📈 ClimateHack Vol 101: Are the good times back?

Hi There,

Today’s edition is coming to your live from the backstage of the HackSummit. Over 1,000+ founders and funders have joined us over the last week in Lausanne Switzerland for networking among the climate tech elite.

One thing thats in stark contrast from the previous year is that it feels like the good times are back. While in 2023 funds were doing all they could to avoid eye contact with eager startups, this year both sides have come in full force ready to meet and mingle.

As always the activity outside of the main event is where the real magic happens, from the private dinners in the hills with exclusive guest-lists (which even I wasn’t invited to) to the afterwork drinks taking over the terraces of the local bars and running well into the morning.

There’s something truly special about in-person events. And even more so when you’re surrounded by the Swiss mountains and lakeside. People are more relaxed than at a big city event, and the discussions flow while lifelong deals are being made.

Check out some of the attendees highlights from Day 1 here.

In Today’s Edition;

 🍚 Agri-fintech platform AgriG8 received financing to help rice farmers in Asia reduce their methane emissions by up to 55%.
🇩🇪 Munich-based Vsquared Ventures, closed its second oversubscribed fund of €214M to back deep tech companies across Europe.
🔋 San Diego-based Unigrid raised $12M for its energy-dense, safe sodium-ion battery chemistry that is free of critical and rare materials.

AgriFood x Climate

🍚 Agri-fintech platform AgriG8 received financing from Singaporean VC Better Bite Ventures and The Trendlines Group for its gamified platform, designed to help rice farmers in Asia reduce their methane emissions by up to 55%.

🔎 The Ancient Environmental Genomics Initiative for Sustainability project has been awarded $85 million over seven years to explore how traits in ancient environmental DNA could support next-generation climate-resilient crops.

🇦🇺 The government of Victoria, Australia is doubling the size of its early-stage agtech fund to $2 million, to help drive innovation in the state’s agriculture industry and create new technologies to help farmers improve their efficiency.

🇦🇪 Abu Dhabi launched the AgriFood Growth and Water Abundance hub, a new economic cluster to develop novel foods and alternative proteins, with the aim of tackling food insecurity and water shortages.

🇺🇸 The US Department of Defense released a call for proposals to develop sustainable food and material solutions for military operations, including cultivated and precision fermentation proteins.

🏭 Mycorena is discontinuing its large-scale production facility for its mycoprotein ingredient, claiming that “investors are hesitant to back projects with heavy capital requirements”.

Carbon x Climate

🤝 RepAir Carbon Capture announced a partnership with EnEarth, a subsidiary of Energean, to capture and store carbon in Greece. Starting in 2026, the new site will be able to service up to three million tonnes of CO2 per year for 25 years.

Construction x Climate

🏡 Amsterdam-based Haaven raised €1.1 million in a pre-seed round led by Speedinvest to make the process of sustainable home building more affordable and stress-free. Its platform oversees the entire process, ensuring “support for the customer and accountability for the construction companies”.

Energy x Climate

🦍 Gorilla, based in Belgium, secured €23 million in a Series B funding round led by Headline. Its cloud-based platform helps energy providers across Europe, the US and Australia to process enormous amounts of energy data, to help improve efficiency.

🔋 San Diego-based Unigrid raised $12 million Series A funding for its energy-dense, safe sodium-ion battery chemistry that is free of critical and rare materials.

🌎 UK-based Rendesco, which develops, builds, operates and provides access to funding for geothermal networks and ground source heat pump technology, secured £6 million to support its international expansion plans.

📈 French startup Kelvin, which uses computer vision and machine learning to make it easier to audit homes for energy efficiency, raised €4.7 million to scale its operations and become the go-to tool for construction companies, the real estate industry or even financial institutions.

🏭 US startup EnerVenue is raising $515 million to build a gigawatt-scale factory in Kentucky for its alternative to lithium-ion batteries for long-duration renewable energy storage.

🦠 University of Bath spinout Bactery has developed bacteria-powered batteries, which it calls ‘Bacteries’, that harness energy from the metabolic activity of specific microorganisms known as electrigens, naturally present in soil.

♻️ Aepnus Technology is creating a circular economy for key battery manufacturing materials, using electrolysers to split the sodium suplhate in wastewater from battery factories into sulphuric acid and caustic soda.

🤝 M&A: Hometree Group acquired UK-based IMS Heat Pumps Limited, which supplies and installs ground source, air source and water source heat pumps for new build, renovation and retro-fit projects.

Materials x Climate

💾 German startup Black Semiconductor secured €254.4 million Series A funding, marking one of the largest-ever funding rounds for a European chip manufacturing company. It will use the funds to build its pilot line, with the aim of achieving mass production in 2031.

🌿 British startup Kelpi raised £4.3 million in an oversubscribed funding round led by Blackfinch Ventures. It will use the funds to scale and commercialise its seaweed-based packaging, designed to replace single-use plastics in packaging for food, drinks, and personal care products.

💄 London-based Radiant Matter secured £1.2 million in a funding round featuring Ada Ventures. It is developing high performance shimmer- and colour-effects from plant-based cellulose, designed for use across sectors including automotive, cosmetics, textiles, coatings and packaging.

🛩 UK startup iCOMAT raised $22.5 million, in a Series A funding round led by 8VC and the NATO Innovation Fund, to scale its advanced carbon fibre composites for the aerospace, automotive and defence industries.

Mobility x Climate

🚎 British startup Zenobē raised £600 million from KKR for its batteries, which capture renewable energy, balance its supply on the grid and transport it to electric vehicles.

🚗 Berlin-based Cardino secured €4 million, in a seed funding round led by Point Nine, to accelerate its used EV sales model, leveraging a solid network of trusted dealers across Europe via its digital platform.

Water x Climate

🌊 French startup vorteX-io raised €2.9 million for its innovative real-time hydrological data service, which offers businesses flood risk alerts and tools for water resource optimisation.

Funds x Climate

🇩🇪 Vsquared Ventures, based in Munich, closed its second fund with €214 million. It will invest across six themes: AI and next-gen software, energy transition, new computing and sensing, space, tech bio and robotics and manufacturing, and has already made eight investments, including lithium-ion battery recycling startup Cylib.

🇺🇸 New York-based Collaborative Fund raised $125 million for its sixth flagship fund, with which it will support startups focused on addressing changing consumer spending habits, working across climate, health, and food tech.

🇩🇰 Denmark’s Blackwood Venturessecured €14 million at the second closing of its Fund I, to support early-stage European startups working within fintech, web 3.0, and cleantech.

🇺🇸 New investment firm CurvePoint Capital, backed by Aegon Asset Management, launched with the aim of advancing growth-stage companies working within climate finance.

Climate x Memes

No Memes today. Sorry! Check back next week.

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola