🏢 ClimateHack Vol 105: $10M to decarbonize real estate

Hi There,

Last week CTVC released their mid-year report covering climate tech funding activity.

The whole report is well worth a read but the big takeaway is that funding in the first six months of 2024 totaled $11.3bn, down 20% from H1’23 and down a whopping 41% from H2’23.

There are though silver linings - and I highly recommend adding it to you weekend reading list.

In Today’s Edition;

🛩 UK-based Unum Aircraft Seating raised £3.5M to develop lighter, more sustainable business-class aircraft seats.
🏢 US-Dutch Scaler raised $10M to scale its ESG data collection platform to help decarbonise the real estate industry.
🛢 Denmarks Dynelectro secured €11M to further develop its next-generation solid-oxide electrolysis to efficiently produce hydrogen.

Digest x Climate

💡 Wants vs Need: In this post Yair Reem of Extantia breaks down the hard truth climate founders need to know about scaling their solutions to industrial-levels.

🔎 Useful: August Solliv shared his recipe for building an impact VC fund thesis.

📝 Useful: First Momentum Ventures shared its deep tech hardware napkin.

🇦🇺 Trouble ahead: For at least 100 Australian climate tech startups which are at risk of shutting down in the next nine months. Here’s why.

🌿 Cool: Seawater Solutions is using rare plants that thrive in saltwater to turn salty wastelands into productive farmland. Check out the video.

🎟 Hurry: Only 20 super early bird tickets remain for the HackSummit in New York at the ridiculously low price of USD $200. While we can’t share too much just yet, we can say that the current speaker line-up includes Founders behind some of the most exciting and novel climate hardtech companies.

AgriFood x Climate

♻️ Californian startup NovoNutrients raised $18 million in a Series A funding round led by Woodside Energy and CM Venture Capital. It uses microbes to upcycle industrial CO2 waste into a sustainable protein that can be used in food and animal feed.

🪰 ByBug, based in Chile, raised $1.4 million seed funding to build a platform to produce recombinant proteins from genetically engineered black soldier flies, which it claims is a cheaper and more scalable process than using engineered microbes via precision fermentation.

🐟 Big Idea Ventures launched a new plant-based seafood company, Bayou Best Foods, using intellectual property from New Wave Foods, which shut its operations last year. It plans to initially commercialise with shrimp, with a move into other products in the future.

🍄 The Better Meat Co. secured a “no questions” letter from the FDA for its mycelium-derived Rhiza mycoprotein, reflecting that it is generally recognized as safe for human consumption.

👨‍🌾 UK convenience retailer Co-op launched a new ‘Future Farming Fund’ to support British farmers in adopting regenerative agriculture practices.

🧈 Californian startup Savor has developed a butter prototype made from CO2 and hydrogen, which it claims offers the taste and functional properties of dairy butter.

💡 Good Read: A new report by Boston Consulting Group, GFI and Synthesis Capital highlights the ways alternative protein companies can learn from the EV industry.

Carbon x Climate

🏢 US-Dutch Scaler raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by Plural. It will use the funds to scale its platform which uses machine learning, ESG data collection and reporting to help decarbonise the real estate industry. 

🏭 Paris-based Yama secured $3 million to “revolutionise Direct Air Capture” with its hybrid electrochemical technology, which enables ultra-low energy and fast-pace deployment to support large-scale carbon removal.

📊 German startup kolum raised €2.1 million pre-seed funding for its carbon regulation compliance platform, which allows EU companies to ensure they are Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism compliant.

💨 Sydney-based Fugu Carbon secured $1.67 million seed funding, in a round led by Investible, to scale production of its low-cost CO2 capture technology made from mass-manufactured parts.

🤝 Treeconomy, Nattergal and Naturalis Biodiversity Center are partnering on a first-of-its-kind purchase of carbon removal credits from a rewilding project at 100 euros per tonne. 

Energy x Climate

🛢 Danish green hydrogen company Dynelectro secured €11 million to further develop its technology, which focuses on next-generation solid-oxide electrolysis to efficiently produce hydrogen and utilise industrial waste heat and is designed to support heavy industries and chemical production.

⚡️ German startup epilot raised €10 million from Expedition Growth Capital to help transform the energy sector with its cloud-based software, designed to allow grid operators to reduce bottlenecks in workflows and connect more customers to renewable energy systems.

🏢 Orus Energy, based in Paris, secured €2.2 million in a pre-seed funding round led by b2venture, Asterion Ventures and Ring Capital. Its demand-side flexibility platform enables commercial building operators to shift energy consumption off-peak, and get paid for it.

🏡 UK-based Switchee raised £5 million to help prevent mould and lower heating bills in British homes, using its internet-connected thermostat to measure humidity, temperature, and pressure.

❌ London-based solar startup Glowb announced that it is shutting its operations, citing difficult financial circumstances and intense competition.

Materials x Climate

♻️ Canadian startup Polystyvert raised $16 million at the first close of its Series B funding round, led by Infinity Recycling. It will use the funds to establish its first commercial plant, which will tackle highly contaminated polystyrene waste, set to be operational by 2026.

🌤 Australia’s largest e-waste recycler, Sircel, secured $5 million from Kilara Capital to tackle solar panel recycling. It claims to be the only company capable of diverting up to 100% of end-of-life electronics away from landfill, whilst extracting the source materials for reuse.

📦 OSY Group received a five-figure grant from Innovate UK, to support finding new markets for its antimicrobial food packaging coating, Xtend, which leaves microscopic pins that puncture and kill microbes on packaging surfaces to help delay spoilage.

👕 Brazilian and US biotech GALY secured investment from Spanish multinational clothing company Inditex, which owns the likes of Zara and Massimo Dutti, to produce cultivated cotton from plant cells.

💡 Researchers at ETH are developing a method to recover europium from outdated fluorescent lights.

Mobility x Climate

🛩 UK-based Unum Aircraft Seating raised £3.5 million to develop lighter, more sustainable business-class aircraft seats.

🔌 Australian EV charging startup EVOS secured $4 million at the first close of its Series B funding round, as it looks to expand its manufacturing capabilities and rapidly roll out new products and software.

☀️ Dutch solar car company Squad Mobility received a grant of €1.35 million, as part of a €12 million tender won by the GIANTS consortium, to expand production of The SQUAD, a compact and affordable solar car that charges itself through an integrated solar panel on the roof.

🚑 Germany’s ERC System came out of stealth to unveil an eVTOL designed specifically for patient and casualty transport, which it claims is three times faster than an ambulance and three times cheaper than a helicopter.

🛩 Joby Aviation completed a 523-mile test flight with a hydrogen-electric prototype eVTOL, which it fitted with a liquid hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen-electric propulsion system, with water as the only by-product.

Funds x Climate

🇮🇸 Iceland’s Frumtak Ventures closed its fourth fund with $87 million to support startups developing software, AI, and deep tech in industries such as ocean tech, logistics, healthcare, travel, energy, climate, and gender equality.

🇺🇸 US-based bioinnovation platform Flagship Pioneering raised $3.6 billion, bringing its total assets under management to $14 billion, to create 25 impact-driven companies in human health, sustainability, and artificial intelligence.

🇪🇺 Kembara Fund I FCR secured €350 million from the European Investment Fund, with which it will support growth-stage companies focused on deeptech and climate, mainly across Germany, Spain, France, and Sweden.

🇳🇱 Dutch VC LUMO Labs launched a €100 million fund to support impact-driven European startups working with technologies such as AI, blockchain, IoT, VR, and AR to serve LUMO Labs’s focus areas of Good Health & Wellbeing, Quality Education, Sustainable Cities & Communities, and Climate Action.

Memes x Climate  

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola