🌦️ Vol 138: $25 million to make it rain and snow

Hi There,

This time next week we’ll be surrounded by 850 Founders, Funders and Operators working in Climate at the HackSummit. It’s (almost) not too late to join them.

The 1-1 networking is now live and 2,071 meeting requests have already been sent.

Reserve your pass today so you can plan your schedule and pre-arrange meetings with all these bright Founders and their teams:

In this week’s edition:

💸 Bosch Ventures launched its 6th fund, a $270M vehicle for deep-tech startups
🧬 Solena Materials raised €5.9M to scale its AI-designed, biodegradable protein fibres
🏭 Mission Zero Technologies opened its 2nd UK DAC plant using electrochemistry to remove 250 tonnes of CO₂ annually

The Digest

🛰️ Take a look: 50 years of satellite evolution from 1975 to 2025

🎂 Sir David Attenborough turned 99 yesterday. Watch his 4 bold goals to restore our planet.

🇪🇺 Good read: Why Europe needs better transmission and distribution grids.

🇳🇱 Inside the latest ClimateHack Meetup, last night in Amsterdam

🎟️ Last chance to join us in Lausanne next week for the HackSummit <20 tickets left.

AgriFood x Climate

💡 Uviquity emerged from stealth with $6.6 million in seed funding. It is developing solid-state far-UVC light chips for safe, scalable pathogen control across industries, and will use the funds to advance its semiconductor platform and prepare for commercialisation.

💸 Sennos, formerly Precision Fermentation and based in the US, secured $15 million to scale its real-time fermentation analytics and AI platform across the brewing industry and expand into sectors like biofuels and alternative proteins, leveraging the world’s largest fermentation data set to boost efficiency, consistency, and sustainability.

🤝 Estonian agtech company eAgronom secured investment from Mondelēz International’s Sustainable Futures platform. It will use the funds to expand its digital tools and sustainability impact as it supports farmers in their transition to regenerative agriculture across over 4 million hectares of European farmland by 2026.

🏭 Liberation Labs has partnered with Dutch startup Vivici to produce its precision-fermented whey protein, Vivitein, at a new biomanufacturing facility in Indiana starting next year.

Biodiversity x Climate

💦 The University of Graz, Carbon Kapture, and the EU-funded BioDiMoBot project have launched a collaboration integrating kelp farming and underwater robotics to monitor and restore aquatic ecosystems using scalable, AI-driven conservation technology.

🦆 Infographic: The ABC of wetlands.

Carbon x Climate

🗝️ Mission Zero Technologies, based in the UK, has opened its second UK DAC plant in Norfolk, using electrochemical technology to remove 250 tonnes of CO₂ annually and convert it into carbon-negative building materials.

💨 US-based CNaught raised $4.5 million to simplify carbon credit purchases for small and mid-sized businesses by vetting and bulk-buying high-quality credits, aiming to make the market more accessible beyond major corporate buyers.

Energy x Climate

🔋 UK-based Breathe Battery Technologies secured $21 million Series B funding to expand its suite of battery optimisation software, which helps automakers and electronics companies speed up development, reduce testing, and improve performance amid rapid shifts in markets like China’s fast-moving EV sector.

🌏 Arysun, which is working to make solar energy more accessible for middle-income households in Southeast Asia, raised $575,000 pre-seed funding to expand operations in Indonesia and build partnerships across the solar ecosystem.

🛤️ Swiss startup Sun-Ways has begun installing removable solar panels between active railway tracks, turning train lines into clean energy generators without using new land—an approach that could power 1.8 million homes if scaled across Germany’s rail network.

🌽 Researchers at Washington State University have developed a cost-effective method using ammonium sulfite and potassium hydroxide to extract sugar from agricultural waste like corn stalks, offering a more sustainable and economically viable pathway for biofuel production.

❌ The Trump administration is reportedly seeking to shut down the EPA’s Energy Star program—a decades-old initiative that helps consumers save $40 billion annually on energy costs—despite its proven effectiveness, bipartisan legacy, and 350-to-1 return on investment.

📉 Graph: Why the demand for heat pumps is declining again (after years of growth).

FinTech x Climate

🇵🇹 Lisbon-based sustainable finance platform Goparity secured €2.9 million to expand its mission of connecting individuals and companies with impactful, UN-aligned projects, after financing over 335 initiatives and €45 million in investments since its 2017 launch.

​​📝 The Climate Bonds Initiative launched the world’s first certification criteria for alternative proteins to help mobilise climate-focused investment into sustainable meat and dairy alternatives, aiming to scale the sector amid growing demand and declining investor confidence.

Funds x Climate

💸 Revo Capital secured $86 million at the first close of its third fund, with which it will back Turkish engineer-led Series A and B tech startups—especially in fintech, B2B SaaS, cybersecurity, and health tech—while adding energy and gaming as new verticals and prioritising AI-driven innovation across its portfolio.

💵 Ara Partners raised an $800 million infrastructure fund—exceeding its $500 million target—to invest in industrial decarbonisation projects, in a bid to address the funding gap for capital-intensive climate tech startups.

📈 Bosch Ventures launched its sixth fund, a $270 million vehicle focused on deep-tech startups working across verticals including automotive, climate tech, cybersecurity, semiconductor manufacturing, energy efficiency, enterprise software, and generative AI applications in the physical world.

Materials x Climate

🧬 London-based Solena Materials raised €5.9 million seed funding to scale production of its AI-designed, biodegradable protein fibres—engineered using microbes and renewable feedstocks—as a sustainable alternative to synthetic textiles for fashion and performance applications.

🇫🇷 French startup Faircraft has acquired the assets and 30-patent portfolio of US-based VitroLabs to accelerate industrial-scale production of lab-grown leather and strengthen its position in the luxury fashion market.

✝️ Fresh take: How the new Pope advanced ‘circular economy’ in the church.

Water x Climate

🌧️ Rainmaker raised $25 million in a Series A funding round led by Lowercarbon Capital to scale its next-generation precipitation enhancement technology aimed at producing rain and snow and greening deserts across the US.

💯 100+ ocean data startups to know, who have attracted over $250M in funding.

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola