👕 ClimateHack Vol. 57: Turning CO₂ into clothes

Hey There,

What’s the single fastest way to grow your professional network in climate tech? The answer; becoming a ClimateHack ambassador and hosting local meetups in your city.

You’ll meet a minimum of 500+ fellow climate enthusiasts each year, have an excuse to invite the top VC’s and Founders to your event, and become the go to source for all things climate in your city.

If you’re in any of the following cities (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, London, Paris, Zurich, Berlin, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Zurich and Tel Aviv) and keen to start bringing together your local climate tech community, apply here today.

In today's edition:

🔋 UK's Field raise £200 million for their battery energy storage systems.
🌿 Israeli’s Brevel raise $18.5M for microalgae-based proteins.
👕 Paris based Dioxycle raise $17M to turn CO₂ into clothes.

Digest x Climate

📈 What’s up? Israeli cultivated meat startup Aleph Farms announced that it has initiated the regulatory approval process to commercialise its premium Angus-style thin cultivated steak in Switzerland, marking the first-ever submission for cultivated meat in Europe.

📉 What’s down? Scientists at the University of Copenhagen are concerned that the Atlantic Ocean current may collapse due to climate change.

💡 Survey: Calling all hardware founders and investors! Planet A Ventures, Norrsken VC, SpeedInvest and Systemiq Capital are researching the challenges and the state of the hardware industry to help step up financing options. Here’s their survey.

Carbon x Climate

📊 French startup Impact+ raised €2 million to build its subscription-based platform, designed to measure and evaluate advertisers’ greenhouse gas emissions and electricity consumption so they can make smart choices when running their campaigns.

💿 London-based Greenpixie received a £50,000 grant from Innovate UK to help reduce data centre emissions by “millions of tonnes per year” with its new tool which it says is vital given “the exponential growth of the cloud”.

Food x Climate

🌿 Israeli alt protein startup Brevel raised $18.5 million seed funding to develop microalgae-based proteins, which it calls “ghost proteins” because they don’t affect the flavour, colour or taste of foods.

🛰 German startup constellr closed its seed funding round with €17 million to expand its operations to North America and “secure its place in the emerging thermal data market”.

🌱 Israel’s Oshi (formerly Plantish) and California-based The Better Meat Co. have been jointly awarded a $1 million grant from the BIRD Foundation to co-develop mycoprotein-based salmon fillets.

🥃 Scottish startup MiAlgae secured investment from the Investbridge AgriTech fund to produce sustainable omega-3s “on tap” from microalgae, using side streams of the whisky industry.

🥩 Israel’s Steakholder Foods has signed a multi-million dollar deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council to establish a ‘first-of-its-kind’ large-scale production facility for its 3D-printed cultivated foods in the Persian Gulf.

🌽 Molecular farming startup IngredientWerks has genetically engineered corn crops to express high levels of bovine myoglobin, a heme-binding protein which imparts a meaty taste, colour and aroma to meat alternatives, in a process it claims to be able to scale at a “fraction of the cost” of precision fermentation.

Materials x Climate

👕 Paris-based Dioxycle raised $17 million Series A funding to turn CO2 emissions into sustainable products like clothing and packaging. It will use the funds to build an electrolyser “with the carbon-converting capabilities of about 20,000 trees”, which will produce sustainable ethylene.

♻️ Researchers at Hefei University of Technology in China are exploring the use of laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy technology for the identification and classification of recyclable waste, to potentially “revolutionise the recycling industry”.

Energy x Climate

🔋 UK-based battery energy storage systems developer and operator Field raised £200 million to accelerate the development and buildout of a 4.5 GWh pipeline of grid-feeding large batteries across the UK and Western Continental Europe.

🏭 Leading engineering company Kent has partnered with the University of Manchester, UK, to produce a new syngas and blue hydrogen technology with nearly zero direct carbon dioxide emissions, based on chemical looping reforming.

Transport x Climate

⚡️ British startup EV.energy raised $33 million Series B funding to help utilities companies “save billions on grid upgrades” thanks to its software platform that can help tell drivers, EVs and chargers when and where to plug in to smooth the demand curve.

🚚 Flipturn, based in the US, secured $4.5 million seed funding to help commercial fleets optimally run their EVs and chargers, and help trucking fleets especially to electrify for less.

🔌 New York-based Voltricity raised $3.6 million seed funding, in a round led by RWE Energy Transition Investments, to bring its lamppost EV charging solution to roads across the US.

🛩 British startup Nova Pangaea Technologies secured investment from International Airlines Group, the parent company of Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and LEVEL, to further develop its UK-sourced sustainable aviation fuel. Its technology converts agricultural waste and wood residue feedstocks into second-generation bioethanol, which is then processed into SAF.

🔌 UK telecoms company BT is undertaking a project to transform 60,000 street cabinets into electric vehicle charging points over the next two years.

🚗 Seven of the largest automakers, including BMW Group, General Motors, and Honda, announced a joint venture to create a vehicle recharging network across North America, featuring at least 30,000 charge points in urban and highway locations accessible to nearly any EV.

Construction x Climate

👷‍♂️ Nuada, based in the UK, secured £3.4 million from BGF in an extension to its Series A funding round. Its “heatless” and “solvent free” technology combines advanced solid adsorbents with proven vacuum swing technology to “vacuum” CO2 out of industrial emissions, and is designed to support cement manufacturers.

Funds x Climate

🇦🇺 Main Sequence, the VC arm of Australia’s CSIRO, secured $450 million at the first close of its third fund, with which it will support deep tech startups working within decarbonisation. Its last fund saw the launch of five venture science startups, including Eden Brew, which is creating animal-free casein.

🇺🇸 US-based VC Supply Change Capital closed its first fund with $40 million. It will use the funds to support early-stage food, agriculture and ingredient companies working towards a more resilient food system.

👀 Sifted put together a list of all the Article 8 and Article 9 VC funds in Europe. Interestingly, it’s not a very long list.

📊 Useful: Extantia investor Yair Reem has illustrated the climate tech funding cycle and explains why it has blurred boundaries.

💡 Good Read: Here are five key questions climate tech founders should ask impact investors.

Tweets x Climate

🌳 Here’s why urban trees are so important:

👀 Pick your battle.

👏 *Pats self on back*. Credit: Edward van der Hout

Thanks for reading and hope your summer is going well!?

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola.