🐭 ClimateHack Vol 130: Are woolly mice the fur-ture of de-extinction?

Hi There,

According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics, less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women - a gap that creates dangerous blind spots in climate research and innovation.

On the upside, here at Hack we tracked 45 women turning PhD research into scientific breakthroughs. And as a result, are working on real-world solutions in carbon capture and utilisation, renewable energy, biomining, synthetic biology, green chemistry, and bio-manufacturing.

With International Women’s Day just around the corner, there’s surely no better time to get to know these female entrepreneur scientists:

In this week’s edition:

💥 €32m to build a demonstrator for a fusion reactor
🇨🇴 Colombia's first biochar-based carbon removal credit
🧫 Engineering enzymes to break down plastic waste into valuable chemicals

The Digest

📈 What’s up? An MIT-led study has confirmed that the Antarctic ozone layer is healing, primarily due to global efforts to reduce ozone-depleting substances.

📉 What’s down? Solar installer Sunnova has issued a "going concern" warning as it faces a cash shortage, with its stock down 68% amid bankruptcy concerns and plans to refinance debt and cut costs.

💡 Good Read: Sifted asks: how many climate VCs will manage to raise a second fund?

❓ Opinion: Is it okay to charge a premium when a novel technology is entering the market.

🙋🏾‍♀️ 770+ Women in Climate to Know. Plus add yourself/a colleague here.

AgriFood x Climate

🌾 Decibel Bio emerged from stealth with $12 million in funding to develop the world's first crop epigenetic platform, enabling farmers to reprogram plant traits in real time for improved yield, efficiency, and resilience to environmental stresses without genetic modification.

​🧬 Avalo, a North Carolina-based startup specialising in AI-powered plant breeding, raised an $11 million Series A round and partnered with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners to develop climate-resilient sugarcane varieties that require less water and fertiliser, aiming to enhance sustainability in sugar production.

☀️ Finnish startup Solar Foods secured an additional €10 million from Business Finland to support the development, regulatory approval, and commercialisation of its Solein protein, and also introduced Solein® Protein Bites, a new protein snack concept designed for the health and performance nutrition market in the US.

👩‍🌾 Nitricity raised $10 million to build a sustainable nitrogen fertiliser plant in Delhi, California, using a new process that combusts nutrient-rich organic almond shells and combines them with air, water, and renewable energy to create its “Ash Tea” fertiliser.

🇨🇦 Natural Products Canada has invested $1.7 million into seven Canadian startups developing bio-based and natural products, including Chinova Bioworks, which is creating a natural antimicrobial from cranberries to extend food shelf life, and BioSun Solutions, which has developed a herbal biofungicide for safer crop protection.

🪸 Malaysia-based Seadling closed its seed funding round with $1 million. It produces sustainable seaweed-based functional ingredients, and will use the funding to support its expansion plans.

Biodiversity x Climate

🦣 Colossal Biosciences, whose aim to resurrect the woolly mammoth by 2028 has made headlines in recent years, has genetically engineered mice with mammoth-like fur using CRISPR technology, marking a step toward testing cold adaptation traits. See them up close.

🌊 London-based geospatial analytics startup Ocean Ledger raised €900,000 pre-seed funding to scale its AI-powered coastal risk forecasting solutions, which use satellite imagery and machine learning to help engineering firms, municipalities, and insurers manage climate-driven shoreline threats.

🌳 Gentian has partnered with MS&AD InterRisk to integrate its AI-driven, ultra-high-resolution remote sensing technology into biodiversity risk assessments, designed to help businesses navigate the TNFD framework with precise ecosystem monitoring.

🔍 Google has open-sourced SpeciesNet, an AI model trained on over 65 million images to help researchers quickly identify animal species from camera trap photos and streamline wildlife data analysis.

💡 Is this the biggest biodiversity experiment you’ve never heard about?

🎬 Good watch: Tech to regrow dead coral 7x faster than normal.

Carbon x Climate

🌾 Cotierra and Volcafe issued Colombia's first biochar-based carbon removal credit, a project that not only removes carbon but also enhances soil health and boosts the climate resilience of coffee farming.

📊 Graph: Carbon embedded in chemicals and derived materials.

Construction x Climate

🏭 EcoDataCenter, a Swedish company that builds sustainable data centers, raised $478 million to expand its eco-friendly infrastructure, which utilises cross-laminated timber for construction, renewable energy for power, and advanced cooling technologies to reduce environmental impact while supporting AI and cloud computing demands.

Energy x Climate

💥 Renaissance Fusion raised €32 million Series A1 funding to build a demonstrator for its simplified stellarator fusion reactor, which uses high-temperature superconducting magnets to stabilise plasma more efficiently.

☀️ Amsterdam-based energy storage startup Moonwatt secured €8 million to develop and deploy its sodium-ion battery system, designed specifically to make solar power storage more scalable, sustainable, and cost-effective.

⚡️ Oslo-based Installer raised €3.8 million seed funding to accelerate the deployment of renewable technologies. Its AI-driven platform is designed to streamline installation and maintenance for EV chargers, solar panels, and heat pumps.

🔢 Community-driven energy data network Combinder closed its pre-seed funding round with $500,000 to expand its decentralised platform, which enables users to connect electrical devices, share energy data, and earn token rewards while supporting grid stability and energy trading.

🔋 Mujeeb Ijaz has returned as CEO of battery startup Our Next Energy following a new funding round led by Crescent Ventures and Trousdale Ventures, as the company works to stabilise finances and advance its dual-chemistry battery technology.

🧑‍🔬 Researchers at the Tokyo University of Science have developed bis(diimino)palladium coordination nanosheets (PdDI), a hydrogen evolution catalyst that offers platinum-like performance at a lower cost, marking a significant advancement in sustainable hydrogen production.

🪦 Is this a wind turbine graveyard?

ESG x Climate

🇳🇴 Norwegian proptech startup Telescope raised €3.7 million seed funding to help European real estate owners turn sustainability risk management into a strategic advantage, amid increasing regulatory pressure.

Materials x Climate

🧫 London-based Epoch Biodesign, which uses AI and synthetic biology to engineer enzymes that break down plastic waste into valuable chemicals, raised €17 million Series A funding to build its first plant, expand its plastic-eating enzyme library, and begin serving the textile, automotive, and chemical industries.

🧪 Munich-based startup Radical Dot secured €2.7 million pre-seed funding to develop a continuously operated chemical recycling prototype at the Technical University of Munich.

🤖 The RECLAIM project has developed a low-cost, portable, AI-powered robotic material recovery plant designed for remote and high-waste areas, which uses advanced computer vision and multi-robot sorting to enhance recycling.

🔬 Researchers at TU Graz have developed a method to recover fibres from discarded cotton textiles and convert them into high-strength packaging paper, offering a sustainable alternative to incinerating Austria’s 220,000 tons of annual textile waste.

✏️ Infographic: How to select circular materials.

Mobility x Climate

🛞 Germany’s Infineon Technologies has partnered with CDIL Semiconductors to manufacture chips for electric vehicles and renewable energy systems in India, marking Infineon’s first manufacturing collaboration in the country as India aims to expand its clean energy and EV sectors.

Meme x Climate

🍴 CTO shows up to a fancy dinner with investors.

Day in the Life x Climate

📔 Diary of a Sustainability Manager in 2025

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola