-infrastructure market he estimates at $2.4 trillion.
In August, the Exelon Foundation added Buckstop and Public Grid, which helps renters access energy-savings programs, to its portfolio. The foundation writes “modest” checks—up to $300,000 per startup—paired with the access, credibility, and hands-on support that only a utility serving nearly 11 million customers can offer. Buckstop and Public Grid are simply the latest test cases; the foundation is now accepting applications for its next 2c2i round through September 2026.
“We see strong businesses and their climate impact as directly tied together,” Faith Davis, who leads the foundation’s program–known as 2c2i–told me. “That is from the foundation lens, which is a bit unique from the corporate venture investing space, but that’s our lens and why we’re doing what we do.”
Since 2019, the Exelon Foundation has invested in more than 30 climate and clean-energy startups through 2c2i, part of a $20 million commitment to climate-focused investment and entrepreneurship. Those startups have gone on to raise more than $555 million in follow-on capital, generate $548 million in revenue, and create 3,558 jobs, according to Exelon’s 2025 sustainability report. Cumulatively, the portfolio has removed or avoided more than 1.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
That $20 million adds credibility: for every dollar Exelon has deployed, its portfolio companies have raised roughly $28 more from other investors. National Grid Partners, by contrast, has put $500 million to work since 2018 and reports unlocking $3 billion in follow-on funding—a roughly 6-to-1 ratio. They simply scale differently: National Grid built an internal venture team to write bigger checks itself; Exelon’s foundation uses a smaller pool of dollars to open doors elsewhere.
A Bridge, Not Just a Check
Alexander Olesen, founder of Buckstop, speaks to Exelon Foundation, which helped finance his company. It recycles batteries and EV chargers and solar panels and assigns their component parts a resale value.
Exelon Foundation
Exelon provides more than capital. “It is the best of both worlds,” Olesen told me, referring to the relationship. “They are the perfect customer for us.” Exelon manages transformers, cables, EV chargers and battery storage across six regulated utilities—exactly the kind of aging infrastructure Buckstop’s software is built to value—and Cox Enterprises, the owner of Kelley Blue Book, is also an investor.
The math is stark: more than 80% of electronics still end up in a landfill, by Olesen’s estimate, and he puts the carbon footprint of recycled metal at roughly 97% lower than virgin material. Reuse, though, carries a stigma other industries have shed. “If you look at any other sector, the auto sector—it’s like 97% of cars have multiple owners,” Olesen said. “In energy, when these things come offline, they’re built to be lost. Circularity—reducing waste to landfills—is both at its core operational efficiency and good business, but it’s also about increasing access and reducing emissions.”
That operational efficiency carries a broader geopolitical weight. With China dominating 70% to 80% of the world’s critical mineral refining capacity, domestic recovery of copper, lithium, and rare earths from retired EV chargers and solar hardware isn’t just an environmental play. It also provides an element of national energy security. Assigning real-time salvage value to discarded grid components turns regional utility scrap into a domestic supply buffer, blunting the impact of foreign supply chain chokepoints.
The other new addition to Exelon’s portfolio, Public Grid, is chasing a more mundane but equally stubborn problem: getting renters to actually sign up for the energy programs already built to lower their bills. The company automatically offers residents community solar subscriptions, demand-response programs, and efficiency rebates without a separate sign-up. Public Grid now works with property owners, managers, and leasing platforms covering more than 750,000 housing units nationwide, alongside backers including Shadow Ventures and Alpaca VC.
“They’ve had very high engagement with people who typically don’t think about these things because they’re renting,” Davis says. For a utility trying to reach a population that moves often, doesn’t own a roof to put solar panels on, and rarely calls in to ask about savings programs, this relationship has value.
Critics Weigh In
Corporate-branded climate programs invite skepticism, and Exelon’s foundation model has real limits. A $20 million commitment, spread over seven years and roughly 30 companies, is a fraction of what the biggest utilities are now spending: Duke Energy, for one, raised its five-year capital plan to $103 billion this year. Exelon Foundation checks, capped at $300,000, are seed-sized by venture standards. And Davis acknowledges the foundation doesn’t hold portfolio companies to a specific emissions target, although the company wants to have a major impact.
Critics could reasonably ask whether such loose goals are realistic for these ventures—or an excuse not to dive in headfirst.
The numbers argue against dismissing 2c2i as a PR exercise, though. Davis is emphatic that the investments are equity stakes, not grants. Indeed, Exelon expects a financial return, which funds future investments and other foundation programs.
The $555 million in follow-on capital that outside investors have committed to 2c2i companies is real money, catalyzed by Exelon’s initial bet, not its marketing budget. National Grid Partners cites industry research suggesting startups backed by corporate investors succeed at roughly double the rate of those backed only by financial VCs. Exelon isn’t alone in this: a 2025 survey of utility innovation leaders found 42% were working with startups to drive innovation, up from 26% a year earlier—evidence Exelon’s approach is part of a broader industry shift.
That 42% figure comes from National Grid Partners’ own Utility Innovators Survey of 166 innovation leaders at utility companies worldwide, fielded ahead of this year’s NextGrid Alliance Summit. It’s a useful signal, not an independent census: National Grid Partners has a stake in that narrative, the sample wasn’t broken out by utility type, size, or country, and last year’s 26% figure came from a slightly different question. Still, it points in the same direction as the dollars utilities like Exelon and National Grid are actually deploying.
“It’s been a privilege to help turn promising ideas into pilot projects,” said Najwa Abhoussan, an Exelon director of technology research and development who serves as a 2c2i liaison, “and hopefully into lasting solutions that will benefit communities for decades to come.”
Whether utility-backed venture bets like these are moving the needle on climate at scale remains an open question. The portfolios behind them are still young, and the emissions any one program can point to are small next to what the sector still emits. But the jobs, revenue, and follow-on capital already flowing through 2c2i suggest these investments are generating more than good press. For Exelon, the wager is that a foundation writing modest checks can still make a real dent.