Innovators across northern Illinois can now take advantage of up to $20 million in funding from the Exelon Foundation and Exelon Corp., ComEd’s parent company, to support startups and the development of technologies that help mitigate climate change. The effort is part of the company’s Climate Change Investment Initiative, or 2c2i, launched last week as part of Climate Week NYC, a joint initiative of the United Nations and the city of New York that brings together business, government and institutional leaders to discuss climate-change actions. The Exelon Foundation will contribute $10 million over the next 10 years to fund the initiative, which will focus on clean energy and environmental technologies with potential for wide-scale commercialization. Exelon Corp. will match that grant with up to a $10 million in-kind investment of pro-bono services, including mentoring entrepreneurs on ways to access other sources of capital, structure business plans, allocate financial resources and meet regulatory requirements. The start-ups also will be able to tap Exelon’s internal innovation programs – Exelorate Growth, Constellation Technology Ventures and Partnership R&D – for counsel.