🌳 Vol 141: The World-Wide Wood Web

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If you’re based in London or Paris and looking for the perfect excuse to build a community of ClimateTech Founders and Funders in your city, then this could be it.

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In this week’s edition:

🪨 Fervo Energy secured $206 million to advance Cape Station in Utah, set to become the world’s largest enhanced geothermal power plant
🇫🇷 France has overwhelmingly passed a groundbreaking bill to curb ultra-fast fashion, banning its advertising and introducing environmental penalties
⚡️ Global investment in clean energy is set to reach $2.15 trillion in 2025, nearly double that of fossil fuels

The Digest

📈 What’s up? Global investment in clean energy is set to reach $2.15 trillion in 2025, nearly double that of fossil fuels, according to a new IEA report.

📉 What’s down? US battery maker Powin has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with over $300 million in debt, just months after landing a $200 million loan, citing supply chain challenges.

📽️ Good watch: Jessica Burley shared Deutsche Welle’s video unpacking the impact of the US pulling back from ClimateTech. 

🔥 Opinion: Why a European founder shouldn’t list in Europe right now. Unless there is a very specific reason to be in a local market.

🗡️ Europe’s VC mafia, mapped by Sifted.

🔍 5 grid inspection startups to watch in 2025.

AgriFood x Climate

🤖 LA-based Coco Robotics raised $80 million to scale its zero-emissions last-mile delivery robots, which have completed over 500,000 deliveries and now operate in partnership with OpenAI to provide real-world data for AI model training.

⚡️ RootWave raised $15 million in a funding round led by Clay Capital to expand its tractor-mounted electric weed-killing technology internationally beyond the UK’s permanent tree crop market.

🥛 Portuguese startup PFx Biotech raised €2.5 million seed funding, matching a recent €2.5 million EU grant, to scale its yeast-based human milk protein production. It uses precision fermentation to create bioidentical milk proteins, like lactoferrin, for applications ranging from infant formula to elderly health and sports performance.

🔍 Belgian AI startup Polysense secured €2 million seed funding to scale its waste-reducing, efficiency-boosting technology for food manufacturers, designed to enable faster defect detection and smarter process control.

Biodiversity x Climate

🌳 Good watch: How our trees and forests are all interconnected and have been for over 400M years, creating the ‘world-wide wood web’.

Construction x Climate

🧱 Hakkers and Paebbl launched carbon-storing harbour infrastructure at the Port of Rotterdam, marking a world first, replacing 15% of cement with CO₂-storing material and using electric drilling to cut emissions.

⚒️ Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a method to convert captured carbon dioxide into metal oxalates, which are key building blocks for cement, offering a sustainable way to repurpose industrial CO₂ emissions into valuable construction materials.

Energy x Climate

🪨 Fervo Energy secured $206 million to advance Cape Station in Utah, set to become the world’s largest enhanced geothermal power plant, delivering 500 megawatts of 24/7, emissions-free energy by 2028 to help power AI data centers. Watch this video to virtually drop by their site.

💥 Proxima Fusion raised a record €130 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Cherry Ventures and Balderton Capital, marking Europe's largest private fusion investment, to accelerate development of the world’s first commercial fusion power plant using its breakthrough QI-HTS stellarator technology.

🪙 Standard Nuclear emerged from stealth with $42 million in funding to commercialise advanced TRISO nuclear fuel, building on assets acquired from the bankrupt Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, and already claims $100 million in projected 2027 fuel sales.

🔋 US battery materials startup Mitra Chem secured $15.6 million of a planned $50 million round to advance lithium-iron-phosphate battery technology, as demand grows for cost-effective EV batteries and political headwinds intensify.

🔌 Germany’s Voltfang raised €15 million in a Series B funding round led by FORWARD.One to scale production of high-performance battery storage systems made using requalified EV batteries.

⚡️ Munich-based Co-Power raised €6.4 million to scale its zero-upfront-cost battery storage and solar PV systems, helping Europe’s industrial sector slash energy costs and boost resilience amid volatile electricity prices.

📈 Melbourne startup Voltavate secured $850,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Artesian. It will use the funds to advance its nanofibre battery separator technology, as it works to improve the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of lithium-ion batteries across EV, grid, and emerging storage applications.

🌍️ Octopus Energy Group made a strategic investment in MOPO, a fast-growing energy tech company providing solar-powered, pay-per-use battery rentals to underserved communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, which aims to replace polluting generators with clean, affordable energy and create local green jobs.

⛽️ Munich-based nuuEnergy raised a seven-figure pre-seed funding round to scale its hybrid model that combines digital planning with regional craftsmanship for “high-quality, end-to-end heat pump installation”.

🤝 Meta has partnered with geothermal startup XGS Energy to advance the development of a 150-megawatt power plant in New Mexico.

🚬 A recent study highlights the potential of using cigarette butts for renewable energy applications, showcasing their use in energy storage, water purification, and hydrogen storage while addressing the environmental hazards of cigarette butt waste.

Materials x Climate

💦 Impact Recycling, based in the UK, secured €3.8 million from IW Capital to scale its operations and expand internationally, leveraging its patented water-based density separation technology (BOSS) to recover high-purity polyethylene and polypropylene from mixed post-consumer plastic waste.

🇫🇷 France has overwhelmingly passed a groundbreaking bill to curb ultra-fast fashion, banning its advertising, including by influencers, and introducing environmental penalties of up to €10 per item by 2030, marking a major step toward fairer, greener fashion and (hopefully) setting a precedent for the EU.

🧃 Why the plastic problem is much worse than you think - watch the video.

👠 Take a look: A fashion show in the middle of a junk yard.

Mobility x Climate

🚙 London-based energy tech firm Believ secured a £300 million investment facility to install at least 30,000 EV charge points across the UK, contributing to national infrastructure goals.

⛴️ Swedish electric ferry startup Candela secured its largest deal to date, selling 11 energy-efficient hydrofoil ferries to Mumbai-based Jalvimana as part of a plan to transform the city’s waterways into the world’s largest electric mass transit system on water.

Irony x Climate

A finish line littered with plastic.

Greenwashing x Climate

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola