THE TL;DR 💨: Firstime is a $250M AUM fund investing in Israeli founders and companies that are building a sustainable & accessible future for all; Reach out to Firstime via LinkedIn or via their website www.firstime.vc/apply
Fifth Wall is the largest venture capital firm focused on the global real estate industry and property technology for the built world.
There is a gap between lab-scale prototypes and fully commercialized plants/processes with predictable performance and economics.
Epic CleanTec, a startup decentralizing wastewater treatment, just raised a $2.6M seed round.
THE TL;DR 💨: Firstime is a $250M AUM fund investing in Israeli founders and companies that are building a sustainable & accessible future for all; Reach out to Firstime via LinkedIn or via their website www.firstime.vc/apply
THE TL;DR 💨: Extantia invests in deep decarbonization technologies that will lead us to a world beyond fossil fuels; Their first go/no-go decision is based on if a startup can reduce greenhouse gases by at least 100Mt or more CO2e per year by 2050
THE TL;DR 💨; Maersk Growth’s mission is to digitize, democratize, and decarbonize supply chains; If you digitize, democratize, and decarbonize supply chains…you may be a fit for Maersk
THE TL;DR 💨: Regeneration.VC is investing in consumer-powered climate innovation that furthers the circular economy; Regeneration.VC’s mission is reimagining and funding the future of the consumer industry; To raise from Regeneration.VC, fill out their intake form online
The Westly Group invests in the digitalization and sustainability of energy, mobility, buildings, industrial technology and cybersecurity.
Westly was created with the intention of helping startups with sales and marketing.
M Ventures invests in technology that aligns with the strategic interests of Merck in Healthcare, Life Sciences, Electronics, Frontier Tech, and Sustainability
Leak detection and emissions quantification are wildly significant data points for effective control over pollution
Sniffer Robotics is a technology as a service company that leverages innovative technology to automate gas emissions detection and management services
Sniffer Robotics’ technology provides data-rich, actionable information that allows clients to transform operations to quickly analyze and address emissions issues digitally
Evergreen Climate Innovations invests in Seed stage startups developing innovative solutions with the potential to make outsized climate impact
TDK Ventures is a deep technology-focused venture fund, investing globally in founders building revolutionary early-stage innovations.
WIND Ventures offers global startups ‘unfair access’ to the Latin American growth markets.
SJF Ventures invests in high-growth companies creating a healthier, smarter and cleaner future. SJF invests in companies with both financial and impact returns, without compromise.
NOVA is investing across many different verticals, including automation, robotics, pre-fab, in addition to new materials to improve energy efficiency, air quality, and more
Responsibly Ventures is investing in Pre-Seed startups in both Sustainability and Social Good. Responsibly backs remarkable teams that are highly diverse, and VC impact focused across the US.
Princeton NuEnergy uses a novel process to solve the problem of how to reuse lithium-ion batteries, a waste problem that will only continue to grow.
Clean Energy Ventures is investing in climate tech startups that can reduce 2.5 Gt of CO2e between now and 2050. Clean Energy Ventures is funding and supporting early-stage clean energy startups.
Future Energy Ventures is investing in start-ups that are transforming the energy ecosystem and pioneering the future of energy
VoLo Earth Ventures is investing in early-stage climate tech companies that are focused on profitable decarbonization. VoLo Earth focuses on the R&D phase and the go-to-market of the products, technologies, and companies it invests in.
Equal Ventures is a thesis-driven, seed-stage fund investing across five sectors – one of which is climate
DBL Partners (DBL) was formed with a “Double Bottom Line” investment strategy to enable social, environmental, and economic improvement, while also investing in companies that can deliver top-tier venture capital returns while working with its portfolio companies.
Intelis Capital is investing in early-stage tech entrepreneurs accelerating the energy transition.
Active Impact Investments provides capital and talent to accelerate the growth of early-stage climate tech ventures catalyzing the transition from finite to infinite sources of energy, food, water, and products. They typically invest in revenue-generating startups with product-market-fit.
City Light Capital invests in early-stage impactful companies within the education, safety and care, and environmental sectors.
CLVG believes that the linear economy is as inefficient as it is inequitable and environmentally damaging.
Congruent is typically the first institutional capital into early-stage startups, even if there’s a high level of risk involved at that early stage
Fifth Wall is the largest venture capital firm focused on the global real estate industry and property technology for the built world.
At One Ventures is exclusively helping humanity be a net positive to nature.
Founded in 2019, Piva Capital backs technology companies bringing new software and hardware solutions to the world’s industrial markets.
Buoyant Ventures is a female-led venture fund investing in entrepreneurs using digital technology to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Investing in businesses pushing the world forward while aiming to outpace the market and produce alpha returns over the next decade and beyond.
Energize Ventures is a leading global alternative investment manager focused on technology companies accelerating innovation in energy and sustainable industry.
Wireframe Ventures is an early-stage fund investing in founders on a mission to improve the health of people and the planet. Wireframe Ventures likes to be the first check in pre-seed/seed-stage startups and work closely with founders from inception to success. Their capital is early, active, and patient.
Pale Blue Dot is an €87M pre-seed and seed stage ClimateTech fund investing in startups that reduce and reverse the effects of climate change and prepare for a new world. They are trying to fill the gap of providing funding for startups that need between €500K-3M. Pale Blue Dot invests in high conviction, extraordinary founders that are creating climate impact.
G2 Venture Partners (G2) is a venture and growth investing firm focused on emerging technologies driving sustainable transformation across traditional industries like transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, supply chain, and logistics, which together make up over half of the global economy.
Investments in climate look relatively similar to traditional investing, except for the fact that many of these startups that will truly make a climate impact are science/engineering heavy (hardware/process innovation).
There are many investors entering the climate space. Roughly 1,000 investment firms joined at least 1 climate tech deal from Q2’20 to Q2’21. The volume of investors in the climate market is going to lead to more investments happening earlier in a startup’s life.
NovaSolix is developing a new solar device that will generate the cleanest and cheapest form of energy on Earth by converting all light in the solar spectrum.
Carbon sequestration is a critical component to mitigate climate change. Where technology innovations to capture carbon fall short, traditional techniques can help.
BamCore is harnessing the power of timber bamboo and industrialized construction techniques to decarbonize the built environment.
Vistex Composites is solving a big problem for the manufacturing sector. Traditional methods and processes are lengthy and expensive.
Corrosion and wear are two major problems with manufacturing metals. The impacts of corrosion costs industry around $2.5T. Current solutions, such as hexavalent chromium and cadmium, are ineffective and dangerous. Creating a better solution for corrosion can protect the environment. A durable corrosion resistant coating can address all the issues enable the future. This is what Mehdi Kargar, CEO of Maxterials, is solving.
Electrification of everything is a growing trend in the market. However, electrification is not necessarily the be all, end all solution, especially when it comes to transportation. ClearFlame Engine Technologies offers a complementary solution to reducing emissions from diesel engines. BJ Johnson, ClearFlame CEO and co-founder, talks about how the company is enabling heavy-duty and off-highway industries to transition to fossil-free heavy-duty powertrains faster and at a lower cost than any alternative.
Globally, agriculture accounts for nearly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, uses nearly two-thirds of freshwater, and in many countries is also the biggest contributor to water pollution. Vertical and indoor farming is one solution that can fix these problems by reducing carbon footprint and resource usage. The one catch is if these farms want to produce organic produce, some of the inputs used are not organic. This is where Re-Nuble comes in, producing inputs for vertical and indoor farms that are organic-enabling. Tinia Pina digs into this issue and how Re-Nuble is filling in this gap.
The solar industry is booming, and it is going to keep accelerating – solar is here to stay, and Leading Edge is innovating to improve on energy generation in solar cells. In 2020, 82% of all new power capacity at the utility-scale was renewable. Leading Edge’s technology will only continue to help drive the prices of new solar projects down.
Revel is a transportation company that’s electrifying cities through charging infrastructure and shared electric vehicle fleets. Starting on August 2nd, Revel will be launching an app-based car service for 50 Tesla Model Y SUVs in New York.
The electrification of everything has been a growing trend since 2020. Turntide Technologies is one company that is acting and innovating to help accelerate this trend.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently published Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. The IEA makes the case that in order to reach net zero by 2050, we need to accelerate the development and deployment of clean technologies by 2030 – essentially, we should be focusing our efforts today on technologies already in the market, as well as technologies that are market-ready.
There are many new ways for people to take part in fighting climate change. Ravi Mikkelsen discusses how Atmos Financial is building banking solutions that anyone can contribute to and help the world transition to a clean economy while earning money on their deposits.
SOURCE, a hydropanel technology startup backed by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, is focused on producing clean water for consumption. Cody Friesen, SOURCE’s CEO, elaborates how big this problem is, how SOURCE is tackling this problem, and how SOURCE is thinking about impact/impact metrics.
Wildfires are not only devastating to communities and habitats, but also to economies. The need for powerful new firefighting capabilities is higher than it’s ever been, and growing. The urgency to bring more technology to this market has never been stronger.
Consumerism is rampant and is contributing to climate issues. Amazon is one of the biggest e-commerce businesses in the US—in 2020, Amazon captured 49.1% of the market.
Throughout the pandemic, sustainability and quality are back in focus for many brands, since consumers are paying attention to these issues and are willing to pay for a better product. David Davies took time to discuss how AgUnity is helping by providing transparency to the supply chain.
For the world to become climate neutral by the coming 30-40 years, enormous amounts of renewable energy will be deployed.
In a significant milestone for the development of its microgrid technology, ElectricFish has been issued a patent that uniquely covers the creation of a “utility of the future” that is built of locally decentralized energy storage units and dynamically optimizes energy to enable a seamless and grid-resilient transition to EV charging.
The fashion industry is often cited as the second largest polluting of our planet today, and it’s often not just bad for the environment, but also for the garment workers who most often live in communities disproportionately affected by climate change.
From talking to hundreds of founders over the last couple years, I’ve learned that one of the biggest challenges to technology adoption is educating consumers. Education is key for changing consumer behavior.
Corporations and municipalities are working to meet greenhouse gas emissions reductions commitments. Additionally, many states in the US have announced climate action plans with a greenhouse gas reduction target. YellowTin is here to help by providing a clean electrification platform to engage residential consumers to advance their decarbonization goals.
Natural Gas is trending right now – it burns cleaner, and the use of cogeneration, fuel cells, and polyethylene production means that natural gas will continue to be an energy staple for years to come.
Food waste is an enormous environmental, social and economic problem. The issue at hand has as much to do with the need for innovation but also for regulatory-induced alignment of incentives.
One main driver behind foodtech innovation is to reduce food waste and the resources that go into producing food. Supply chain logistics is another contributor to the problem.
Carbon Collective is a new investment platform that allows you to invest in low-fee, diversified portfolios that are 100% aligned on solving climate change.
Insulation is one of the fastest growing segments of the construction market, due to the increased focus on improving the energy efficiency of the built environment, which is currently responsible for approximately 40% of our domestic energy consumption and carbon footprint.
HG Ventures launched back in 2018 as the corporate venture arm of the Heritage Group, a multibillion-dollar private Midwest conglomerate in the traditional industrial sectors of construction, environmental services and specialty chemicals.
Cemvita Factory engineers microbes to use carbon dioxide or methane as a feedstock to produce carbon-negative industrial chemicals.
Get ready for the next Impossible Foods, but for raw tuna – Kuleana. Kuleana provides plant-based seafood without the environmental and ethical consequences of traditional tuna farming.
TrueAlgae is a biotechnology company that has a very efficient, patented mode of production for making high-quality algae.
There is a gap between lab-scale prototypes and fully commercialized plants/processes with predictable performance and economics.
Ampaire, an Elemental Excelerator portfolio company with $7M+ from NASA and backed by Techstars, is has been innovating in the space.
FloWaste recently announced the close of their $270K Pre-Seed round. The round was led by Plug and Play Ventures
Manufacturers have produced 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics over the last 60 years. In the last four decades, global plastic production has quadrupled. If this trend continues, plastic manufacturing will make up 15% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Manta Biofuel is using algae to make a cost-competitive, renewable replacement for crude oil. They closed >$1.3M in seed capital
Great Wrap is developing PHA-based products because it can break down in any environment – it’s marine biodegradable and home compostable
This week Sebastian Sajoux, the CEO of Arqlite, talks about how Arqlite is fitting in to help with plastic recycling and re-use.
PlasticBack has developed a unique and proprietary technology of plastic waste chemical recycling at far lower temperatures than current processes (below 100 degrees, compared to between 600 and 1000 degrees).
Waste to value processes are gaining momentum. Brightmark, a startup innovating to solve the problem of waste, has announced its intent to form a joint venture with SK Innovation to build a plastics pyrolysis plant in South Korea.
mobius is making plastics that are good for the environment from industrial organic waste. They turn that waste into plastic like materials.
This week Sandra Sajen from ALBA W&H Smart City talks about their solution for waste collection, and how they are thinking about the future of the sector.
Agricycle recently won FoodBytes! Pitch 2020 with their vertically integrated portfolio of ethically sourced and upcycled CPG brands with the mission of eliminating extreme rural poverty through market-based solutions. The team gratefully shared more information on their business and impact.
CleanRobotics is a mission driven startup that is reinventing the way we think about recycling across the globe. We are creating a robotic trash can by combining next-generation robotics and sensor technology to automatically sort recyclables from everyday trash. By deploying our TrashBots, we can achieve huge impact.
ZeroAvia, raised a $37.7M Series A, backed by some big investors, including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Shell Ventures, and Ecosystem Integrity Fund.
This week, Damian Estrada, the Founder and CEO of Mandatum, discussed what he is working on. Mandatum is turning e-commerce’s unsustainable inefficiencies into money for the Amazon Rainforests, savings for shoppers, and profits for brands. Below are the key takeaways from the conversation.
Consumer behavior plays a big role in trends and markets. Tara Jafarmadar Mujica, the CEO of Susty, explains what she is working on and how she is hoping to influence consumer behavior through product awareness – social, health, and environment.
This week Nik Balachandran, Founder and CEO of Zabble, discusses what he is working on and the broader waste management sector. Can you describe what Zabble does
The Kawa Project is taking spent coffee grounds and upcycling them to create coffee oil and refined oil – both have multiple use cases, from soap
MycoWorks, a startup creating materials at the intersection of art, nature and biotechnology using mycelium, recently raised a $45M Series B.
This week Rohit Vedhara, the Director of Aum Energy, talks about their innovation in anaerobic digestion and how it ties in with policy and the market.
Wake up and smell the coffee! Kaffe Bueno, a startup upcycling coffee grounds, raised $1.3M in seed funding. Kaffe Bueno is using green chemistry and biotechnology to extend coffee’s potential – minimizing emissions and maximizing reuse.
The need for sustainable food is growing. Not only is sustainable food generally better for overall health, but it also has a better impact on the environment in terms of resource usage.
Apeel Sciences announced $30M in new funding, in addition to its $250M raise earlier this year. Apeel Sciences develops plant-derived shelf life extension technology for fresh produce
One area of sustainability practices in the food system comes from handling waste streams. One of the more popular trends is upcycling food waste.
Ways2H just secured a $2.5M investment from Pacific6 Enterprises. The company uses a thermochemical process to convert waste into renewable hydrogen with a net zero-carbon footprint and without incineration.
Plant-based protein has taken to the market, influencing consumer behavior and demand for the products.
SunDensity just closed their $2.5M initial round of financing, which was led by Clean Energy Ventures. SunDensity has developed a photonic smart coating (PSC) technology that increases the power output of any solar module by as much as 20%. The coating turns blue photons red, allowing for greater absorption.
When you hear sustainable or alternative proteins, most people often think about plant-based or cell-based meats. However, there’s much more than just meat – there are also other forms of protein, like insects.
Net Zero commitments are the new fad this year for companies. According to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), more than 1,500 companies have committed to net-zero emissions.
Throughout human history, transporting food and water has been critical for survival. Today we have plastic water bottles, but how did this start?
Impact Snacks was founded in 2016 and recently launched after a highly successful Kickstarter campaign that was completely funded in just 13 hours after going live.
Aqua Membranes, a startup changing the membrane filtration industry with its unique 3D printed spacer technology for water filtration, announced $2.1M in financing.
Transitional Energy is working on transitioning existing oil and gas wells and infrastructure into clean baseload power generators.
CarbonCure Technologies just closed a round of funding for an undisclosed amount of money.
We can look to where Europe is today to see where the US will be in a couple years with regards to food waste. There will be a big evolution in consumer sentiment toward sustainability and food waste.
Air Company uses proprietary technology to transform carbon dioxide from the air into vodka while helping solve some of our planet’s most forthcoming problems.
Gate 5 was founded in 2011, and the Gate 5 System has recently been recognized by the U.S. Department of Energy as a superior method for processing wastewater solids (sewage sludge) and other organic waste.
Climax Foods, a startup that’s using data science to replace animal proteins with plant-based substitutes, just raised $7.5M.
Solutions that are consumer facing are great but are not enough on their own. There needs to be a bigger push for innovation in cold chain and supply chain.
Compost Crew provides curbside compost collection for thousands of homes in Maryland, Northern Virginia and D.C. and helps many areas businesses to recycle their organic waste.
Xos Trucks, a startup specializing in the field of manufacturing fully electric commercial vehicles, just announced their $20M raise.
Raptor Maps provides software and services to the solar industry that has great impact but is only part of the solution.
Wasteless is an AI-based tracking solution for grocery stores to offer customers dynamic pricing based on product expiration date, helping retailers optimize markdowns, increasing their profitability.
New Age Meats, a biotechnology company growing meat from animal cells, announced $2M in seed extension funding, bringing their total seed round to $4.7M. New Age Meats crafts meat to be tastier, safer, and more sustainable than meat made any other way.
This week, we talked with Caroline Cotto, Co-Founder and COO of Renewal Mill, to discuss how Renewal Mill is looking to the future of food upcycling and organic waste bans.
Greyparrot, a startup that automates waste composition analysis using AI-powered computer vision software, announced additional funding of $1.1M, bringing their total seed round to $3.5M.
Vermont is the first state to enact an organic waste ban. The goal is to prevent food waste being sent to landfills. In 2012, the state of Vermont passed the Universal Recycling Law
Epic CleanTec, a startup decentralizing wastewater treatment, just raised a $2.6M seed round.
Station A, a software platform that provides insights to make any building carbon-free, just closed their $3M Seed round investment.
UC Berkeley and Gridlab have published a new report that challenges previous plans to decarbonize the grid. With the latest renewable energy and battery prices, the US can reach 90% clean electricity by 2035, compared to 2050, by installing 70 GW of new renewable energy infrastructure each year.
Oatly just raised $200 million at a $2 billion valuation, effective selling a 10% stake in the company. The Blackstone Group led the round of fundraising, along with other backers – Howard Schultz, Oprah Winfrey, Roc Nation, Natalie Portman, Orkila Capital, and Rabo Corporate Investments.
Direct air capture technology is commercially ready for deployment. Companies have proposed at least 30 carbon capture projects to date.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science suggests that planting 1 trillion trees could have a massive effect on climate change.
In 2020, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) is forecasting that renewables will surpass coal in energy generation.
EV adoption is on a rise, but no where near to effect true impact on the path of grid modernization and combating climate change.
Compared to other green hydrogen producers, SGH2’s process displaces 23-31 tons of carbon dioxide (others displace 10-12 tons) and requires only 1.8 kWh per kg of hydrogen (others require 62 kWh per kg of hydrogen).
Earlier in May, the Trump administration approved Nevada’s Gemini Solar Project. This will be the largest solar project in the United States and will be the eighth-largest solar project in the world when completed. The project will produce 690 MW of electricity, be capable of 380 MWh of battery storage, and annually offset 385,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (about the same as the emissions from 83,000 cars).
As cities, states, and countries slowly start to open back up, many governments are reassessing transportation. As travel habits have been disrupted, there is the opportunity to influence and shape the future of commuting and transportation.
The pandemic has disrupted supply chains and shifted demand and supply of goods. As a result, manufacturers are stepping up to try to piece together the fragmented supply chain and fulfill an increased demand in goods. Many of these goods consist of plastic, including PPE (gloves and masks) and plastic packaging for consumer-packaged goods (food and cleaning supplies).
Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, pledged $10 billion to fight climate change and created the Bezos Earth Fund. Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, announced a $1 billion climate innovation fund. And many other companies followed. The money is there, all that is left are the actions.
The IEA does warn that there may be a rebound in emissions, and this rebound could be larger than the decline.
Google has been carbon neutral since 2007, and now Google is working on 24/7 carbon-free energy.
In times of uncertainty, you just might be crazy enough to consider purchasing that Tesla Model 3 you’ve been dreaming of. But what exactly does making that purchase mean?
How often do you need to charge the vehicle? How far can you go without recharging? At your destination, are there EV chargers? These just may be some of the questions you think about.
There are some startups that are working on this line of issues, known as range anxiety.
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