🪨 ClimateHack Vol 128: Turning rocks into carbon-free hydrogen

Hi There,

Is Europe’s Climate Tech moment here? This week we caught up with 10 VC Partners who think so, as they reveal why they are betting big on Europe’s Climate edge.

Tl;dr: The market in Europe is maturing, new industrial-scale projects are being built, there’s a growing focus on tech with serious economic upside and a thriving ecosystem to support fresh talent.

And for builders looking to Europe for their next investor, here’s a cheatsheet on 120 VC Partners to Know - you’re welcome.

In this week’s edition:

🚚 Hydrogen electric trucking startup faces bankruptcy
🪸 Scaling seaweed-based, non-toxic fashion dye technology
🔋Building Europe’s largest decentralized battery storage network

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Global electricity demand is projected to grow 4% annually through 2027, according to International Energy Agency forecasts, driven by industry, data centers, and air conditioning, requiring new capacity equivalent to Japan’s total generation each year.

💰 Hamburg-based 1KOMMA5° achieved a record €520 million in revenue for 2024, growing organic sales by 36% while remaining debt-free and expanding its AI-driven energy platform.

📉 What’s down? New research from Trojan Electronics reveals that high repair costs and restricted access to spare parts prevent over half of consumers from fixing broken electronics, hindering sustainability efforts.

👎 Hydrogen electric trucking startup Nikola Corp. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after failing to secure funding or a buyer, and is planning to auction its assets.

👀 Sightline Climate’s Working Capital Playbook goes deep on under-appreciated financing instruments and the when, what, and how to wield them.

🇪🇺 World Fund’s latest report highlights Climate Tech as a critical pillar of European resilience.

🇪🇸 Come and join us at a (free) ClimateHack Meetup, taking place next in Barcelona.

AgriFood x Climate

🍫 Zurich-based Food Brewer, which produces cocoa via plant cell culture, raised a $5.6 million seed extension round with strategic investments from Lindt & Sprüngli and Puratos’ Sparkalis to scale sustainable cocoa production.

🍗 Germany’s Kynda secured €3 million to scale up its fermentation technology and expand production of mycoprotein-based meat made from upcycled food waste, with its new factory set to open in Q2 2025.

🇪🇸 Spanish biomass fermentation startup MOA Foodtech secured a €2.3 million grant from the European Innovation Council accelerator program and a conditional €12.5 million equity investment from the EIC Fund to advance its AI platform, develop proprietary ingredients, and scale its sustainable yeast-based food solutions.

🇯🇵 Kinish, based in Japan, raised $800,000 seed funding to advance its molecular farming technology. It is developing a proprietary rice plant that produces casein for sustainable dairy alternatives.

💸 Steakholder Foods received a third installment of $250,000 from the Singapore-Israel Industrial R&D Foundation, bringing its total funding to $740,000 of a $1 million grant, in recognition of its advancements in 3D-printed meat and fish alternatives, particularly improvements in the flavour and texture of its 3D-printed eel.

Carbon x Climate

🤝 Amazon, Exxon, and Microsoft have joined a Bipartisan Policy Center task force aimed at restoring credibility to voluntary carbon markets, as companies increasingly rely on offsets to meet climate targets amid rising emissions.

Construction x Climate

🏙️ Hamburg-based Reneo secured a €600 million capital platform and formed a joint venture with Peakside Capital to deploy €500 million in debt and equity for large-scale residential real estate decarbonisation, using a tech-driven, cost-efficient approach to enhance energy efficiency and upgrade underutilised spaces.

🌳 Peek inside: The circular building that recycles air, redefines urban living and has a rooftop running track.

Energy x Climate

🏡 Swedish startup Elvy secured $3.5 million in equity and $150 million in debt funding to scale its unique 15-year energy tariff model, which provides free home energy assets and profits from energy arbitrage.

💥 SMR startup Valar Atomics raised $19 million seed funding to develop its first test reactor and scale its helium-cooled high-temperature gas reactors through mass production at ‘gigasites,’ aiming to significantly reduce nuclear reactor costs by moving away from bespoke construction.

⚡️ Extantia co-led a $13 million seed round for Vema Hydrogen, which is developing a novel process to produce low-cost, clean hydrogen (<$1/kg) by enhancing natural subsurface reactions, offering a scalable solution for decarbonising hard-to-abate industries.

🔋 Scale Energy, Germany’s leading industrial battery storage developer, raised €2 million seed funding to expand across Germany and accelerate the deployment of fully funded battery storage solutions that reduce costs, stabilise operations, and support decarbonisation.

📉 Swedish gigafactory Northvolt has sold its industrial battery division, Systems Industrial, to truck manufacturer Scania as part of a broader effort to divest non-core businesses and stabilise its operations following bankruptcy.

🎓 Researchers at Tohoku University have developed Ru3Zn0.85W0.15Ox (RZW), a ternary oxide catalyst that enhances stability and efficiency in acidic oxygen evolution reactions, advancing green hydrogen production.

Fintech x Climate

⚡️ ElectronX raised $10 million to build an electricity exchange that allows intraday trading, helping buyers and sellers hedge volatility and manage financial risks in the renewable energy market.

Materials x Climate

⛏️ METYCLE, a digital platform for international secondary metal trade, secured €14.1 million Series A funding to enhance its AI-driven metal recycling technology, streamline transactions, and improve market transparency.

🔌 Australian startup Banksia Minerals Processing raised $1.05 million seed funding to commercialise a low-cost, energy-efficient electrochemical process for extracting copper from low-grade resources, helping to reduce reliance on China’s production.

🎨 Sustainable dye startup SeaDyes has joined the James Hutton Institute as a spin-in company, securing £75,000 from Scottish Enterprise to scale its seaweed-based, non-toxic dye technology as an eco-friendly alternative to synthetic dyes in the fashion industry.

👕 Toyota Ventures has invested in Tereform, a Denver-based startup developing a cost-competitive and energy-efficient chemical recycling process for polyester, enabling circularity in textiles by breaking down mixed feedstocks without extensive preprocessing.

🎬 Good watch: Inside MycoWorks’ first commercial-scale facility in South Carolina.

Mobility x Climate

🚲 UK-based FLIT, which makes folding electric bikes, raised £1.2 million from ACF Investors, Cambridge Angels, and Tony Purnell to advance its ultra-compact, lightweight, no-weld design and expand urban mobility solutions.

⚓️ AIMPLAS has joined the EU-funded REFEST project to retrofit traditional fishing fleets with low-cost technologies, aiming to cut fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 40%.

🚗 Why cars are out, and biking is in, in Paris.

New Job x Climate

Easing into the new job at a Climate Startup.

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola