Goterra, a Canberra-based waste-tech startup, collapsed into voluntary administration last week despite raising over $20 million and landing enterprise customers including Woolworths, Melbourne Airport, and the City of Sydney.
The company converted food waste into animal feed and fertiliser using insect bioconversion. It had closed an $8M VC round, a $10M bridge in 2023, and a $2.25M crowdfunding round in 2024. The spokesperson said the business ran out of cash before securing the follow-on capital needed to scale.
The Missing Middle Problem
Mick Liubinskas, co-founder of Climate Salad, called the failure "bitterly disappointing" and blamed Australia for not backing its own companies. But the real issue is structural: Goterra hit what investors call the "missing middle."
Climate tech companies need expensive facilities and long sales cycles before revenue scales. They outgrow venture funding (which expects fast growth) but remain too risky for infrastructure investors (who want proven cash flow). Jefferies and CFR both identify this capital gap as a systemic problem in climate tech.
For Goterra, that meant being stuck between venture expectations and project finance economics. The company needed capital-intensive buildout before it could prove unit economics at scale.
What This Means for Sales Teams
If you are selling for a late-stage climate tech startup, watch the funding runway closely. The missing middle hits hardest at companies between Series B and commercial scale. That is when:
- Sales cycles stretch (enterprise deals take 12-18 months)
- Comp plans reset mid-year (when projections miss)
- Territories get "optimised" (closed)
- Quotas do not adjust for market reality
Goterra had enterprise logos and real revenue. It still ran out of money. That is not a sales execution problem. That is a capital structure problem.
If your climate tech employer is raising bridge rounds or crowdfunding after venture rounds, ask about runway. Bridge rounds buy 6-12 months, not 24. Crowdfunding after institutional rounds usually signals that institutional investors passed.
The Comp Reality
Climate tech sales roles often pay 15-20% below pure SaaS because investors price in execution risk. When the funding gap hits, comp gets cut first. Goterra's enterprise AEs likely had OTE tied to expansion that never materialised.
For ANZ climate tech sales professionals: demand longer ramp periods, quarterly comp reviews, and clear milestones tied to funding rounds. If the company is burning $2M+ per month on facility buildout, your quota should reflect that capital is going to infrastructure, not sales capacity.