💫 ClimateHack Vol 119: $125M to advance scalable fusion reactors.

Hi There,

Ever wonder what all those Climate Tech Venture Studios that recently popped up are working on?

Well, we asked them.

Here’s the 18 solutions that five top climate tech studios are building next, from solutions in geothermal energy to supercooling technology.

In this week’s edition ;

🌿 San Diego-based Plantible Foods raised $30M Series B funding to expand its versatile plant-based protein.
💫 UK-based Tokamak Energy, raised $125M in funding to advance its technology for more efficient and scalable fusion reactors.
🛰 European space startup The Exploration Company raised over €150M Series B funding to advance its reusable and cost-effective spacecraft.

AgriFood x Climate

🍓 Vertical farming company Oishii closed its Series B round with $150 million, with new investors Resilience Reserve and Miyako Capital joining existing backers, as it prepares for its first international expansion with a new centre in Tokyo.

🌿 San Diego-based Plantible Foods raised $30 million Series B funding to expand manufacturing and meet the "insatiable" demand for its versatile plant-based protein, which it extracts from duckweed. 

🌾 BiocSol raised €5.2 million in a seed funding round led by Agri Investment Fund and VIVES IUF. It specialises in microbial-based biopesticides for sustainable crop protection, and is developing reliable and cost-effective solutions for challenges like mildew.

🍖 Dutch cultivated meat company Meatable secured a strategic investment from Betagro Ventures, the venture capital arm of Thailand-based agri-industrial giant Betagro, to accelerate its growth and market presence in Asia and explore co-development projects and strategic partnerships across the region.

🌳 Denmark finalised a landmark deal to implement a livestock emissions tax and allocate 43 billion Danish kroner ($6.1 billion) to convert farmland into forests, aiming to plant a billion trees over the next two decades for a greener agriculture sector.

🦆 Australian cultivated meat startup Vow has become the first to meet Hong Kong's safety requirements for cultivated meat and will debut its cultured foie gras, Forged Gras, at The Aubrey in the Mandarin Oriental, making it the first startup to sell multiple cultivated meat products into multiple markets.

🇪🇺 Impossible Foods received a positive safety assessment from the European Food Safety Authority for its genetically modified heme ingredient, marking a key milestone toward bringing its plant-based products, including the Impossible Burger, to the European market.

Carbon x Climate

🤝 Microsoft and the Royal Bank of Canada have committed to pre-purchasing 10,000 metric tons of carbon over 10 years from Deep Sky, a DAC project in Alberta hosting eight startups in a collaborative-yet-competitive effort to optimise carbon removal technologies.

Chemicals x Climate

🚗 MIT spinout Emvolon is repurposing automotive engines into modular chemical plants to convert methane into liquid fuels like methanol and ammonia, enabling on-site production and easy transport in standard containers.

🔊 Sonichem is using patented ultrasound technology to extract natural compounds from forestry co-products, with the aim of replacing petrochemical-derived ingredients in industries like cosmetics, packaging, and pharmaceuticals.

Energy x Climate

💫 UK-based Tokamak Energy, Europe’s best-funded nuclear fusion startup, raised $125 million in a funding round led by East X Ventures and Lingotto Investment Management to advance its high-temperature superconducting magnet technology for more efficient and scalable fusion reactors.

⛽️ Swedish eFuel developer Liquid Wind raised €44 million Series C funding, in a round led by Uniper, HYCAP Fund I SCSp, and Samsung Ventures, to accelerate the development of ten eFuel facilities by 2027 and expand to 500 globally by 2050.

⚡️ Dublin startup GridBeyond secured €11.25 million from Triodos Energy Transition Europe Fund to expand their GridBeyond Storage joint venture, designed to accelerate battery energy storage rollout in the UK and Ireland and explore EV charging and solar PV projects for commercial and industrial customers.

☀️ Good Energy has partnered with GRYD Energy to integrate its decentralised solar network, allowing excess solar energy from GRYD’s smart systems to power UK households, starting with a pilot in Cornwall, as part of Good Energy’s push to expand solar-focused decentralised energy services.

🧑‍🔬 International scientists, including a team from Heriot-Watt University, are developing a groundbreaking technology inspired by photosynthesis to convert sunlight into laser beams for wireless power transmission across satellites, lunar bases, and Earth, potentially transforming space exploration and sustainable energy solutions.

🏭 Nuclear startup Kairos Power has received US regulatory approval to construct two test reactors in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, marking a key milestone following its deal to supply 500 megawatts of electricity to Google data centres.

Funds x Climate

🇩🇪 Extantia Capital closed its Article 9 fund with €204 million to invest in high-impact early-stage startups developing software and hardware solutions that will drive “significant change” within climate innovation.

🇦🇺 Australia’s largest dedicated climate tech investor, Virescent, secured $125 million in commitments for its Fund II, with support from QIC, Westpac, and CEFC, to drive investments in clean energy, sustainable agriculture, circular economy, and smart cities.

🇩🇪 Nucleus Capital launched a €40 million fund, which is already nearly 90% subscribed, to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage companies rethinking food and industrial production through synthetic biology, aiming to move beyond what it sees as the increasingly generic climate tech focus.

🇳🇱 Amsterdam-based Move Energy’s Fund I secured a €35 million commitment from the European Investment Fund to support companies focused on accelerating the energy transition by decarbonising power, transport, and buildings.

🇬🇧 The UK’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology launched the Manchester Prize to support UK-led AI innovations to accelerate electricity grid decarbonisation by 2030, offering up to 10 finalists £100,000 in seed funding, with a £1 million grand prize for scalable solutions in 2026.

Materials x Climate

🧳 Faircraft, based in Paris, raised €15 million to scale its cellular agriculture technology for lab-grown leather, addressing the growing demand for sustainable alternatives.

🔋 Aachen-based IonKraft, a spinout of RWTH Aachen University, raised €3.5 million, in a funding round co-led by M Ventures and TechVision Fund, to scale production and market its plasma-based recyclable barrier coatings for the packaging industry.

👟 The ECOFAP Project, led by AIMPLAS and partners, is developing a 3D printing material from recycled natural leather waste from the footwear industry to create sustainable components like soles and heels for fashion, textiles, and footwear.

🔋 European battery manufacturer Northvolt has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, entering a restructuring process expected to complete by Q1 2025.

Mobility x Climate

🛰 European space startup The Exploration Company raised over €150 million Series B funding to advance its reusable and cost-effective spacecraft Nyx, which aims to make space exploration more accessible and sustainable by offering competitive cargo capabilities at reduced costs.

🔌 Ample secured $25 million from Mitsubishi Corporation to scale its operations. It is pioneering EV battery swapping for commercial fleets, and is aiming to expand from pilot programs to commercial contracts with hundreds of stations and thousands of vehicles by 2025.

⛴ Swedish electric passenger boat startup Candela secured an additional $14 million and sold its first hydrofoiling ferry in the US, destined for use on Lake Tahoe, as it continues to advance its stable, energy-efficient watercraft technology.

🛩 Sydney startup AMSL Aero has advanced its plans to launch its emissions-free Vertiia eVTOL aircraft by 2027, following over 50 remote-controlled test flights in the past fortnight showcasing its 1,000km range, hydrogen-powered technology, and capacity to carry four passengers at 300km/h.

Videos x Climate

 🦜 I could watch this all day..

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola