🌛 Vol 179: Bright ideas from the dark side of the moon

Hi there,

NASA is testing a rechargeable fuel cell designed to eventually help humans survive on the Moon, which means we are officially one step closer to hearing someone say “the Wi-Fi’s down” in space.

The system stores energy using hydrogen and oxygen, kind of like a giant cosmic power bank, except this one has to survive freezing temperatures, radiation, and two-week-long lunar nights. 

And space tech has a funny habit of coming back down to Earth. The same fuel cell breakthroughs being designed for Moon bases could also help solve one of clean energy’s biggest headaches here at home: how to store renewable power when the sun is not shining and the wind isn’t blowing.

In other words, the race to live on the Moon might help us keep the lights on in Europe.

In this week’s edition: 

🇩🇪 Germany’s got a new biotech roadmap
😬 AI’s power bill enters beast mode
👜 Mushroom leather gets its luxury glow-up

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The Digest

☁️ UK startup Greenpixie raised £4.7 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by VERBUND X Ventures, with participation from Octopus Ventures, Armajaro Holdings and Green Angel Ventures, to expand its FinOps and GreenOps tools that help enterprises cut cloud and AI infrastructure cost, carbon and water waste. 

🔥 Zurich-based AVIAN raised €2.2 million pre-seed funding in a round led by Founderful to expand its always-on AI thermal monitoring platform for industrial fire prevention, scaling engineering and deployments beyond wood products into recycling, chemical processing, oil and gas, and maritime.

🤝🏼 Microsoft has signed a deal to buy 650,000 metric tons of carbon-removal credits from BioCirc’s biogas projects, signalling it is recalibrating rather than abandoning carbon-removal purchases as AI-driven energy demand strains its 2030 carbon-negative target. 

AgriFood x Climate

🐮 Netherlands-based Triple Bio emerged from stealth with €1.5 million from Nucleus Capital, Positron Ventures and Climate Club to develop lipid-based cattle feed additives that boost milk yields and reduce methane.

💵 Big Idea Ventures has invested $200,000 each in five food biotech startups - Saku Biosciences, RheaPlant, XiA’H, BioClé and CryoVera - to help scale technologies in fermentation, plant cell biomanufacturing, enzyme extraction, bioactive delivery and frozen-food preservation. 

🤖 US startup Capra Biosciences is working with Boston University on wireless “chickpea-sized” biosensors that could cut biomanufacturing costs by monitoring fermentation in real time, helping optimise production of ingredients like retinol and salicylic acid.

🇩🇪 Germany’s federal government unveiled a biotechnology roadmap to open a national alternative-protein innovation hub in 2027 and push EU novel food regulatory sandboxes, aiming to commercialise cultivated meat and precision-fermented foods, lower production costs and strengthen its agrifood biotech sector.

Energy x Climate

☀️ Munich-based Feldwerke secured a €12 million revolving credit facility from a French renewable-energy debt fund to build around 100MW of agri-PV systems over the next 18 months, helping farmers combine crop production with solar power generation.

🥶 German startup Qurie raised €2.2 million seed funding from HTGF, TT49 and Aepikur to further develop electrocaloric refrigeration systems without compressors or refrigerants, targeting industrial enclosure cooling before expanding into commercial, medical, electronics and automotive uses.

🌛 NASA Glenn Research Center is testing a regenerative hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell that works like a rechargeable battery, aiming to store solar power, survive the Moon’s two-week lunar night and support future Artemis lunar habitats while also advancing hydrogen energy storage for Earth.

⚡️ The US’ biggest grid operator, PJM Interconnection, just saw wholesale electricity prices jump 76% to $136.53/MWh, with watchdog Monitoring Analytics blaming surging data centre demand and warning that consumers may bear the costs unless tech companies pay more directly for their own power needs.

Funds x Climate

🔥 US-based Convective Capital raised an $85 million fund backed largely by institutions including insurers and asset managers to invest in early-stage disaster-resilience startups spanning wildfire, utilities, insurance, infrastructure and physical-world risk management.

💰 London’s Lansdowne Partners launched a VC fund with a £112 million first close backed by British Business Bank, Aviva Investors, Lloyds Banking Group and Lansdowne investors, to support high-potential UK university spinouts and startups in sectors including healthcare data, quantum, advanced materials, semiconductors and defence tech.

Materials x Climate

🌼 UK-based QuberTech raised £3.4 million in combined grant funding and equity investment from UKI2S and Sustainable Ventures to further develop sustainable natural rubber from engineered dandelions.

🪸 Swedish startup Salt & Fiber launched a €45,000 crowdfunding campaign alongside a €300,000 pre-seed round to scale its beach-cast seagrass textile yarns, fund pilot production and move toward commercialisation in 2027–2028.

💻 Dunia Innovations unveiled a €280 million Berlin GigaLab, backed by Siemens, ABB Robotics, NVIDIA and AWS, to industrialise its AI- and robotics-driven advanced materials discovery platform for catalysts, batteries and semiconductors.

🪵 Estonian biotech ÄIO secured COSMOS certification for three yeast-fermentation-derived cosmetic oils and lipid ingredients made from wood and agricultural side-streams.

👜 Italy’s SQIM launched Ephea Uma, a low-impact mycelium-based material now entering a global luxury accessories collection, marking its move from one-off fashion pieces into commercial luxury applications.

🇺🇸 US-based Sortera and AMP are using AI-powered sensors, cameras and robotics to recover and sort aluminum from scrap and waste streams more accurately, helping boost domestic supply and profitability as aluminum prices rise.

Water x Climate

💧Japan’s Suntory Group launched a Brisbane River catchment water replenishment initiative in Queensland, Australia, to restore waterways, improve water sustainability and support future water management strategies.

🇬🇧 UK water regulator Ofwat has awarded £58 million to 19 Water Breakthrough Challenge projects across England and Wales, funding innovations including mushroom-based water filters, AI river-health monitoring, 3D-printed wastewater infrastructure and wastewater superbug tracking to help cut pollution, protect ecosystems and improve water resilience.

Photoshop x Climate

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Editorial and curation by Nicola