NZA 2025 COHORT

What does the future of the built environment actually look like, and who’s building it right now? The NZA team and community works with growth-stage companies that are moving beyond concepts and pilots into real-world deployment. These are teams navigating the messy middle, de-risking new technologies, aligning with market needs, and proving impact at actual buildings and sites. The 2025 companies are tackling some of the most urgent challenges facing the built environment today, including:

• Smarter building performance and energy efficiency

• Electrification enablers and next-generation energy storage

• Climate resilience for wildfire, heat, and infrastructure risk

• Water sensing, treatment, and reuse

• Circular, low-carbon materials for construction and retrofits

• Software, digital twins, and AI accelerating decarbonization

• Scalable solutions for affordable housing and community infrastructure

These aren’t future hypotheticals. You’ll see technologies already deployed in the field, delivering measurable results for owners, operators, and the communities they serve.

Check out the replay video from our recent Demo Day to see and hear how far these ideas can travel. The event highlighted not only our newest cohort but also a milestone update from NZA 2019 alumnus Forest Frizell (Shifted Energy, recently acquired) as well as keynotes from Kevin Powell (recently program director for the US government’s Green Proving Ground) and Ajey Kaushal (Principal, JLL Spark).