⚾️ Vol 157: SFDR Leak Throws a Curveball

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Zero-emission marine vessels. Recycling emissions into ethylene. Autonomous systems to steward the ocean. Green steel cheaper than conventional. Cloud seeding to increase rainfall and fight drought. Carbon-free Portland cement and alumina alternatives.

An abundant future is already being built by bold Founders.

Next month, at the HackSummit, we’ll put the spotlight on 18 bright talents who are upending entire industries to rebuild from the ground up and share their journey so far.

Expect exclusive deep-dives, fast-track startup discovery, intimate Founder sessions and a front-row look at the breakthroughs shaping the next decade. See what’s planned.

In this week’s edition:

💶 Unconventional Ventures’ first close of its €80 million Fund II at €50 million
💸 Philanthropic funding for climate adaptation solutions hit $870 million in 2024
🐦‍⬛ 22 startups using bioacoustics to listen to ecosystems and increase biodiversity

The Digest

📈 What’s up? A new ClimateWorks Foundation report shows that philanthropic funding for climate adaptation solutions hit a record $870 million in 2024, more than double the 2021 total.

💡 The SFDR leak could rewrite the playbook for sustainability tech. Elena Stark of AENU shares what founders in this space must know. And Heike Schmitz of Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer unpacks her initial thoughts.

🇰🇪 Join Nairobi’s exciting Tech Mixer on 11th December for a one-of-a-kind networking experience. Sign up here.

♻️ Tech4Regen’s circular industry forum is happening on 27th November in Vaud, Switzerland.

AgriFood x Climate

🍫 French startup Green Spot Technologies secured €5 million in a round led by Team for the Planet, with support from the EIC, EIT Food, and angel investors, to scale production of its fermented, upcycled ingredients and launch MILATEA - a new sustainable, cocoa-alternative brand for bakers, pastry chefs, and chocolatiers.

📻 Finnish company Collo has developed radio-frequency IoT analysers and a “liquid intelligence” platform to help beverage and dairy producers cut waste, water use, and product losses through real-time liquid monitoring and machine learning–driven automation.

🇯🇵 Umami United, based in Japan, raised 310 million yen (≈$2.01 million) in additional pre-seed funding from investors including mint, Beyond Next Ventures, Genesia Ventures, SMBC Venture Capital, United Co., Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, and Mizuho Capital, to advance its plant-based egg technology and expand into Europe and the US.

🤝 Kokomodo is joining forces with Coop to test and scale its cell-based cacao for sustainable confectionery, evaluating functionality, sensory performance, and industrial feasibility.

🪲 FA Bio launched a proof-of-concept collaboration with Bayer Crop Science, co-funded by EIT Food, to advance fungal bioinsecticides as a solution against the Cabbage Stem Flea Beetle in oilseed rape.

Biodiversity x Climate

🎶 Hack Exclusive: 22 startups using bioacoustics to listen to ecosystems for forest, ocean, pollinator and agricultural monitoring. Check out the full report.

🧂 Sweden just changed the way they salt winter roads, here’s how it's saving thousands of birds every single year.

Carbon x Climate

🧑‍🌾 French climate investor Mirova is investing $30.5 million in Indian climate-tech startup Varaha via a carbon-credit sharing deal (rather than equity) to scale its Varaha Kheti regenerative farming project across Haryana and Punjab, helping hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers adopt low-emission practices, generate verified carbon credits, and improve soil health and livelihoods.

🌊 California-based Terranova raised $7 million seed funding in a round led by Congruent Ventures and Outlander to scale its robotic land-lifting technology, which injects a wood-waste slurry underground to raise sinking cities like San Rafael as a cheaper, lower-carbon alternative to seawalls for combating sea-level rise and subsidence.

🔢 Carbon Direct has acquired carbon credit startup Pachama to expand its carbon accounting and advisory capabilities into nature-based credits. Here’s why it’s a big deal.

Energy x Climate

☀️ US-based Exowatt raised an additional $50 million to scale its modular “rocks-in-a-box” concentrated solar technology, aiming to deliver 24/7 power at one cent per kWh for data centers by mass-producing simple, container-sized thermal batteries.

🧫 Australian startup SunDrive secured $25.3 million in new ARENA funding to scale and commercialise its copper-based, silver-free solar cell technology, upgrading its Sydney R&D facility and advancing a 300MW production partnership as it works to deliver cheaper, more efficient, globally competitive solar panels.

🔋 BTRY closed its seed round, backed by investors including Redstone, Linear Capital, Bloomhaus Ventures, HTGF, ZKB, Kickfund, Venture Kick and the CustomCells founders, to scale production and bring its ultra-thin solid-state batteries closer to market.

🍻 Heineken has partnered with Rondo Energy and EDP to install a solar-powered, 100 MWh heat battery system at its Lisbon-area brewery, providing zero-carbon steam via a heat-as-a-service model.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 North Wales has been chosen as the site for the UK’s first small modular nuclear reactor, a £2.5 billion project the government says will create thousands of jobs and kick-start a nationwide SMR rollout to boost clean energy and support the country’s wider tech and infrastructure ambitions.

🛝 Turning old and decommissioned wind turbines into playgrounds.

Funds x Climate

💰 Unconventional Ventures announced the first close of its €80 million Fund II at €50 million, backed by the EIF, EIFO, Nordea-fonden, TryghedsGruppen and others, to help scale its mission of backing overlooked founders tackling global challenges.

💸 German VC Oyster Bay closed its second, €100 million+ oversubscribed fund, positioning it among Europe’s largest dedicated “future food” investors as it seeks to support around 20 startups transforming global food systems through scalable, sustainable innovations.

🌎 Cultivar STL, an agtech initiative founded by the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, The Yield Lab, BioSTL, and partners in Latin America, launched the Core Facilities Access Fund, backed by Breakthrough Energy Discovery, to help Latin American startups advance research and validate technologies while strengthening agtech ties between Latin America and St. Louis.

Materials x Climate

🧵 Nike and Syre the Swedish circular polyester manufacturer announced a multi-year agreement for textile-to-textile recycled polyester. Here’s why Nike is doubling down on recycled fibers.

🔬 Netherlands-based Qorium raised €22 million in Series A funding from Invest-NL, LIOF, Brightlands Venture Partners, Sofinnova Partners and others to scale and commercialise its lab-grown leather, aiming to offer a more sustainable, ethical alternative to traditional animal-derived materials.

🌞 Beyond Renewables & Recycling, based in India, raised Rs 5 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by Momentum Capital to scale its proprietary technology and waste-supply network for recycling end-of-life solar panels and recovering over 95% of their materials as India’s solar waste crisis grows.

Methane x Climate

🐄 Australian startup Number 8 Bio secured $11 million Series A funding in a round led by Icehouse Ventures, with participation from Main Sequence and One Innovators. It will use the funds to scale animal trials, secure regulatory approvals, and prepare its cost-effective methane-reducing livestock feed additive and slow-release capsule for commercial launch in 2026.

Mobility x Climate

🪽 Humour: The campaign to get consumers the same tax breaks as private jets.

🚚 Italian startup SWITCH has developed agentic AI tools that simulate, forecast, and optimise urban mobility in real time, designed to help shared transport operators and cities move from reactive to data-driven decision-making, and has raised €600,000 from private investors including EIT Mobility and Berkeley SkyDeck, plus €400,000 in public grants, to expand its intelligent mobility platform across Europe.

🚗 Finland’s Synergi launched the country’s first EV virtual power plant, using its app to aggregate thousands of home-charging electric vehicles for real-time grid balancing while allowing drivers to earn monetary rewards through smart, flexible charging.

TV Shows x Climate

Why Stranger Things = Green Hydrogen

Job Searching x Climate

"I'm not unemployed, I'm pre-salary"

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Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola