👕 Vol 137: Vinted’s Next Big Fit

Hi There,

May is here, and so is HackSummit. 🎉

ICYMI the climate crowd’s coming together this May 15-16th in Lausanne Switzerland.

With less than 50 tickets remaining, here’s you reminder to get yours, to meet with:

• Founders. Some of the industry’s most-funded ClimateTech's to stealth-mode startups making their debut: Aerones, Riverion, Woodoo, Again, Endolith, Epoch Biodesign, GA Drilling, Renaissance Fusion, UNDO, WA3RM

• Investors. General Partners and 100s more investors: Extantia, Atlantic Labs, Astanor, Contrarian Ventures, Climentum Capital, ECBF, Blume Equity

• Corporates. Scouting for long-term partnerships: L’Oreal, DSM, Peugeot, Yanmar, Shell, Cosun, Maersk, Honda, Nestlé, Tetra Pak, Patagonia

• Catalysts. The family offices, LPs, institutions, and asset managers fuelling the ecosystem with catalytic capital: Rabobank, LGT Capital Partners, Lightrock, Rentenbank, Kieger, Ordway Selections, BNP Paribas

Whether you're fundraising, scaling, hiring, investing, partnering, or just want to see what’s next, you’re just in time to come and join us in the lakeside city of Lausanne.

🔍 Here’s a sneak peek of who’ll be there…

In this week’s edition:

💸 Aldea Ventures closes €50 million to back early-stage frontier tech VC managers
🧵 eeden raises €18 million Series A funding to scale chemical textile recycling tech
🏭 BioMADE announces $132 million to launch a biomanufacturing facility in the US

The Digest

📉 What’s down? Data from Dealroom reveals that European climate tech startups raised $2.3 billion in Q1 2025—the lowest since 2020.

🔒 Closing down. British startup Beam, which was formed to automate offshore wind farms using AI and robotics, has shut down and entered administration just months after announcing ambitious expansion plans.

💦 The Warming Stripes have now been extended downwards into the ocean.

🦜 The Nature Tech Collective published the first Nature Fintech Sector map.

🎬 Good watch: Clothes that grow with a child for 4 years, (after 500 prototypes).

AgriFood x Climate

👩‍🌾 Agrifintech startup Growers Edge secured $25 million to expand its suite of risk management and financing tools for US farmers, aiming to simplify access to capital, improve sustainability, and support growers amid economic and climate uncertainty.

🌱 S&dB secured €1.5 million to further develop vSET, its seed embedding technology for open-field vegetable cultivation, designed to enable scalable regenerative agriculture that restores soil health, boosts biodiversity, and strengthens farmer resilience across Europe.

☕️ Coffeeco Upcycle raised €715,000 to scale its chemical-free technology that transforms spent coffee grounds into high-performance skincare and bioplastics, helping to tackle the 23 million tons of annual coffee waste globally.

🌈 Rainbow Crops, which is developing climate-resilient crops through its AI-powered Trait Foundry™ platform, secured investment from PINC to scale its genome editing and precision breeding technology following promising corn trials.

Construction x Climate

🧱 UK-based Materials Market raised £2 million to advance its digital platform and technology, streamlining procurement in the £40 billion building materials sector by connecting buyers with over 750 suppliers and replacing outdated, inefficient systems.

Energy x Climate

🔋 US-based Forge Nano secured $40 million to scale production of its advanced lithium-ion batteries, which have a special coating technology to make them safer, longer-lasting, and more powerful for uses like defence, aerospace, and clean energy.

⚡️ Dutch energy tech firm iwell raised €27 million to accelerate the rollout of its AI-powered energy management and battery storage systems across Europe.

💦 The O.S.I.R.I.S project, backed by Innovate UK, has partnered with robotics firm BOW to develop a fully autonomous drone and underwater vehicle inspection system by 2027, aiming to boost the safety, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness of offshore wind farm maintenance.

🍃 Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology have developed lighter, more robust, and cost-effective offshore wind turbines designed to withstand the harsh conditions of the Norwegian coast and improve the technology’s commercial viability.

ESG x Climate

📲 HowGood is partnering with sustainability platform Watershed to offer a unified solution for comprehensive Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions reporting, combining agricultural emissions data with corporate sustainability tools to help food and beverage companies meet growing regulatory demands.

Funds x Climate

👗 Vinted launched Vinted Ventures, a new in-house VC arm that will invest €500,000–€10 million in up to three re-commerce and circular economy startups each year, targeting Series A–C rounds to accelerate the global growth of secondhand and sustainability-focused businesses.

💰 Global founder fellowship and investment platform EWOR secured €60 million to “help the world’s most exceptional founders to build game-changing companies”. 

💸 Aldea Ventures closed €50 million of its €125 million Fund II, aiming to back early-stage frontier tech VC managers across Europe and the US with a hybrid fund-of-funds model that targets AI, robotics, and deep tech.

Materials x Climate

🏭 BioMADE secured $132 million to launch a 122,000 sq ft demonstration-scale biomanufacturing facility in the US, giving startups access to large-scale fermentation and downstream processing to accelerate commercialisation across sectors including biodegradable plastics, sustainable textiles, and clean ingredients.

🧪 Swiss startup DePoly raised $23 million to build a 500-tonne-per-year chemical recycling plant in Monthey, Switzerland, using its fossil-free technology to break down PET and polyester plastics into monomers for high-quality reuse.

👕 German startup eeden raised €18 million Series A funding to scale its chemical textile recycling technology, which upcycles cotton-polyester blends into high-quality fibres.

• Meet the team in the HackSummit Startup Fair along with 50+ up-and-coming ClimateTechs

🤖 US-based Glacier, which uses AI-powered robotic arms to automate recycling, secured $16 million Series A funding to expand its technology across US cities and help sorting facilities struggling with labour shortages and rising contamination in the waste stream.

🍻 Arda Biomaterials raised $5.25 million Series A funding to scale and commercialise New Grain™, its leather-like material made from waste barley proteins sourced from breweries and distilleries.

⭕️ IPL and Schoeller Allibert are merging to create a $1.4 billion global leader in reusable plastic packaging, combining 27 manufacturing sites across North America and Europe to accelerate sustainable, closed-loop solutions for industries including food, retail, and automotive.

🎨 Scientists at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln have developed a first-of-its-kind fibre-to-fibre recycling technology that removes dyes, separates natural and synthetic blends, and produces high-quality fibres cost-effectively and at scale, offering a potentially major breakthrough for textile sustainability.

👟 Have your say, is a biodegradable shoe really possible?

Methane x Climate

🐮 Hoofprint Biome raised $15 million to trial a novel enzyme-based feed additive that reduces methane emissions from cows by targeting their rumen microbiome—boosting both climate impact and feed efficiency by approaching the problem “from a farmer’s perspective rather than a purely environmental one”.

Mobility x Climate

🔌 Rocsys launched the world’s first hands-free EV charging platform for 24/7 autonomous mobility, combining robotics, AI, and real-time insights to eliminate the last human bottleneck in vehicle operations.

🚘 New US EV startup Slate Auto is working to secure a former 1.4 million-square-foot printing plant in Warsaw, Indiana to produce its sub-$20,000 electric truck, aiming to boost U.S. manufacturing while keeping production costs low.

Fundraising x Climate

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola