🚕 Vol 136: Autonomous Electric Robo Taxis

Hi There,

100+ VCs, CVCs, GPs, Asset Managers and Venture Builders all in one room looking for their next investment, catching up with portfolio companies and scouting new talents. Sounds too good to be true?

That’s exactly what we’ll be getting up to in just three weeks’ time in Lausanne, Switzerland at the HackSummit.

This week we published a first snapshot of financiers in the room, incl. Extantia, Lightrock, 2150, SOSV, Astanor, Mercy Corps, Catalyst Fund, Atlantic Labs, Climentum Capital, BNP, Founderful, Planet A Ventures, ECBF, Rabobank, Kieger, Serena…

Lock in your pass today, plan ahead with the 1-1 networking app before joining in Lausanne for meetings, must-attend side events and high impact sessions. Let’s go.

In this week’s edition:

🔝 150 top ClimateTechs to watch, in the eyes of 50 investors
🔋 $15 million to advance battery-inspired, electricity-driven DAC
💰 $150 million initiative to support early-stage deep tech startups

The Digest

📉 What’s down? Indian EV startup Ather Energy has reduced its IPO size by 18% to $308 million and is targeting a $1.4 billion valuation, citing market conditions, with plans to use the funds for a new manufacturing facility, R&D, marketing, and debt repayment.

🪐 The UK and New Zealand launched a new space science partnership to jointly develop Earth observation projects addressing climate challenges and to collaborate on responsible space stewardship.

💯 Exclusive: 150 ClimateTechs to watch according to 50 investors.

🙎🏽‍♀️ 16 ‘badass women’ leading the climate movement with courage and creativity.

🌍 Good read: Why we need to talk about ClimateTech in Africa.

AgriFood x Climate

🌾 US-based UbiQD raised $20 million Series B funding to scale its safer, cadmium-free quantum dot technology for use in agriculture and solar energy, aiming to boost efficiency and lower costs across both industries.

🇩🇰 The University of Copenhagen received a 50 million kroner ($7.6 million) grant from Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk to lead a seven-year project using AI and food science to develop less processed plant-based proteins.

💡 Almendra has developed a “night interruption” lighting technology for open-field agriculture that uses LED-equipped irrigation rigs to manipulate crop flowering and significantly boost yields in crops like soybeans, rice, and stevia.

🍫 Nestlé and Olam Food Ingredients launched their largest joint agroforestry initiative, aiming to support 25,000 cocoa farmers in Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Brazil with climate-smart practices and tree planting to reduce over 1.5 million tons of CO₂ emissions over 30 years.

🚀 A team of UK researchers and space-tech companies has launched a miniature lab containing yeast microbes into orbit to test whether precision fermentation can produce food, medicine, fuel, and bioplastics in space, aiming to support sustainable living on long-duration missions.

Biodiversity x Climate

🌳 French startup Sylcast secured investment from Lifetime Ventures and OIST to advance its sensor-based tree monitoring platform and support sustainable management of green assets across urban, agricultural, and forestry sectors.

Carbon x Climate

🏆 US-based Mati Carbon won the $50 million Xprize Carbon Removal competition for its simple-yet-scalable enhanced rock weathering solution, which uses basalt rock dust to lock carbon in soil, boost crop yields, and support smallholder farmers across the Global South.

🔋 RepAir Carbon raised a $15 million Series A extension to advance its battery-inspired, electricity-driven DAC technology, which it claims can cut carbon removal costs to $70–$80 per ton while operating continuously without heat-based regeneration.

🪨 Eion is joining forces with Perdue AgriBusiness on a carbon insetting deal using enhanced rock weathering, aiming to remove CO₂ from farmland by replacing traditional lime with olivine.

🌫️ Occidental acquired carbon removal startup Holocene—its second direct air capture purchase in two years—to advance low-cost CO₂ capture technology and support its enhanced oil recovery strategy.

Carbon x Climate

🏭 Paebbl has successfully launched the world’s first continuously operating demo-scale CO₂ mineralisation plant in Rotterdam—transforming CO₂ into cement alternatives—just 18 months after starting the project, marking a major step toward scalable, low-carbon construction materials.

🧱 PHNX Materials raised $2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Divergent Capital, KdT Ventures, and Overture. It has developed a process to clean and repurpose fly ash from coal plants for use in lower-carbon concrete, with the aime of decarbonising the cement industry while extracting valuable byproducts like sulphur and aluminium.

ESG x Climate

💻 London-based 51toCarbonZero raised £3 million, in a funding round led by Fuel Ventures, to expand globally and enhance its AI-powered emissions management platform, designed to help companies meet growing sustainability and reporting demands.

Funds x Climate

💸 First Momentum Ventures closed its oversubscribed Fund II with €35 million to invest in pre-seed startups reinventing Europe’s industrial sector, backing deep tech founders in areas like manufacturing, robotics, materials science, and industrial software.

💰 TDK Ventures launched Fund 3, a $150 million initiative to support early-stage deep tech startups, aiming to accelerate innovation through access to TDK’s global R&D and manufacturing resources.

Materials x Climate

🧵 Textile-to-textile recycling startup Syre signed an MoU in Vietnam with the intention of establishing a gigascale recycling plant.

🌺 GenoMines uses genetically enhanced wildflowers, along with a tailored soil microbiome, to extract up to 2.5 tonnes of nickel per hectare annually from metal-rich soils—simultaneously harvesting valuable metals and remediating the land.

🍚 Bangalore-based altM has developed a thermochemical process that converts various agricultural wastes—such as rice straw and sugarcane bagasse—into valuable materials like adhesives and cosmetic ingredients.

⚡️ US startup Xerion Advanced Battery Corp. has developed a one-step, electricity-based method to produce highly refined cobalt. It is set to launch a pilot facility in Ohio, with the aim of reducing US dependence on Chinese refining and addressing critical cobalt needs for both defence and energy sectors.

💨 Swiss materials startup novoMOF raised $5.4 million to to further advance its sustainable materials for low-cost carbon capture in high-emissions industrial sectors.

Mobility x Climate

✈️ Electra.aero raised $115 million Series B funding to advance its nine-passenger hybrid-electric short takeoff and landing aircraft into pre-production and FAA certification, with plans to enter service by 2029.

🛻 Jeff Bezos-backed Slate Auto placed disguised concept vehicles around California to tease its upcoming electric truck, which can change like a ‘Transformer’, as part of a bold marketing strategy ahead of its launch this week.

🚕 Volkswagen of America and Uber announced plans to launch a commercial autonomous electric robotaxi service, starting in LA by late 2026 with safety drivers, and aiming for fully driverless operation by 2027.

Transparency x Climate

The hidden cost of what we buy / eat / consume.

Camouflage x Climate

A headwind for ClimateTech?

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola