ClimateHack Vol 110: The German Climate Tech Boom

Hi There,

Whoever said Germany bureaucracy killed the countries startup ecosystem clearly spoke too soon.

We tracked a total of 300M+ in new funding this week towards German climate tech companies and funds, from cheese-free-cheese to DAC facilities.

It’s probably no surprise that the country often known for its high quality manufacturing industry now also has a booming climate hardtech scene. It also doesn’t hurt that Berlin is home to some of the most active climate tech VC’s in Europe.

For all you non-German readers, don’t worry, there’s plenty of other global climate tech news from this week to catch up on, so let’s jump right in.

In Today’s Edition;

⛏ Colorado-based Endolith raised $5.13M in seed funding to help miners extract more copper from their mines.
🏭 Berlin-based Ucaneo, €6.75M in seed funding to build one of the largest DAC testing and development facilities in Germany.
🌊 Amsterdam-based Brineworks raised €2M for its seawater electrolysis technology for cost-effective CO2 and hydrogen extraction.

Digest x Climate

💸 Climate Tech Syndicates are on the rise. Groups of angel investors (often active or exited founders and operators) that are providing the much needed early stage capital, and expertise to emerging companies. To help you navigate the who’s who, we pulled together this list of 20+ active Climate Tech syndicates and what they’re investing in.

📈 What’s up? A report by Congruent Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank reveals that the “most promising” climate tech companies are hardware startups.

📉 What’s down? Seattle-based carbon credit startup Nori announced that it has officially closed its doors, citing a tough funding climate and a stagnant Voluntary Carbon Market.

👀 Useful: Extantia and HV Capital just launched the largest open-source global Offtake Directory. Check it out here.

🎧 Cool: Gianlucà Manago on how making tiny design tweaks can lead to significant carbon emissions reductions.

✍️ Apply: Applications are open for the Inflection Award, which will select 30 young PhDs or PhD students across the globe working on research with “massive climate impact potential”.

🎟 Hurry: +20% of tickets to the HackSummit in New York are gone. Lock in the best rates to come join us, and 500+ others, on 12-13th December for 2 days of the most productive networking and deal-making you’ll have all year.

AgriFood x Climate

🧀 Germany’s Formo secured $61 million Series B funding for its animal-free cheeses made via microbial fermentation, which it just launched into more than 2,000 Rewe, Billa and Metro stores across the country.

🥩 Barcelona-based Novameat closed its oversubscribed Series A funding round with €17.4 million. It will use the funds to further expand its 3D-printed product range, which includes a new, improved shredded plant-based beef.

🌾 US biotech Switch Bioworks raised $17 million seed funding for its low-cost and sustainable fertilisers, made by engineering symbiotic, nitrogen-fixing microbes that live on plant roots.

🧑‍🌾 Belgian startup Soil Capital secured €15 million, in a Series B funding round led by Trill Impact Ventures, to help farmers improve soil health with its agronomic support for regenerative agriculture practices.

🪰 Scottish agritech Solasta Bio raised $14 million to further develop its “nature-inspired”, peptide-based insecticide, designed to meet industry efficacy standards whilst being more environmentally friendly than conventional options.

🧪 Copenhagen-based REDUCED raised €8 million Series A funding, with support from the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, for its upcycled food ingredient tech platform.

🐄 Australia’s Number 8 Bio raised $7 million seed funding to reduce livestock methane production. Its feed additives include compounds designed to modify the animal's metabolism, promoting growth and optimising energy utilisation.

🌿 Australian startup Algenie, launched by v2food founder Nick Hazell, came out of stealth with funding from Better Bite Ventures for its photobioreactors that can create sustainable fuels, bioplastics and feed from algae.

🧀 Vegan cheesemaker Climax Foods secured bridge funding from existing investors, and claims it will fund its operations through to the end of 2024 after a “challenging period”.

❌ Impossible Foods has settled its legal dispute with Motif FoodWorks and is set to take over its heme business. Motif FoodWorks announced that it is shutting down its operations.

🔎 The USDA is targeting greenwashing with updated labelling guidelines which ensure that claims like ‘climate-friendly’ and ‘humanely-raised’ on meat labels are backed up with third-party verification.

Biodiversity x Climate

🌳 Open Forest Protocol closed its seed funding round, led by Übermorgen Ventures, for its no-cost, open-source system for carbon credit verification and issuance.

🌲 BioTara AG secured investment from Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees, for its partnership model which fosters sustainability and safeguards rainforests. 

Carbon x Climate

🏭 Berlin-based Ucaneo, which specialises in direct air capture technologies for CO2 removal, raised €6.75 million in seed funding, including grants, to build one of the largest DAC testing and development facilities in Germany.

⛴ London-based Signol secured £2.5 million to apply behavioural science in reducing emissions in the shipping and aviation industries. The company claims that its approach, which focuses on optimising human decision-making without altering the technology or physical aspects of ships and aircraft, has already helped save over 100,000 metric tonnes of CO2 in these sectors.

🤝 Microsoft purchased approximately 234,000 tons of carbon removal from Mexican startup Toroto, which specialises in rainforest restoration, to support the restoration of up to 47,000 hectares of tropical rainforest.

Energy x Climate

🏭 Germany’s Reverion raised $62 million Series A funding for its carbon-negative biogas power plant, which generates power from agricultural waste and is up to 80% more efficient than existing biogas plants.

🔋 Australian battery storage startup Allegro Energy secured $17.5 million Series A funding, in a round led by The Grantham Foundation, to build an 800 kWh pilot storage plant for its water-based Redox Flow Batteries.

👨‍🔧 SaaS startup Reonic, based in Germany, raised €13 million in a Series A funding round led by Northzone. Its software platform is designed to support renewables installers from end-to-end, helping them sell more and faster.

💻 London-based tem, an AI-powered transactions platform enabling UK businesses to purchase energy directly from renewable generators at lower costs than traditional fossil fuels, raised £10.5 million in a Series A funding round led by European VC Atomico.

🛢 C-Zero secured $5 million at the first close of its $18 million funding round. It is developing a way to strip hydrogen from methane, without emitting carbon dioxide, for use in a wide range of industries.

💨 Norway’s Vind.AI closed its seed funding round, led by Norrsken VC, with €3 million. Its online platform is designed for the early stages of wind project development, up to the pre-feed phase, ensuring comprehensive modelling of all potential scenarios before the construction process begins.

⚡️ Ogre AI, a Romanian-British energy tech startup specialising in data science and AI-driven forecasting solutions for the energy sector, secured €3 million in a funding round led by VERBUND X Ventures to further expand its operations.

🌡 Belgian startup Zero Friction secured €2.5 million, in a funding round led by Shift Invest, for its billing and customer interaction platform for heating and cooling suppliers, designed to accelerate the heat transition across Europe.

🔎 Wattnow, based in Tunisia, closed a “multi-million dollar” funding round led by Lateral Frontiers VC and 216 Capital Ventures. Its tech platform helps energy businesses to manage their energy use by monitoring energy consumption in real time and alerting when issues arise.

🌊 Amsterdam-based Brineworks raised €2 million in a funding round led by VC firm Pale blue dot. The company’s seawater electrolysis technology facilitates the sustainable and cost-effective extraction of CO2 and hydrogen from the ocean, and is aimed at supporting large-scale e-fuel production and decarbonising high-emission industries such as maritime and aviation.

☀️ Portuguese startup Bling Energy secured €2 million seed funding for its solar energy subscription model, which makes solar more accessible by eliminating the need for upfront investments.

🧂 UK-based Sunamp has developed a way to store solar power as heat, using three compounds: sodium acetate trihydrate, a food flavouring used in salt-and-vinegar crisps; water; and a sprinkling of “crystal habit modifiers”.

Fuel x Climate

🏭 Brookfield Asset Management has committed up to $1.1 billion to Infinium, a green hydrogen-based e-fuels producer, with over $200 million allocated to its second large-scale facility in the US. The new facility, Project Roadrunner, is expected to produce ten times the fuel of its first, Project Pathfinder.

🧪 Yale spinout Oxylus Energy raised $4.5 million seed funding to refine the production of green methanol, destined for use by the chemical industry to make a range of widely used chemicals, or even sustainable aviation fuel.

Funds x Climate

🇩🇪 AENU secured €170 million to support early-stage startups within the energy technology and carbon economy sectors, with a specific focus on German-speaking countries, along with the UK, Denmark and Sweden.

🇳🇱 Dutch VC SET Ventures closed its fourth fund with €200 million to support 20-25 Series A European startups making renewable energy more mainstream. Its portfolio includes German digital heat management startup Vilisto and enterprise-grade portable charging company Instagrid.

🇺🇸 MCJ raised $80.6 million for its second fund, with which it will support startups working to support the energy and industry transition, including the likes of limestone-based carbon removal company Heirloom and water-risk forecaster Waterplan.

🇬🇧 UK VC Atomico announced two new funds totalling €1.12 billion, marking its largest-ever fundraising effort, with which it will support startups working for “positive transformation across our society and economy”.

🇬🇧 The UK’s Royal Academy of Engineering introduced new Green Future Fellowships, aiming to award £150 million over the next five years to support 50 of the nation’s most promising ideas and scalable technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change.

🇺🇸 New VC Raisewell Ventures launched to support companies working across climate tech, manufacturing and supply chain, and health tech, with an emphasis on the US and Southeast Asia.

🇪🇸 The Adara Ventures Energy Fund secured €35 million from the European Investment Fund to support early-stage deeptech startups developing data solutions and components to support the energy transition.

🇳🇴 Norway’s Deep Blue Fund I secured investment from MOL Plus to help support the country’s blue economy.

🇩🇰 Look Up Ventures has partnered with Giant Ventures to represent Giant in Denmark and the Nordics, focusing on early-stage investments in climate tech.

Materials x Climate

👕 Paris-based Calyxia raised $35 million Series B funding. Its microcapsule and microparticle solutions can be added to other materials to improve their wear-resistance, preventing microplastics from being produced through wear and tear.

🧪 US startup Galy secured $33 million in a Series B funding round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. It will use the funds to further develop its cellular agriculture platform and its flagship lab-grown cotton, made via a process that it says is ten times faster and 500 times more productive than traditional cotton farming.

🔋 Australian lithium battery recycling startup Renewable Metals secured an additional $8.1 million in its seed round, bringing total funding to $16.1 million. The company, backed by investors like Investible’s climate tech fund and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, plans to expand its UK presence and scale operations in Australia.

⛏ Colorado-based Endolith raised $5.13 million seed funding to help miners extract more copper from their mines, using ‘Olympic-calibre’ microbes to boost the volume of copper leached during the mining process.

🧱 Co-reactive, based in Germany, closed its pre-seed funding round. It transforms captured CO2 into solid materials for cement and concrete, via an innovative process for CO2 mineralisation.

Mobility x Climate

🚲 Belgian e-bike maker Cowboy raised €5 million in a funding round led by Cypress Capital. It will use the funds to accelerate its growth plans and support reaching profitability next year.

🚲 London-based Skarper secured £4.5 million to convert bicycles into e-bikes with “a single click”. Backed by sir Chris Hoy, the startup fits bikes with a portable drive system via the disc brake rotor, providing motorised assistance to the back wheel.

🚲 Belgian speed pedelec manufacturer Specter raised €2 million to support its lineup of high-performance electric bikes, including long-range models with up to 170 km of range, dual-wheel drive, and powerful motors for extended journeys.

Waste x Climate

♻️ Sweden’s Tiptapp raised €1 million to make recycling easier for urban residents. Its platform connects users who need help moving or recycling with those who have extra space in their vehicles, reducing the need for single-purpose car trips.

🤝 Dutch waste platform Seenons acquired Waste Group Denmark, whose technology helps companies optimise their waste streams through data management.

Climate x Memes

🪨 The struggle is real

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola