Looking back at 2025 - A note from Aina
In 2025, VertueLab welcomed key partners, collaborators, and entrepreneurs into our growing sphere of impact.
In Oregon, with the generous support of philanthropic partners including the Lemelson Foundation, the Collins Foundation, and the Healy Foundation, we launched critical work aligned with VertueLab’s vision for an equitable climate transition—even amid renewed challenges to equity and justice in climate action.
In Washington, the launch of the downtown Seattle Climate Innovation Hub—together with the City of Seattle, the University of Washington’s CoMotion, and 9Zero—marked a new era of climate innovation and collaboration. As firm believers in the power of community, VertueLab is proud to have helped bring this vision to life. For a state long committed to climate leadership, Washington needs two things: dedicated space to accelerate solutions and funding for entrepreneurs. We are helping deliver both.
We are deeply grateful to the partners who remain bold and undaunted alongside us, advancing climate, community, and economic resilience across the Pacific Northwest.
Our portfolio companies have thrived during 2025. From Comstock Mining’s $6.5 million acquisition of Hexas Biomass, to NxLite opening their Advanced Innovation & Manufacturing Center while reaching a milestone in their Series A fundraising, and SolarSteam Inc.’s Seed II funding reached $8 million with support from VertueLab’s CIF, the victories of our CleanTech entrepreneurs prove that fueling climate innovation creates lasting impact.
As we move forward, we aim not only to expand our work, but to redefine how it is done—centering inclusion, excellence, and human well-being throughout the climate transition.
As Toni Morrison said, “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.”
We refuse to let our work—or our future—be shaped by a fleeting moment or by those not designing for us. In 2026, we will continue, unbowed, to define and build the world we want to see—one in which all our neighbors can thrive.