🏗️ Vol 165: Rock-solid climate tech

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Hi there,

January has finally wrapped up its 97th week, and, to celebrate, we’re sharing the conversations we’ve been having with 35 Europe-focused climate investors on what’s rising to the top of their priority lists for 2026.

From nature and food systems to energy, materials, circularity and manufacturing, the focus is firmly on tech that can scale, perform in the real world and build resilience where it matters most.

So whether you’re building, backing or tracking what’s next, this is your shortcut to where serious climate capital is lining up.

In this week’s edition: 

🌊 Making waves in carbon removal with a $20m ocean-scale algae bet for Gigablue
🔋 Redwood Materials scored $425mi to give EV batteries a second life
🏗️ Turning CO₂ into stone as Carbonaide and Co-reactive cement their next raise

The Digest

🔌 Good Read: Heavy-duty electrification is becoming a full ecosystem, not just trucks and chargers; SET Ventures’ latest report maps the companies and technologies shaping zero-emission freight.

💸 Useful: World Fund published a new report on the Series B funding gap in European climate tech.

🤑 Good Read: How to address the intense post-funding dip.

🇳🇱 Join us next at ClimateHack Amsterdam on February 18th as VCs weigh in on the road to 2030.

💡 Are you engineering regenerative or circular solutions? Apply to Tech4Regen, EPFL Innovation Park’s 8-month, equity-free acceleration program. Deadline: Feb 15, 2026.

🔦 Applications are now open for MassChallenge Switzerland’s Accelerator - A 4-month, equity-free programme designed to accelerate your growth through tailored support, expert access, and a strong global network.

AgriFood x Climate

​​🌾 Heritable Agriculture, an AI genomics startup spun out of Google X, received a $4.98 million grant from the Gates Foundation to build a cloud-based AI and multi-omics platform that accelerates the development of climate-resilient crops for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries.

🛒 CREMER Group launched FermBase, a new global one-stop shop for fermentation media, to provide startups and established companies with scalable feedstock sourcing and supply chain solutions to reduce costs, complexity and bottlenecks in next-generation and precision fermentation.

▶️ Cultivated meat got a major cultural boost as YouTube megastar MrBeast visited Upside Foods’ California facility, learned how cell-based chicken is made, and tasted it on camera.

🐟 North Carolina–based Atlantic Fish Co and Austria’s Revo Foods are collaborating to develop hybrid whole-cut seafood by combining cultivated whitefish cells with Revo’s mycoprotein-based 3D structuring platform.

🇮🇳 Swiss mycoprotein producer Planetary is in talks with India’s Dhampur Bio Organics to license its fermentation technology and co-locate production at sugar mills, aiming to make low-cost mycoprotein at industrial scale at below $1 per kilo.

Carbon x Climate

🌊 Marine carbon removal startup Gigablue secured $20 million at the first close of its Series A round, led by Planet Ocean Capital, to scale its microalgae-based ocean carbon sequestration technology and monitoring systems.

⛽️ XFuel secured $20 million in a Series A funding round led by investors including WAGNER Carbon, Audacy, Future Planet Capital, Light Ray Ventures, Overlap Holdings, NYK Line and Stolt Ventures, to deploy its first commercial-scale facilities using its Chemical Liquid Refining technology to convert waste hydrocarbons into low-carbon drop-in fuels.

🏗️ Finnish startup Carbonaide raised €3.7 million from backers including Vantaan Energia, Redstone and Zero Carbon Future Group to scale its CO₂-curing technology that permanently mineralises carbon in concrete.

✈️ Researchers at RMIT have developed an integrated, low-energy system that converts industrial CO₂ emissions into chemical building blocks for sustainable jet fuel.

Energy x Climate

🔋 Battery recycling and energy storage firm Redwood Materials expanded its Series E to $425  million with new backing from Google alongside Nvidia, Eclipse, Capricorn and Goldman Sachs as it scales grid-scale storage from repurposed EV batteries to power AI data centres and industrial sites.

⚛️ US nuclear fuel startup Standard Nuclear secured $140 million, in a Series A funding round led by Decisive Point with investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Chevron Technology Ventures, to scale production of TRISO fuel for small modular reactors.

💻 New York–based industrial AI startup CVector raised a $5 million seed round led by Powerhouse Ventures to scale its software layer that connects plant operations with real-time economic insights, helping utilities, manufacturers and chemical producers cut costs and improve efficiency.

🌞 French startup Radiant has joined Hexa’s Carbon Zero accelerator and raised €2 million with backing from Tiresias Angels and Selim Cherif to scale its high-temperature solar thermal technology for replacing fossil-fuel heat in industrial processes.

🇪🇸 Barcelona-based TetraxAI secured €1.2 million in pre-seed funding led by The Footprint Firm, with Norrsken Evolve, Carbon13 and NEOTEC, to scale its AI platform that automates and accelerates regulatory and land-risk due diligence for renewable energy projects.

💡 London-based Tewke has developed an AI-powered smart light switch that combines universal physical controls, on-device intelligence and environmental sensing to automate household energy use, shift consumption to cleaner, cheaper times, and make demand-side management simple and accessible for everyone.

Funds x Climate

💰 Obvious Ventures raised its fifth fund at $360,360,360, continuing its tradition of symbolic fund sizes while backing early-stage startups across planetary, human and economic health with investments in areas such as geothermal energy, AI-driven drug discovery and robotics.

💵 Voyager Ventures, an early-stage VC firm investing in foundational technologies across Europe and the US, closed its $275 million Fund II to back startups in energy, materials, industrial software, mobility, built environment and carbon management.

🔵 Paris-based VC firm daphni completed a €260 million final close for its Blue fund to back science-driven deeptech startups across Europe, with the aim of turning research-led innovations into scalable companies addressing societal and environmental challenges. 

💶 UK VC 2150 secured €210 million for its second fund, backed by Viessmann Generations Group, Chr. Augustinus Fabrikker, Novo Holdings, EIFO, Security Trading Oy, Islandbridge Capital, Carbon Equity and the US-based Church Pension Group, to scale Series A climate and industrial technologies reshaping cities and heavy industry.

🇩🇰 Copenhagen-based The Footprint Firm closed its €76 million Footprint Fund I, backed by investors including Novo Holdings and EIFO, to invest in around 30 early-stage DeepTech startups across Northern Europe focused on scalable technologies for the green transition.

Materials x Climate

🏗️ Düsseldorf-based Co-reactive secured €6.5 million seed funding, in a round led by HTGF, with backing from NRW.Bank, HBG Ventures, AFI Ventures, Evercurious VC and business angels, to scale its CO₂ mineralisation technology that turns captured carbon and industrial minerals into CO₂-negative cement additives.

⚡️ DexMat raised over $5 million in a seed funding round led by non sibi ventures to scale production and commercial adoption of its lightweight, carbon-based conductive material Galvorn as manufacturers seek alternatives to copper amid supply and performance constraints.

🇬🇧 UK startup Forge Minerals raised a £1 million pre-seed round led by Sustainable Ventures and The Conduit Connect, with backing from Old College Capital, One Planet Capital, Kappika Ventures and Scottish Enterprise, to scale its process for turning waste CO₂ into low-carbon magnesium carbonate and other industrial minerals.

🎣 The REDES4VALUE project, led by a Spanish consortium including AIMPLAS, UBE, ZIKNES and the University of Valencia, is using advanced mechanical and chemical recycling to turn discarded polyamide fishing nets into high-value products such as recycled nylon and packaging films.

📦 Sabert Corporation Europe launched PULPUltra, a PFAS-free, bagasse-fibre foodservice packaging range which combines high heat and grease resistance with recyclability and compostability.

🍿 Good watch: Why a copper supercycle is coming.

Mobility x Climate

🤖 Melbourne-based Applied Electric Vehicles raised $40 million Series B funding in a round led by Australia’s National Reconstruction Fund, with backing from Suzuki, Barrenjoey and Japan Post Capital, to manufacture and scale its cab-less “Blanc Robot” autonomous electric vehicles for logistics, industrial and mining applications.

🥙 Brooklyn startup PopWheels is piloting the use of its swappable e-bike batteries to power New York City food carts, offering a quieter, cleaner and potentially cost-competitive alternative to gas generators as part of its urban battery-swapping network.

🚲 Electric bike company Rad Power Bikes has agreed to sell itself to Florida-based Life Electric Vehicles Holdings for about $13.2 million following a bankruptcy auction and a sharp fall from its $1.65 billion peak valuation

 🤠 Reality x Climate

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Editorial and curation by Nicola