🐡 Vol 147: Microplastic-Eating Robotic Fish

Hi there

Today we’re launching Hack’s first-ever Global Impact Survey, a chance for you to roast us (nicely), share your wins, lessons and stories that make the Hack community what it is.

Whether you’re a new subscriber or a loyal reader of our Friday recap, or have joined us for local Meetups and the HackSummit, we want to hear from you.

Some of the beginnings Hack has helped create, include:

• Securing a new job

• Finding a Co-Founder

• Closing a next investment

• Sparking a new collaboration

But we suspect many more go untold. That’s where you come in.

Head this way to share your story (+ check out the perks incl HackTrends, Hack cap) and help us measure our impact, see where we can go bigger and shape what’s next.

In this week’s edition:

🛩️ LanzaTech secured £6.4 million to develop two commercial-scale plants
🏭 Mission Zero Technologies opens its 3rd DAC plant, this time in Canada
💍 Cultivated Biomaterials debuts world’s first jewellery from cultivated leather

Digest x Climate

📈 What’s up? The Polestar 3 Long Range Single Motor electric SUV has set a Guinness World Record for the longest distance travelled by an electric SUV on a single charge, covering 581.3 miles.

🔟 Good read: EU-Startups shares 10 promising startups shaping Europe’s ClimateTech future.

🔧 Useful: Check out Sifted’s FOAK playbook: the role of CVCs.

🏡 120 startups behind residential heat pump installations by SET Ventures.

⛓️ Discover all 33 AI tools featured in the AI-First Playbook for Founders from Extantia.

🇸🇪 Join us in Stockholm for the city’s first ClimateHack Meetup on Investing in Nature.

🎟️ HackSummit Super Early Bird Prices end in just 6 days.

AgriFood x Climate

☕️ Singapore-based Prefer raised $4.2 million in a pre-Series A funding round co-led by At One Ventures and Chancery Hill Capital, with participation from Forge Ventures. It will use the funds to expand its bean-free coffee and cocoa globally, alongside new partnerships with Ajinomoto and The Coffee Ferm.

🐟 Austria’s Revo Foods raised €1,603,427 from 212 investors in its latest crowdfunding campaign to scale production, boost marketing, and advance its patented 3D printing plant-based technology.

🎨 Israel’s Phytolon secured bridge funding from Colorcon Ventures alongside existing investors including Rich’s, Ginkgo Bioworks, NextGen Nutrition, Arkin Capital, Trendlines, EIT Food, Yossi Ackerman, and Steve Dubin to commercialise its precision-fermented natural food colorings and expand into the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets.

🍫 Mars is partnering with US gene‑editing firm Pairwise to rapidly develop cocoa varieties with improved resilience to disease, climate stress, and supply chain volatility, using CRISPR-based methods to breed traits far faster than traditional breeding allows.

🧆 Australian startup Nourish Ingredients received FEMA GRAS status in the US for its precision-fermented fat, Tastilux, meaning it can now commercialise its animal-free ingredient that adds meaty flavour and aroma to food products.

Biodiversity x Climate

👀 Good read: Nate Crosser shares a new four-quadrant framework for environmentalism.

💦 Meet GuppyX, a robotic fish that swims through polluted water and filters out microplastics, developed by the The University of Tokyo.

🪸 New map: 14 startups saving our coral reefs.

Carbon x Climate

💦 Global carbon dioxide removal and green hydrogen production company Equatic raised $11.6 million in a Series A funding round co-led by Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health and Kibo Invest. It will use the funds to scale and commercialise its patented seawater electrolysis technology.

🗝️ London-based Mission Zero Technologies opened its third direct air capture plant, this time in Alberta, Canada, capable of removing 250 tonnes of CO₂ annually.

Chemicals x Climate

🧪 Algenesis Labs has commissioned a pilot plant in San Diego to produce Bio‑Iso™, the world’s first 100% plant‑based, phosgene‑free isocyanate, enabling fully biobased, high‑performance thermoplastic polyurethanes for circular material solutions.

Energy x Climate

🇸🇪 Stockholm-based Aira, which develops and installs intelligent clean energy technologies such as air source heat pumps to replace gas boilers, raised €150 million in equity financing from existing investors Altor, Kallskär, Kinnevik, Lingotto, and Temasek to expand its operations.

☀️ National Renewable Network, based in Australia and developing virtual power plants from household solar and battery systems offered with no upfront cost to consumers, secured $17 million in a Series A funding round led by Investible and Virescent Ventures with participation from Ecotone Partners, alongside $50 million in debt financing from Infradebt-managed funds.

🏭 Israel’s NeoLogic raised a $10 million Series A round led by KOMPAS VC, with participation from M Ventures, Maniv Mobility, and lool Ventures, to expand its engineering team and develop energy-efficient server CPUs for AI data centers using simplified logic designs with fewer transistors and gates.

⚡️ The University of Manchester received an £8.2 million UKRI EPSRC grant to lead the five-year ENLIGHT program with partner universities to develop technologies for sustainable nuclear graphite supply and waste management in next-generation reactors.

⛽️ Finland’s Rebelvolt, which develops battery-based e-Generators as clean, silent alternatives to diesel units, closed a funding round led by Gorilla Capital Fund III with participation from JMS Consulting Oy, UAV OÜ, and Meri Heikkinen to scale product development and expand its go-to-market strategy.

🔋 California has completed the US’ largest virtual power plant test, drawing 535 MW from over 100,000 home batteries during peak demand to prove VPPs can reliably deliver fast, low-cost, zero-emissions power.

🇬🇧 Tesla has applied to UK regulator Ofgem for a licence to supply electricity across England, Scotland, and Wales, paving the way for its Tesla Electric venture to enter the British energy market.

🔌 Up close: The nerve center of the 100+ kW aluminum-fuel power plant assembled in < 6 months.

Funds x Climate

💸 Aarhus-based Delphinus Venture Capital launched with €80 million from the Aarhus University Research Foundation, HEARTLAND, Norlys, and Salling Group to invest long-term in research-focused startups from pre-seed to scale-up.

Materials x Climate

💡 Supply Change Capital explains why nearly $2B in investment aimed at fixing packaging waste is still falling short.

💍 US-based Cultivated Biomaterials debuted Angelry, the world’s first jewellery line made from cultivated leather derived from the cells of a sanctuary-grazing cow.

🍌 7 biomaterials that prove fashion can be fabulous without the fallout.

Methane x Climate

🐄 Ambient Carbon has successfully validated its Methane Eradication Photochemical System in a large-scale Danish dairy barn trial, achieving up to 90% methane removal and additional ammonia and odour reduction.

🛒 Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ largest supermarket and part of Ahold Delhaize, has become the first retailer globally to publicly disclose its methane emissions by adding them to its 2024 sustainability report, marking a breakthrough in climate transparency.

Mobility x Climate

🚲 Take a closer look: the first electric bike that didn’t need a battery.

🛵 Indian electric motorcycle startup Ultraviolette raised $21 million in an all-equity round led by TDK Ventures, with participation from Zoho Corporation and Lingotto, to accelerate expansion into Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia and grow its portfolio to 14 models by 2027.

🛩️ US-based LanzaTech secured £6.4 million from the UK government’s Advanced Fuels Fund to advance its Project DRAGON in South Wales, developing two commercial-scale plants to produce sustainable aviation fuel using its gas fermentation and LanzaJet® Alcohol-to-Jet technologies.

💸 The Trump administration released new guidance for distributing $5 billion in electric vehicle charging infrastructure funds, after a court-ordered end to its spending freeze.

✈️ Good watch: Getting a Power-to-Liquid plant ready to be transported to a customer’s site.

⛽️ 20+ Biofuels & Alternative Fuels innovators across 6 breakthrough categories

Fundraising x Climate 

When charisma is 👑

Climate x Renewables

Samuel L. Jackson comes up trumps on wind turbines

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola