🇪🇺 ClimateHack Vol. 52: Europe's climate scene

Hey There,

Wondering where’s to build your climate tech company? Europe might be your best bet.

Recent data from Affinity’s Investment Benchmark Report shows that Europe raised 42% of all climate tech dollars in 2022, and growing 26% faster than the U.S. year-over-year.

Thanks in part to initiatives like the European Green Deal that have created innovative startups within areas like energy and transportation, as well as an ever crowding scene of European seed stage climate VC’s that have have been driving an increase in deal count and valuations across climate tech.

If you’re seriously considering a European headquarter - it’s not just the usual locations to have in mind, as the Nordics (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland) are emerging as some of the most active players behind Europe’s climate tech boom.

In today's edition:

🍗 USDA approves the sale of “cell-cultivated” chicken.
⛏ California-based KoBold Metals raises $195 million.
🇨🇭 Switzerland commits to carbon neutrality by 2050.

Digest x Climate

🇨🇭 Switzerland’s new climate and innovation law passed last Sunday with more than 59% of the votes and seeks to accelerate the country’s shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies and reach zero emissions by 2050. The FOEN (Federal Office for the Environment) will offer grants to companies using innovative processes or technologies to mitigate CO2, and incentivise homeowners to replace electric, gas or oil heating systems with more climate-friendly systems like heat pumps.

📈 What’s up? Meteorologists are monitoring what they say are “record-breaking” marine heatwaves off northeast England and northwest Ireland, with sea temperatures up to five degrees Celsius warmer than normal for this time of year.

📉 What’s down? Extreme heatwaves in Mexico have reduced water levels so far that a colonial-era church submerged in a reservoir has been exposed, and is now accessible by land.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Data from Morning Consult shows that more than half of parents in India, Mexico, Singapore, the US and the UK say that climate change is impacting their decision to have more kids.

Carbon x Climate

📊 UK-based Supercritical raised €11.8 million Series A funding to scale its carbon removal marketplace, a software platform which allows businesses to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon removal credits.

🍄 Rhizocore Technologies, based in the UK, secured £3.5 million in a seed funding round led by ReGen Ventures and Collaborative Fund. It produces locally-adapted mycorrhizal fungi to enhance tree planting success.

🛩 Berlin-based Squake secured €3.5 million in a round led by Simon Capital. It calculates carbon emissions on travel booking sites and logistics software via its API integration tool, and will use the funds to support its expansion plans.

🔎 French startup Greenbids, which uses machine learning to find the most carbon-efficient form of digital advertising, raised €1.6 million in a round led by Elaia and Famille C Participations to expand into the US.

🌍 1MT, based in Estonia, secured €1 million to restore one million hectares of degraded lands in Africa by planting polyculture native bamboo species, and to allow companies all over the world to invest in high-quality nature-based carbon removal projects.

💸 New Zealand-based Cogo raised NZ$1 million for its carbon footprint management platform, designed to support banks to help their customers measure and reduce their carbon impact.

Food x Climate

🎉 A historic week for cultivated meat as the USDA approved the sale of “cell-cultivated” chicken from UPSIDE Foods and GOOD MEAT, making the US the second country to approve lab-grown meat for production and sale.

🐄 Omeat, based in LA, came out of stealth to announce a $40 million raise and build a pilot plant for its “simple and elegant solution” to scaling cultivated meat production, which involves the humane extraction of growth factors and other components from “healthy, living cows.”

🌊 Chicago-based Hyfé raised $9 million seed funding in a round led by Synthesis Capital. It transforms food processing wastewater into feedstocks for biomanufacturing and clean water, and will use the funds to progress towards pilot-scale technology demonstration.

🧫 China’s best-funded cellular agriculture startup, CellX, secured $6.5 million Series A+ funding from a collection of strategic investors. It will use the funds to support pilot-scale production of its cultivated meat products.

🔎 Berlin-based COOKO secured €800,000 pre-seed funding for its first-mile traceability system and automating compliance, designed to meet pending EU and German legislation. It’s starting with cocoa, providing source traceability to improve the livelihood of farmers and secure agri-forestry landscapes.

Energy x Climate

☀️ Yellow, an asset financier for solar energy and digital devices in Africa, first launched to bring solar energy to Malawi, which is among those with the lowest access to electricity in the world, raised $14 million series B funding to expand its operations.

🏭 Australian startup HydGene Renewables secured $6 million to establish a pilot plant to make green hydrogen on-demand, ideally from already abundant renewable biomass sources, with the production byproducts returned to the ground to improve soil health.

💡 Good Read: The World Economic Forum explains what the renaissance of the stellarator means for fusion energy.

Materials x Climate

⛏ California-based KoBold Metals raised $195 million from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, hitting unicorn status at a post-money valuation of $1.15 billion. It uses AI to mine for valuable metals such as cobalt, copper, nickel and lithium used in the production of batteries for sectors including electric vehicles.

🌊 German startup CleanHub secured $7 million for its ocean cleanup organisation platform, designed to serve as a connector between those brands whose plastic products may eventually end up polluting the oceans and local partners which collect non-recyclable plastic in the coastal regions of developing countries.

🌿 Noriware, based in Switzerland, secured pre-seed investment for its algae-based packaging material that is 100% natural, fully home compostable and can be manufactured on machines used in the traditional plastics industry.

Construction x Climate

♻️ Kubik, which has operations in Kenya and Ethiopia, raised $3.34 million seed funding to scale its plastic waste upcycling platform, which turns hard-to-recycle plastic waste into affordable building materials.

Funds x Climate

👀 The Norrsken Accelerator announced its 2023 cohort of twenty startups, including UK-based climate EdTech startup greenworkx, which is tackling the green skills emergency and building the net-zero workforce, and Sweden’s Your Beet, which provides personalised plant-based nutrition to help shift the masses into sustainable eating.

💰 Southeast Asia-focused Argor Capital, formerly Go-Ventures, closed its second fund with $240 million to support early-stage and mid stage companies in sectors such as B2B marketplaces, consumer, environmental tech, fintech and digital transformation platforms for SMEs.

🌎 AmeriCorps, an independent agency of the US government which engages residents in volunteer programs, is allocating more than $7 million to tribal nations and Indigenous-led nonprofits working to” address needs related to climate change, food security and conservation”.

💡 Good Read: Yair Reem, Partner at Extantia Capital, breaks down everything you need to know about FOAKs.

Memes x Climate

Why remove, when I can buy? 🤷‍♂️

Thanks for reading, and happy midsummer to our Swedish friends 🇸🇪

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola.