🇪🇺 Vol 176: Making Europe the world’s first “electro-continent”

Hi there,

Can you turn science into something that runs reliably at scale?

That question powered last week’s HackSummit, and one idea kept bubbling up: innovation isn’t the issue, industrialisation is.

From hardware financing to resilient supply chains to computational design, the challenge (and opportunity) is turning breakthroughs into systems that actually run at scale. That means tighter partnerships, smarter capital, and ecosystems built to deliver, not just invent.

The good news? Europe already has all the pieces of the puzzle. What’s changing now is the coordination, and the urgency to deliver.

In this week’s edition: 

🤑 X-Energy’s billion-dollar IPO
🚲 Forest bags £40M for e-bikes
💰 BMW i Venture’s new $300M fund

The Digest

🇪🇺 A coalition of European investors, corporates and startups, led by Norrsken, is urging EU policymakers to commit to making Europe the world’s first “electro-continent”, targeting 50% of final energy consumption from clean, domestically produced electricity by 2040 to cut fossil fuel dependence, reduce energy price shocks and boost industrial competitiveness.

💪🏼 Good Read: Chainreactor shared thoughts on why Europe is Deep Tech’s new frontier, inspired by the HackSummit.

🇨🇭 Interesting: Hugo Rauch, VC at Climate Club, shared a snapshot of Switzerland’s best-funded climate startups.

👀 Interesting: TIME unveiled its list of the ten most influential sustainability companies of 2026.

AgriFood x Climate

👶🏻 Primogene, based in Germany, raised €4.1 million seed funding in a round led by High-Tech Gründerfonds, with participation from Technologiegründerfonds Sachsen, Better Ventures, Sächsische Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Golzern Holding, FS Life Science Investment and C-LEcta founder Marc Struhalla, to further develop enzymatically produced, nature-identical bioactive molecules such as human milk oligosaccharides for infant nutrition.

🥛 Canada’s Opalia closed around CAD$2 million from investors including Hoogwegt Group, Ahimsa Foundation, Box One Ventures, Cycle Momentum, Kale United, Investissement Québec and Natural Products Canada. It will use the funds to scale its cell-based dairy and work towards regulatory approval in North America.

💡 US startup Fermeate secured $2 million in a seed funding round led by Newfund Capital, with participation from SOSV and Ajinomoto Group Ventures, to further develop its optogenetics platform that uses light to control microbial gene expression and boost precision fermentation output. 

🏭 Solar Foods secured €350,000 in EU funding through the BalticSeaH2 hydrogen valley project to scale production of its air-based protein Solein, with the funds aimed at expanding capacity at its Factory 01 facility and demonstrating hydrogen-powered food production as part of a broader clean energy ecosystem.

Biodiversity x Climate

🌳 US-based Living Carbon secured a $500 million project financing from Octopus Energy Generation to scale reforestation across North America, targeting 250,000 acres, to remove CO₂ and produce sustainable forest products, supported by carbon offtake deals with Google, Meta and McKinsey & Company.

Energy x Climate

💰 US startup X-energy raised around $1 billion in an upsized IPO, selling shares at $23 each to fund the development and deployment of its small modular nuclear reactors, with the stock jumping 27% on its Nasdaq debut.

☀️ UK-based Enviromena secured an £825 million financing package from lenders including BBVA, Intesa Sanpaolo, Lloyds, NatWest and Société Générale to develop and operate large-scale renewable energy projects, aiming to accelerate delivery of a 1GW UK solar pipeline and scale its platform to support the country’s energy transition and net-zero goals.

🌀 Spiral Hydrogen raised €2.7 million pre-seed funding to further develop its high-efficiency electrolyser technology, and will use the funds to build a green hydrogen pilot in Rotterdam to demonstrate lower-cost, scalable production for industrial decarbonisation.

♻️ Researchers at the University of Adelaide have demonstrated that solar-powered “photoreforming” can convert waste plastics into hydrogen, syngas and other valuable chemicals.

⚛️ US-based Zap Energy is expanding beyond fusion by adding nuclear fission to its roadmap, developing small modular reactors to deliver near-term power and generate revenue faster, driven by surging electricity demand from AI and data centres.

📈 AI-driven data center electricity demand is pushing a shift toward natural gas power, with construction costs for gas plants rising 66% over the past two years, according to data from Wood Mackenzie.

👀 Useful: SET Ventures released its market report exploring why process heat is one of the “largest and most underexplored opportunities” for industrial decarbonisation. 

Materials x Climate

🦠 Netherlands-based Foamlab raised €3 million in a funding round led by ICOS Capital, with participation from Value Factory Ventures, DOEN Ventures, Capricorn Industrial Biotech Fund and TTT Green Tech, to build a pilot plant for its compostable, bacterial cellulose-based foams as alternatives to fossil plastics.

⏩️ Earth AI is vertically integrating its AI-powered critical minerals discovery platform by building in-house labs to analyse drilling samples, cutting turnaround times from months to days, in order to speed up exploration, reduce costs and improve decision-making in the search for deposits like copper and palladium.

🤑 Fashion resale platform Vinted has reached an €8 billion valuation following an €880 million secondary sale led by EQT Group, with TVG, Schroders Capital and BlackRock.

Mobility x Climate

🚲 London-based Forest raised £40 million Series B funding, including backing from OKAI, B8 Venture Partners, Fen Ventures, Güil Mobility Ventures and Fintex Capital, to expand its shared e-bike platform across the city.

🚕 Rocsys raised $13 million in a Series A extension led by Capricorn Partners with participation from Scania Invest, Forward.One, SEB Greentech and Graduate Ventures. It will use the funds to launch its M1 system, the world’s first multi-bay, hands-free EV charging solution for robotaxi fleets. 

🚙 Australia’s ReadySteadyPlug secured $1.51 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency to expand its EV Charging-as-a-Service platform for apartment buildings, with the funds aimed at accelerating installation of affordable, scalable charging infrastructure nationwide to support growing electric vehicle adoption.

💰 BMW i Ventures launched a new $300 million fund to invest in early-stage startups across AI, robotics and industrial tech, with a focus on “agentic” and physical AI to transform automotive, manufacturing and supply chains.

🚤 Semantics x Climate

We have to stop using anti-transport language:

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Editorial and curation by Nicola