🐺 Vol 134: Dire wolf back from extinction. Or are they?

Hi There,

With current market unpredictability and as the urgency to tackle the climate crisis grows, it’s no secret that the next billion-dollar Climate startup will need a powerful mix of grit, scalability, sustainability and serious staying power at its core.

To find out the ‘ones to watch’ we decided the closest we have to a crystal ball is to ask renowned VCs for their thoughts. So we asked 15 leading climate investors which startups have unicorn potential, and why.

Investors from Extantia Capital, Atlantic Labs, PeakBridge, Exa, DeepTech & Climate Fonds, Vireo Ventures, ECBF, PT1, Silence VC, Spin Ventures and more, have their say.

These scaleups came out on top:

In this week’s edition:

🔋 Base Power’s $200 million to expand its low-cost residential battery network
💦 PURA’s teenage scientists win The Earth Prize 2025 to remove water pollutants
💶 Carbon Equity’s €107 million Climate Tech Portfolio Fund III

The Digest

📈 What’s up? A study from the University of Auckland and Xiamen University found that, in countries reliant on fossil fuels, higher electric vehicle adoption can actually increase CO2 emissions.

📉 What’s down? Plastic pollution on Australian coastlines has dropped by over a third in the past decade, according to research from CSIRO.

🛩️ The Advanced Manufacturing Company of America launched with $76 million in funding to rebuild and grow US aerospace and defense manufacturing, aiming to modernise the small suppliers that it says have long been key to the industry.

🗺️ Paris’ red hotspot of pollution to green zone, mapped.

AgriFood x Climate

🇸🇪 The European Investment Bank granted a €50 million loan to Swedish agricultural cooperative Lantmännen to build a pea protein processing plant in Lidköping, aiming to enhance EU food security, reduce reliance on imported proteins, and support sustainable agriculture, with the facility set to process over 40,000 tons of peas annually by 2027.

🦟 After entering insolvency proceedings in February due to funding challenges, French insect protein startup Ÿnsect secured €10 million in bridge funding from existing investors to stay operational, and is continuing efforts to sell assets and attract further investment.

🥚 South Korean food tech INTAKE raised $9.2 million Series C funding to advance its yeast-based precision fermentation platform and scale its high-protein alternative to meat, dairy, and eggs, with plans to enter the North American market by 2026.

💵 Veridi Technologies secured a grant of €2.5 million from the EIC Accelerator. It has developed an automated platform that uses machine learning to analyse nematodes in soil samples, aiming to make soil biodiversity diagnostics faster, cheaper, and more accessible.

💶 EIT Food awarded €874,503 to four agrifood startups through its Fast Track to Market Initiative.

Biodiversity x Climate

🐺 Colossal Biosciences revealed live specimens of its most ambitious de-extinction effort yet: genetically engineered dire wolves. These were unveiled at a secret location as part of the startup’s push to revive species extinct for over 12,000 years. But here’s why some experts dispute the claim.

🧼 Open Forest Protocol announced a partnership with INARSAC and Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics North America.

🔬 Good read: Can eDNA revolutionise biodiversity?

🗺️ The Nature tech for biodiversity sector map.

Carbon x Climate

💨 Belfast-based carbon capture startup Nuada has become the first Northern Irish recipient of the EU’s EIC Accelerator prize, securing €2.5 million to advance its CO₂ filtration technology for decarbonising heavy industries like cement, steel, and energy.

🪨 Altitude announced that it has committed to procuring over 25,000 tons of CO₂ Removal Certificates from biochar-based carbon removal facilities in West Africa.

Construction x Climate

🍚 The GO STRAWMAT project aims to transform rice straw—a challenging agricultural by-product—into fire-resistant, insulating materials for sustainable construction, creating a circular bioeconomy while reducing environmental impact and boosting the competitiveness of rice farms.

🛢️ Researchers at RMIT University have developed PYROCO™, a technology that turns sewage into biochar to produce sustainable bio-oils that could replace petroleum-based products in industries like construction, electronics, and transport.

Energy x Climate

🔌 US-based Base Power secured $200 million to rapidly expand its low-cost residential battery network in Texas—aiming to build a 100 MWh virtual power plant and launch a US battery factory—after growing into one of the state’s largest battery fleets in under a year.

⚡️ Corinex, based in Vancouver, raised $30 million in a funding round led by Energy Growth Momentum. It will use the funds to scale its broadband over power lines (BPL)-based grid visibility and flexibility solutions.

🪫 Dutch startup NOWOS raised €6 million to expand its lithium-ion battery repair and maintenance services, having already repaired 90,000 batteries across Europe for major micro-mobility brands in 2024 alone.

💥 FaradaIC Sensors secured €4.5 million to scale its microchip-based electrochemical gas sensors, using a proprietary solid-state material to eliminate liquid electrolytes and enable mass production via standard semiconductor processes.

💸 UK-based Grid Edge raised over €3.3 million from major investors including bp Ventures and Centrica to grow its team and enhance its AI platform, which helps commercial buildings cut energy use and carbon emissions by an average of 20%.

🏭 The UK government’s new AI Energy Council, meeting for the first time this week, will bring together tech and energy leaders to ensure AI advancements scale sustainably, with the aim of tackling the rising energy demands of data centres and exploring clean energy solutions.

🔋 XL Batteries is developing a cheaper, safer, and more durable organic flow battery for grid-scale energy storage, using stable, water-based chemistry and existing petrochemical infrastructure—like storage tanks—to deliver large-capacity systems at low cost and transform electricity storage at scale.

🛞 Former Tesla executive Drew Baglino has founded Heron Power, a startup developing advanced solid-state transformers to modernise the electric grid, with plans to raise $30–$50 million in Series A funding led by Capricorn Investment Group.

✍️ President Trump is set to sign an executive order declaring coal a critical mineral and mandating continued operation of some coal plants to boost electricity supply amid rising data center demand, despite the fuel's long-term decline in the US energy mix.

Funds x Climate

💰 Revent raised €100 million to support “planetary and social health” startups, working on technologies to support energy transition, industrial decarbonisation, healthcare, climate, economic empowerment, and reskilling.

💸 J.P. Morgan’s Campbell Global Forest & Climate Solutions Fund II closed at $1.5 billion—$500 million over target. The fund integrates timberland investment with climate goals, targeting carbon removal, biodiversity, and water protection across 212,000 acres in the US Pacific Northwest and South.

💶 Dutch investment platform Carbon Equity closed its Climate Tech Portfolio Fund III with €107 million. It will use the funds to invest in at least 150 climate innovations, from green steel to geothermal energy and innovative batteries.

💷 UK-based deep tech investor Northern Gritstone secured £50 million to support university spin outs which will “help power innovation, drive tangible real-world impact, and support the UK to get ready for the future”.

Materials x Climate

💰 Tallinn-based UP Catalyst secured an €18 million loan from the European Investment Bank to scale its energy-efficient CO₂-to-graphite technology, aiming to address Europe’s critical raw material shortage and supply up to 50% of the region’s graphite demand gap by 2030.

🍻 Up close: A bag brewed at a beer brewery.

Methane x Climate

🐮 The Bezos Earth Fund and Global Methane Hub launched a $27.4 million global initiative to reduce livestock methane emissions by funding research and breeding programs that select animals with naturally lower methane output, aiming for a long-term, science-backed solution to agricultural climate impact.

Mobility x Climate

✈️ Qantas and Airbus committed AUD$15 million to VC Climate Tech Partners to accelerate the development of sustainable aviation fuel and decarbonisation technologies in Australia, with the aim of bridging the gap between early-stage innovation and commercial-scale production.

Water x Climate

💦 PURA, a pioneering water purification solution developed by teenage scientists, won The Earth Prize 2025 for its use of light and plasma to remove pollutants and antibiotic-resistant bacteria, with plans to scale for household and wastewater treatment use.

Merch x Climate

🪆 See all the features here.

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola