Vol 143: 🐻 Bull vs Bear on Climate Funding

Hi there

We’re approaching halfway through 2025, and ClimateTech founders are already weighing in on what kind of year it’s shaping up to be.

To get the inside track, Elemental Impact and Sightline Climate recently asked 100 Founders to sum up the ClimateTech investment landscape in a single word or phrase.

Are you feeling bullish, bearish or somewhere in between?

In this week’s edition:

💰 Norrsken Foundation committed €300 million to invest in European startups using ‘AI for good’ to address challenges in climate, health, food, education, and society.
⚡️ TerraPower, founded and backed by Bill Gates, secured $650 million to support construction of its first commercial power plant.
♻️ Novoloop raised $21 million in a Series B funding roundAQ! to scale up its commercial production of Lifecycled TPU, made from polyethylene plastic waste.

AgriFood x Climate

🦄 New Zealand-based agtech scaleup Halter reached unicorn status following a A$155 million Series D round led by US investor Bond, joined by NewView Capital and existing backers Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC, Blackbird, Icehouse Ventures, and Promus Ventures. It will use the funds to accelerate its expansion of its GPS-enabled virtual fencing technology for livestock (AKA cattle collars) across New Zealand, Australia, and the US.

🍤 Finish startup Hailia raised €1.75 million in a funding round led by new investors Holdix and Ikorni Invest, alongside existing and new backers, to advance its technology that transforms fish processing sidestreams into ready-to-eat seafood products.

☕️ Belgian startup Koppie came out of stealth and announced a pre-seed round led by Nucleus Capital, with participation from Mudcake, Rockstart, and several angel investors, to scale its patent-pending fermentation and roasting technology that transforms pulses into alt-coffee beans for commercial use.

🚀 The EU-backed EIT Food’s RisingFoodStars programme announced 16 agrifoodtech startups for its 2025 cohort, supporting innovations in alternative proteins, sustainable agriculture, and eco-friendly packaging.

Biodiversity x Climate

🪸 During the production of ‘Ocean with David Attenborough’, researchers discovered an ‘exceptionally well preserved’ pink sea fan reef off the southwest coast of England, that is ‘teeming with marine life’.

Carbon x Climate

🌫️ Berlin-based carbon intelligence startup Climatiq raised €10 million in a Series A round led by Alstin Capital, with participation from existing investors Singular and Cherry Ventures. It will use the funds to enhance its AI-powered emissions tracking platform that integrates with enterprise software and supports accurate carbon accounting, particularly for complex scope 3 emissions.

Construction x Climate

🏠 Berlin-based Enter raised €20 million in a Series B funding round led by returning investors Coatue, Target Global, noa, Partech, and Foundamental, with new backing from Schneider Electric’s SE Ventures, to scale its AI-powered platform for energy-efficient building renovations across Germany.

Energy x Climate

⚡️ TerraPower, a US-based nuclear startup founded and backed by Bill Gates, secured $650 million in a new funding round led by existing investors Gates and HD Hyundai, with participation from Nvidia’s NVentures, to support construction of its first commercial Natrium power plant in Wyoming.

🔌 German digital green energy provider Ostrom raised €20 million Series B funding, in a round led by Eneco Ventures, with participation from SE Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Adjacent, Übermorgen, and J12, to scale its smart meter adoption, expand its NeoGrid™ Virtual Power Plant, and advance its AI-driven sustainable energy platform.

🏢 Paris-based electrification startup DejaBlue secured $8 million seed funding to expand its AI-powered energy optimisation platform for commercial buildings and fleets, with backing from investors including Lowercarbon Capital, Transition, Giant Ventures, and MCJ Collective.

🪫 Oslo-based IoT startup ONiO raised €5 million in a funding round led by Stockholm’s node.vc and co-led by Helsinki’s Maki.vc, with support from existing investors EIC Fund and MP Pension, to scale production of ONiO.zero, its ultra-low-power microcontroller that operates entirely on ambient energy without batteries.

🔋 Nascent Materials, based in New Jersey, raised $2.3 million in a seed funding round led by SOSV, with participation from the New Jersey Innovation Evergreen Fund and UM6P Ventures, to develop a more cost-effective and energy-dense process for producing lithium-ion battery cathode materials using local raw inputs and simplified supply chains.

💨 US-based Gold H2 achieved a breakthrough by producing clean hydrogen from a retired oilfield without electrolysis or new drilling, delivering hydrogen at under $0.50/kg and marking a potential new blueprint for repurposing legacy oil assets worldwide.

🏭 New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced plans for a new state-developed nuclear power plant generating at least 1 gigawatt of electricity, as part of efforts to reduce fossil fuel use and meet growing energy demands.

♻️ Redwood Materials launched Redwood Energy to repurpose retired EV batteries into grid-scale storage, starting with a 12 MW solar-powered microgrid powering Crusoe's AI data center, backed by over $2 billion in funding and partnerships with firms like Toyota, Panasonic, and GM.

🍃 US startup Airloom Energy is developing a low-cost, compact wind system, and is now breaking ground on a pilot site in Wyoming, with plans to deliver commercial-scale deployments by 2027–2028 to meet growing demand from sectors like data centers and the military.

📍 Take a look: Revent publishes the infratech market map.

🐎 Opinion: Are investors betting on the wrong hydrogen horses?

Funds x Climate

💰 Berlin- and London-based venture capital firm Project A raised £278 million for its fifth fund, to support pre-seed and seed-stage European startups in sectors like fintech, global supply chains, and autonomous work.

🇸🇪 Stockholm-based Norrsken Foundation committed €300 million from its VC, Accelerator, and Launcher funds to invest in European startups using ‘AI for good’ to address challenges in climate, health, food, education, and society.

💎 Save this: The hidden gem of a Family Office Investor List.

👀 Good read: Jennifer Kan outlined some alternative opportunities to fund science, amidst funding cuts and grant freezes.

Materials x Climate

♻️ California-based Novoloop raised $21 million in a Series B funding round led by Taranis, with participation from Valo Ventures and Shop Limited, to scale up its commercial production of Lifecycled TPU, an upcycled material made from polyethylene plastic waste.

🧴 Danish industrial biotech startup Cellugy secured €8.1 million from the EU's LIFE Programme to scale up production of its cellulose-based EcoFLEXY, a sustainable alternative to fossil-based microplastic rheology modifiers used in personal care products.

⛏️ Australia launched the $10 million Green Metals Innovation Network, led by CSIRO and funded by the government, to accelerate domestic green metals production by uniting research, industry, and government in advancing low-carbon technologies for the iron, steel, alumina, and aluminium sectors.

🧶 Swedish textile recycling startup Syre announced strategic partnerships with Gap Inc., Houdini Sportswear, and Target, as it aims to accelerate the adoption of circular polyester and scale textile-to-textile recycling globally, beginning with its first plant in North Carolina set to produce 10,000 metric tons annually by 2026.

🇦🇺 Australia had planned its biggest packaging regulation overhaul in 25 years with mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility by 2026 to boost plastic recycling from 13% to 70%, but the government has now decided not to proceed with mandatory EPR.

🪵 Finland-based Stora Enso has developed Lignode®, a sustainable battery anode material made from lignin, a wood byproduct, offering an eco-friendly alternative to fossil fuel-based graphite and helping reduce carbon emissions in battery production.

🧵 Good Watch: How the future of leather could run on a 72-hour design cycle.

Mobility x Climate

🚇 Turning old subway cars into biodiversity hotspots 🚇

🛰️ Cool: Tsung Xu built a 3D-printed VTOL drone that can fly 130 miles

Water x Climate

🪻 Researchers have created a new water purifier inspired by the water hyacinth plant, using sunlight and TiO₂-coated porous substrates to clean pollutants and nanoplastics from water, according to a study published in the journal npj | Clean Water.

▶️ Good watch: A tower that makes 100 liters of clean drinking water a day from thin air.

🏭 Video: The world’s first AI underwater data center.

Big Oil x Climate

⛈️ The Met Office has launched their latest campaign to name the next storms.

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola