🍄 ClimateHack Vol 96: Meatis' meaty $100M Raise

Hi There,

The ClimateHack community just got bigger.

This week we announced the opening the opening of 6 new ClimateHack chapters (Barcelona, Nairobi, Lagos, Mexico City, São Paulo, Warsaw) as well as the strengthening of 7 current chapters (Amsterdam, Berlin, London, New York, Paris, Tel Aviv, Zurich).

Each chapter is led by teams of exceptional Ambassadors (incl. VC Operators, Accelerators, Climate Founders, Consultants) who share our mission to accelerate investment and innovation in ClimateTech - you can discover the cohort of 24 new Ambassadors here.

• For those of you new with the ClimateHack meetups, come join us at the next free events in these cities to network with likeminded attendees.

• For those that have been to a ClimateHack meetup before and benefited - reply and let us know how, we’d love to hear.

In Today’s Edition;

🍫 US-based Voyage Foods raised $55M Series A+ for the “most sustainable” chocolate on the market.
🏭 Australian startup Hysata secured A$172M to continue developing production methods for low-cost green hydrogen.
💨 Swiss startup Climeworks opened its second and biggest DAC+S plant, the Mammoth which can remove up to up to 36,000 tons of CO₂ annually.

Digest x Climate

📈 What’s up? Octopus Energy’s valuation has hit $9 billion, a 15% increase since its last valuation, meaning that it has surpassed that of British Gas.

📉 What’s down? Rivian lost $1.45 billion in Q1 2024, and its shares fell by more than 4% after the announcement.

💨 XPRIZE announced the 20 finalists selected to compete in the last stage of its XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, including Dutch startup Kelp Blue and US-based Climate Robotics.

👀 These are the 9 foodtech startups selected out of over 200+ applications to pitch their solutions on stage at HackSummit this June, including France's Bon Vivant, Argentina’s Nat4Bio and Brazil’s Typcal.

⏰ Tickets for the HackSummit increase tonight at midnight. Lock in the best rates for whats set to be the most influential networking event in ClimateTech this year (we may be biased). Code LAST48H gets you a 20% discount off your pass.

AgriFood x Climate

🍄 US-based mycelium meat producer Meati raised $100 million Series C1 funding, the largest investment in an alternative protein company since its own $150 million Series C round in 2022. It also expanded into 2,000 Kroger stores and plans to reach 10,000 stores by the end of the year.

🍫 Ethical pantry company Voyage Foods, which says it makes the “most sustainable” chocolate on the market, secured $55 million Series A+ funding just two weeks after signing a commercial deal with Cargill.

🧫 Israeli startup Profuse Technology received a €2.4 million grant from the EU’s Horizon EIC Transition program to refine its supplement mixtures for cellular agriculture, which it says speeds up the time it takes to grow muscle tissue for cultivated meat by 80% whilst improving its nutritional quality, texture, and taste.

☕️ Singaporean startup TurtleTree joined forces with nutrition brand Cadence Performance Coffee to debut its precision-fermented lactoferrin as part of an espresso shot for endurance athletes, soon to be available online in the US.

🐄 Mars Inc. launched a sustainable dairy plan, ‘Moo’ving Dairy Forward,’ to be supported by a $47 million investment over three years and focus on areas such as methane reduction, efficient manure management and sustainable feed production.

🥥 UK-based Cocogreen received a King’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade for its “supersoil”, made from coconut husks and featuring patented Moisture Control Technology, designed to accelerate crop growth in a similar way to compost.

🇺🇸 Alabama has become the second US state to ban cultivated meat, with House representative Jack Crawford stating, “This law will strengthen our livestock and poultry industry by preventing lab-cultured cells from being sold in Alabama”. 

In a new report, the World Bank has asked countries to redirect their subsidies away from livestock farming and towards low-emission products, including alternative proteins.

Biodiversity x Climate

🌴 British startup Dendra Systems raised $15.76 million Series B funding to further develop its ecology platform, which uses AI and drones to restore large land areas via reseeding, including arid, tropical and coastal environments.

Carbon x Climate

🏭 Swiss startup Climeworks opened its second and biggest DAC+S plant, Mammoth, then removed the first volume of CO₂ and stored it underground, permanently, earlier this week. 

🪨 FabricNano and Veolia are partnering on a trial to capture carbon by applying enzymes to rocks, which then chemically react with rainwater to convert carbon into carbonates such as baking soda and chalk.

🤭 New research from Michigan State University has found the carbon removal potential of some reforestation models has been over exaggerated by as many as three times of a factor.

Chemicals x Climate

🛢 German biotech Insempra raised $20 million Series A funding to turn oil yeast into lipids on an industrial scale using yeast fermentation factories, helping cosmetics and food businesses to “transform their ingredient lists” away from harmful chemicals and pollutants.

Construction x Climate

🪵 French startup ADEMEURE raised €5 million in a funding round led by Telos Impact. Its focus is off-site wood construction, and has successfully developed a service for B2B clients looking for modular solutions.

Energy x Climate

🏭 Australian startup Hysata secured A$172 million Series B funding, marking a record for clean tech funding in the country. Hysata is developing production methods for low-cost green hydrogen, including a new kind of electrolyser that is 20% more efficient than existing technology.

⚡️ Estonia’s Stargate Hydrogen raised €42 million seed funding to use ceramic-based catalyst materials in alkaline electrolysers, bringing down the cost of green hydrogen to €1 per kilogram.

❄️ US-based Pascal, a startup developing high-efficiency, climate-friendly heat pumps, air conditioners and refrigerators based on solid refrigerants, raised $8M in a Seed round led by Engine Ventures.

🗺 Electricity Maps secured €5 million from Transition and Revent for its tech platform, which aggregates real-time data for electricity production in more than 50 countries around the world to provide actionable electricity carbon data.

📊 Berlin-based everyone energy raised a seven-figure seed funding round to automate energy services with its white-label software, designed to offer customised advisory services on renewable energy solutions. 

☀️ Researchers at the University of Ottawa have discovered that adding reflective surfaces under solar panels can increase energy output by 4.5 %.

Materials x Climate

🍄 US-based Mycocycle secured $3.6 million in a seed extension round to use fungi to upcycle old tyres and construction waste into usable materials. It uses white-rot mushrooms, which break down materials produced using oil and gas by suffusing them with their root-like hyphae, and the resulting material can be used in a range of products, including insulation, acoustic panels for sound control, and filler to bulk up the likes of concrete.

💦 OSY Group, based in the UK, raised £750,000 for its flagship water-based antimicrobial packaging coating, Xtend, which extends the shelf life of a range of food types, including fresh produce.

👜 Spanish startup Polybion announced that its cultivated cellulose, Celium, grown by feeding bacteria with agroindustrial fruit waste, is now available worldwide, and claims that it will create an “entirely new category” of material due to its unique properties.

Mobility x Climate

🚲 India’s PURE EV announced a joint venture with the UK’s Pragmatic Design Solutions Ltd to create an electric two-wheeler with a solid-state battery tech, featuring a 250 km range and an AI-based powertrain platform offering user-friendly troubleshooting and fast onboard charger.

🚗 Chinese EV maker Nio announced its plans to launch a lower-priced brand, Onvo, next week, amid an ongoing price war in the country’s highly competitive electric car market.

Funds x Climate

🇩🇪 Germany’s Armira Growth secured €200 million for its Armira Growth Fund I, with which it will support scale-up founders in the DACH region 

💰 Several key German leaders, and Bill Gates, met this week in Berlin to discuss launching a €1 billion fund, made up of public and private capital, to support climate tech startups building first-of-a-kind facilities, marking the first fund of its type in Europe.

Community x Climate

Join the upcoming ClimateHacks Meetups happening in :

🇺🇸 New York: May 28th - Breaking news in the built environment. Register Here.

Climate x Memes

😔 None this week - check back next week or send us your best entries

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola