Hi there,

Nuclear is back in the climate conversation, but its waste problem has never gone away.

Now, University of Nottingham researchers are exploring whether “applied smouldering” could help shrink the UK’s nuclear graphite waste challenge. The process uses flameless combustion to turn contaminated graphite bricks into ash, reducing volume while tapping the energy stored in the material.

With around 100,000 tonnes of irradiated graphite to manage in the UK (and plenty more elsewhere), it is a reminder that climate tech is not always about building what comes next. Sometimes it is about cleaning up what came before…without getting burned.

Credit: University of Nottingham

In this week’s edition: 

🧬 Former Perfect Day execs raise $2M for ultra-pure melanin
🌾 Resurrect Bio is giving crops AI powers
💰 Mantle8 scored $31M to drill for hydrogen

The Digest

💰 S2G Investments raised $1 billion for its S2G Solutions Fund I, with the capital targeting “missing middle” growth-stage businesses that improve supply-chain resilience and energy and food security, including investments such as XOcean, Echandia, Exacto and Urbint.

💵 Arãya Ventures and Sie Ventures launched the Arãya Sie Fund with a £7.5 million first close to back up to 40 female-founded pre-seed and seed-stage startups across AI, deeptech, fintech, healthcare and sustainability in the UK and Europe.

🇬🇧 A new Cleantech for UK report found that the UK led Europe in clean tech investment in 2025 with £7.2 billion raised, although the research warned that early-stage funding for hardware-heavy climate startups has fallen to a five-year low.

🪫 PJM Interconnection, the largest US power-grid operator, is under mounting pressure as AI and cloud data-centre demand strains capacity, renewables and batteries disrupt its old planning model, project interconnection backlogs slow new supply, and its proposed reforms risk angering utilities, politicians, businesses and households already frustrated by rising power prices. Nobody’s happy, basically.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Oishii

🍓 US vertical farming company Oishii closed the first tranche of a $150 million Series C round led by Sparx Asset Management, with participation from Nomura Real Estate Development, Misumi, Mizuho Bank and others, to scale its Smart Farm model which grows pesticide-free, non-GMO strawberries year-round.

🌾 Resurrect Bio, a University of Norwich spinout developing AI-powered technology designed to restore crops’ natural genetic defences against diseases and pests, expanded its Series A to $10.3 million in a round led by Corteva Catalyst with participation from Calculus Capital, Pymwymic, Future Planet Capital, SynBioVen and AgFunder.

🧫 Israel’s SuperMeat secured $6 million in the first close of a targeted $10 million Series A4 round led by Agronomics and New Agrarian Company, with participation from Milk & Honey Ventures and other existing backers, to support its planned Switzerland launch for its cultivated chicken.

🌿 Researchers at the University of Waterloo have developed a greener water-based nanotechnology pesticide formulation using modified cellulose nanocrystals that helps droplets stick to hydrophobic plant leaves rather than bouncing, drifting or washing off, reducing pesticide waste and runoff while achieving better pest control.

Energy x Climate

Credit: Mantle8

🇫🇷 French startup Mantle8 secured €31 million in a Series A funding round led by Sandwater, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Ecotechnologies 2, IP Group, Wind Capital and Calderion, to fund a two-year global exploration and drilling campaign to identify, rank and drill its most promising natural hydrogen sites using its proprietary subsurface modelling technology.

🧊 Iceotope Group, a provider of precision liquid cooling for data centres and AI infrastructure, raised $26 million Series B funding led by Two Seas Capital and Barclays Climate Ventures, with participation from Edinv, ABC Impact, Northern Gritstone and British Patient Capital, to bring its energy- and water-saving cooling technology to market.

🇩🇰 Copenhagen-based Reel raised €15 million Series A funding in a round led by Future Energy Ventures, with participation from UVC Partners, Transition, The Footprint Firm and angel investors. It helps businesses secure predictable renewable electricity costs while improving returns for energy producers through PPAs, data-driven trading, flexibility and battery-storage tools, and will use the funds to expand its portfolio.

⚡️ Durham University spinout H2CHP secured £1.5 million from Innovate UK, Blackfinch Ventures and Northstar Ventures’ North East Spinout Inspire Fund to develop and demonstrate its fuel-flexible free-piston linear generator technology, which can run on hydrogen, ammonia, biofuels and e-fuels to provide cleaner, resilient local power for data centres, microgrids, EV charging and ports.

🏡 Stockholm-based Elvy, which offers fully integrated home energy subscriptions covering solar panels, heat pumps, batteries, installation, maintenance and electricity needs, raised €5.9 million in a funding round led by Essential Capital and Daft Capital, with participation from Mathias Kamprad and other angels, to accelerate its model across Europe. 

☀️ Researchers in Germany have demonstrated a compact solar-powered hydrogen module in Freiburg that achieved a record 31.3% solar-to-hydrogen efficiency under real outdoor conditions.

🌞 UK property developer Zunikh has partnered with solar company Gryd to install fully funded rooftop solar on a new-build apartment block in Enfield, using a UK-first model that allocates solar generation directly to nine individual flats.

Materials x Climate

Credit: Melazyme

🧬 US precision fermentation startup Melazyme, founded by former Perfect Day executives Perumal Gandhi and Bonney Oommen, raised $2 million seed funding in a round led by SeaX Ventures with participation from Stellaris Venture Partners and Plug and Play Ventures to advance and scale its platform for high-value biomolecules including ultra-pure melanin for cosmetics, coatings, filtration and environmental applications, plus sweet proteins such as brazzein.

🔥 Engineers at the University of Nottingham secured funding for a new research project exploring smouldering, or flameless combustion, as a more sustainable and energy-efficient way to reduce contaminated nuclear graphite waste bricks to ash.

The Met Gala x Climate

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

Refrigerators have somehow escaped innovation for over a century. AI is rewriting the internet, rockets land themselves, yet the thing keeping your oat milk cold still relies on the same basic technology from the 1920s.

But Cambridge startup Barocal just raised $10 million to commercialise a cooling system that uses solid materials instead of climate-warming refrigerant gases. No leaking HFCs, no traditional compressors… just materials that heat up when squeezed and cool down when pressure is released. Essentially, refrigeration via an extremely sophisticated stress ball.

It sounds quirky, but cooling is becoming one of climate tech’s hottest sectors (sorry). Air conditioning and refrigeration already consume around 10% of global electricity, while leaked refrigerants can warm the planet thousands of times more than CO2. If this tech can scale, this could cut both emissions and energy demand at the same time. Pretty cool! (sorry again)

Credit: TechCrunch

In this week’s edition: 

💡 ENVIOTECH scored €1M to make streetlights intelligent
🧪 Amazon bets on Nobel Prize-winning chemistry
🌳 Eucalyptus bark could clean air and water

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Meatly

🧫 UK-based Meatly raised £10 million Series A funding from existing backers such as Agronomics, and first-time investors Oyster Bay Venture Capital, Clean Growth Fund, and JamJar Investments, to build Europe’s largest cultivated meat facility in London.

🪖 US biotech Biosphere secured $9 million from the US Department of Defense and US Army DEVCOM Soldier Center to develop portable bioreactors that turn gases into protein for military rations, with the funding supporting the creation of field-deployable food production systems for remote and logistically challenging environments.

🫒 Israeli startup PhenOlives secured a $270,000 investment from OurCrowd to scale its patented process that converts olive pomace into sustainable olive flour and polyphenol ingredients, with the funds also supporting further R&D into blackwater-derived ingredients.

🦀 Denmark’s Decameal closed an undisclosed seed round from Delphinus Venture Capital, Rockstart and strategic co-investor Aller Aqua to scale its patent-pending process that converts invasive shore crabs into sustainable protein and lipid feed ingredients.

Energy x Climate

Credit: Moment Energy

🇨🇦 Canada’s Moment Energy secured $40 million Series B funding in a round led by Evok Innovations, with backing from Liberty Mutual Investments, W23 Global Fund, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund and In-Q-Tel, to scale its business repurposing used EV batteries into energy storage systems for data centres, utilities and industrial sites.

🧊 UK-based Barocal raised a $10 million seed round from investors including World Fund, Breakthrough Energy Discovery, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and IP Group to commercialise its solid-state cooling and heating technology that replaces conventional refrigerant gases with pressure-responsive materials (think squeezing plastic crystals to create a cooling effect).

💡 German smart city startup ENVIOTECH secured €1 million pre-seed funding in a round led by former Deutsche Bank co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen, with backing from Joachim Drees and other investors, to scale its retrofit technology that upgrades existing streetlights with intelligent monitoring and dimming systems.

🌋 US geothermal energy startup Fervo Energy is seeking to raise up to $1.3 billion in a Nasdaq IPO that could value the company at around $6.5 billion, with the funds expected to support expansion of its enhanced geothermal power projects that provide round-the-clock carbon-free electricity.

✅ Amazon has signed a multi-year deal with US startup Transaera to deploy energy-efficient dehumidification systems based on Nobel Prize-winning materials chemistry that remove moisture from air more efficiently than traditional HVAC systems, helping cut cooling-related energy use across its buildings.

☀️ Researchers in China have developed an AI-optimised solar-hydrogen energy system for hospitals that combines solar panels, hydrogen storage and fuel cells to provide continuous low-carbon power while also producing medical oxygen, potentially cutting grid reliance and reducing CO2 emissions by around 2,000 tons annually.

🌬️ PepsiCo signed a 10-year renewable energy agreement with Norway’s Statkraft to source wind power from a project in Spain that is expected to cut around 32,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually across its European operations and supply chain.

🌞 UK kitchen retailer Wren is investing in what it says will be the UK’s largest single-roof solar installation, with more than 13,000 solar panels set to cover its Barton-upon-Humber manufacturing plant and supply over 35% of the factory’s electricity demand.

Materials x Climate

Credit: Lithosquare

🇫🇷 French startup Lithosquare raised €21.4 million to accelerate the discovery of critical minerals by using AI to analyse geological and geophysical data, with the funding aimed at scaling its exploration platform and speeding up identification of deposits needed for the energy transition. 

👗 Amsterdam-based VNYX secured over €1 million from investors including Baltic Business Angels, Squads Fund, Stichting DOEN, Earthstar, RVO and Spark Design & Innovation to scale its AI-powered resale automation technology that helps fashion brands process and resell returned, overstock and second-hand garments more profitably than dumping or burning them.

🌳 Researchers at Australia’s RMIT University have developed a way to turn discarded eucalyptus bark into a highly porous carbon material that could help clean polluted water, filter dirty air and capture carbon dioxide.

🔋 A UK consortium including UKBIC, Watercycle Technologies, Recyclus Group and Polaron secured government funding through the Battery Innovation Programme to develop a lithium-ion battery recycling process that converts battery waste into cathode materials for new batteries domestically.

Water x Climate

Credit: Enaxiom

💦 Sydney-based Enaxiom raised $1.8 million seed funding in a round led by Epic Angels, with support from BlackNova and Antler, to commercialise its Hydrocool system that reduces water use in AI data centre cooling by using non-potable water and recovering reusable water as a by-product.

🍅 The EU-funded RAINS project unveiled new irrigation technologies and water management strategies designed to help Mediterranean agriculture grow more food with less water as climate change intensifies drought and water scarcity across the region. 

📱 Popular Culture x Climate

This campaign fights popular culture:

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

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

Credit: Primogene

👶🏻 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

Credit: Living Carbon

🌳 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

Credit: TechCrunch

💰 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

Credit: Foamlab

🦠 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

Credit: Forest

🚲 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:

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

Europe’s industrial renaissance took centre stage at HackSummit’s climate-focused day this Wednesday, and what a day it was.

Europe has a chance to lean into its strengths: deep engineering talent, advanced manufacturing heritage, and a growing appetite for long-term, infrastructure-scale innovation. And, as Beau-Anne Chilla, partner at FORWARD.one, put it: energy itself is fast becoming a form of currency, reshaping how we think about value creation in the climate economy.

There were startups galore, spanning advanced materials, greenhouse tech, biosecurity and beyond, showcasing a future that’s cleaner, more resilient, and built to last.

And we all learned a new word from Stefano Bernardi, General Partner at Unruly Capital: entelechy.

In this week’s edition: 

⚡️ The startup using century-old grid tech
⚛️ Blue Energy scored $380M for modular nuclear power plants
💎 The focus on critical minerals and why they're, well, critical

The Digest

🌊 Pacific island nations including Tuvalu, Fiji and Vanuatu have jointly launched the “Tassiriki Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific”, a landmark regional declaration advocating for a global Fossil Fuel Treaty and a rapid, coordinated phase-out of coal, oil and gas.

🤖 US-based Sygaldry raised $139 million across seed and Series A rounds, led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Initialized Capital with participation from Earth Venture Capital and others, to develop quantum-accelerated AI servers that improve the speed and energy efficiency of AI workloads.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: COSAIC

💶 Planetary, based in Switzerland, raised $28 million in a funding round led by Radikal Capital and Oetker Ventures with participation from Royal Cosun, Arc Investors, Green Generation Fund, AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance, Astanor Ventures and XAnge. It will use the funds to build and license its industrial fermentation platform that converts agricultural byproducts into mycoprotein and other ingredients. 

🐜 French agtech Agriodor secured €15 million Series A funding in a round led by the Environmental and Solidarity Revolution Fund, with participation from Région Sud Investissement, CAAP Création, Capagro, CapHorn and SWEN Capital Partners. It will use the funds to scale its scent-based crop protection technology that uses natural plant-emitted odours to influence insect behaviour.

🇨🇭 Swiss biotech Cosaic raised $6 million in a seed extension round led by DSM-Firmenich Ventures, with participation from Kickfund, a Swiss family office, Navus Ventures and Zürcher Kantonalbank, to scale its yeast fermentation-derived emulsifier that replaces multiple additives in food.

🇨🇦 Toronto-based AuX Labs closed $4 million in a round led by NYA Ventures and Nàdarra Ventures, with participation from Verdex Capital, Builders VC, Bluestein Ventures and Congruent Ventures, to scale production of animal-free cheese using precision-fermented casein.

Biodiversity x Climate

Credit: Ulysses

🌊 Ocean technology startup Ulysses raised $46 million in combined seed and Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Booz Allen Ventures and Harpoon Ventures, to develop autonomous underwater and surface vehicles that support ocean restoration, infrastructure and defence applications.

Inside HackSummit

On Wednesday, we brought together the Founders, Investors and Operators moving the needle in Climate Deep Tech to accelerate Europe's reindustrialisation.

From scaling orbit on demand to building verification and trust in Climate and the role of HardTech vs Saas in Europe's industrial it was a day filled with optimism, realism and hope for a stronger, more resilient Europe. Here’s how the day unfolded.

With Europe’s boldest and bravest, including: Voltfang, Unruly Capital, Tomorrow Visionaries, Paebbl, Contrarian Ventures, Altrove, World Fund, NordicNinja VC, SlateVC, Pave Space, Milvus Advanced, Hypercube, Marble and many more.

Energy x Climate

Credit: Rivan

⚛️ US-based nuclear startup Blue Energy raised $380 million to build modular nuclear power plants manufactured in shipyards, with the funding aimed at scaling construction of its reactor-agnostic systems to deliver faster, lower-cost clean energy for industrial and data centre demand. 

🇬🇧 UK startup Rivan raised €28.7 million in a funding round led by Platinum Equity with participation from Planet A Ventures and Zero Carbon Capital to scale its modular production plants which produce low-cost synthetic fuels from captured CO₂ and renewable electricity.

⚡️ Ayr Energy, based in the US, secured $25 million from investors including Energy Impact Partners. It will use the funds to support the manufacture of modular iron-core transformers using century-old grid technology.

🚚 Paris-based Decade Energy raised €22 million from Eiffel Investment Group and SET Ventures, with participation from Ananda Impact Ventures and Contrarian Ventures, to scale its integrated depot power solutions, which combine storage, charging, solar and software for electric truck fleets.

🔥 Exergy3, a spinout from the University of Edinburgh, raised £10 million seed funding from undisclosed investors to scale its ultra-high temperature thermal energy storage systems that convert surplus renewable electricity into industrial heat.

🇫🇮 TheStorage, based in Finland, secured €3.6 million in a seed round led by Voima Ventures with participation from Superhero Capital, 2C Ventures, and Momentum, to scale its sand-based thermal energy storage technology that helps industrial companies decarbonise heat processes.

☀️ Berlin-based VREY raised €3.3 million from Rubio Impact Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds, and Kopa Ventures to epand its software platform that enables landlords to generate and distribute rooftop solar power to tenants in multi-family buildings.

🗺️ Plume raised €3.3 million in a funding round led by AENU, with participation from Y Combinator, Kima Ventures, Raise Phiture, Better Angle and Collab Fund, to help renewable energy developers accelerate site selection and permitting using geospatial AI.

🇺🇸 US-based NOC Energy secured $2.7 million seed funding in a round led by 360 Capital, with participation from SOSV and Desai VC, to develop hybrid industrial heating systems that combine electric and fossil fuel heat for cement and glass plants.

😎 Swiss startup LightSeeds secured €162,000 from Venture Kick to further develop and roll out its ultra-light, glass-free vertical solar systems that turn unused infrastructure surfaces into energy assets.

⚛️ US-based nuclear startup X-Energy has filed to raise up to $800 million in an IPO to scale its small modular reactor and nuclear fuel technology, with proceeds expected to support commercialisation and deployment of its clean energy systems.

🔌 Merino Energy, a San Francisco-based startup founded by a former Apple AirPods engineer, is developing a simplified, plug-in heat pump system that combines indoor and outdoor components into one unit to cut installation time and costs, aiming to make home electrification more accessible and scalable.

✅ Kinetic 7 has developed a breakthrough “hydrogen-on-demand” system that generates hydrogen from aluminium and water for use in fuel cells, aiming to provide a safer, transportable alternative to compressed hydrogen.

🤝🏼 California-based fusion energy startup Inertia is partnering with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to commercialise laser-based inertial confinement fusion technology that compresses fuel pellets to generate clean energy, with the aim of building grid-scale fusion power plants. 

Funds x Climate

Credit: Eka Ventures

💶 Eka Ventures closed a $107 million Fund II, backed by investors including the British Business Bank, Better Society Capital, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation and The Health Foundation, to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage startups focused on health, wellbeing and sustainability.

🇩🇰 Copenhagen-based VC firm Unconventional Ventures announced the second close of its Fund II with backing from investors including Wire Group, Investinor, FÆRCH OG DØTRE and Merete Lundbye Møller, to continue investing in underrepresented founders building scalable, impact-driven companies.

🇬🇧 The UK government launched a £50 million fund to accelerate the deployment of AI, robotics and nature-based agri-tech solutions, with the investment aimed at turning up to 12 innovations into practical on-farm tools that boost productivity while reducing labour, energy and fertiliser use.

Materials x Climate

Credit: pH7 Technologies

🇸🇪 Swedish low-carbon steel startup Stegra secured a €1.4 billion rescue funding package led by the Wallenberg Investments consortium with backing from investors including Temasek and IMAS Foundation, to complete construction of its hydrogen-based steel plant in northern Sweden. 

🇨🇦 Canada’s pH7 Technologies closed an oversubscribed Series B of around $32 million, led by Fine Structure Ventures with participation from BHP Ventures, Energy & Environment Investment, Siteground, Gaingels, Calm Venture and existing investors including TDK Ventures, Pangaea Ventures and BASF Venture Capital. It will use the funds to scale its electrochemical technology that extracts critical minerals from low-grade ores and waste, with the aim of deploying the system across global mining operations. 

🔋 Altilium secured £18.5 million in grant funding from the UK government’s DRIVE35 Scale-Up Fund to scale its EV battery recycling technology, with the funds set to build its ACT3 facility in Plymouth and accelerate domestic recovery of critical battery materials.

♻️ Australian battery recycling startup Renewable Metals raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, with participation from Neglected Climate Opportunities, European Metal Recycling, Investible and Climate Tech Partners, to scale its hydrometallurgical process that recovers critical minerals from lithium-ion batteries.

🪵 Croatia-based Fasal Bio raised €7 million from BlackPeak Capital to scale its wood-based renewable composite platform designed to replace conventional plastics.

🇬🇧 Naturbeads, based in the UK, secured €4.1 million from the European Structural Fund to scale its biodegradable cellulose microbeads that replace plastic microbeads, with the investment used to support its new production plant in Italy.

🇺🇸 US startup Radify raised just under $3 million from Overture, Founders Inc., Mana Ventures and Acequia Capital to develop compact plasma reactors that convert metal oxides into pure metals for rare earth supply chains, with the aim of reducing reliance on Chinese supply.

🪸 Uluu, based in Australia, secured $2.1 million in grant funding from the Australian Government’s Industry Growth Program to scale its seaweed-based biodegradable materials.

🧱 Netherlands-based MAECONOMY raised €1.5 million from LUMO Labs and LIOF to build a platform that turns building materials into auditable, tradable circular assets using digital material passports and financial infrastructure.

🔮 Then v Now

The things we’d never have believed just a few years ago…

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

This week we asked 8 leading European investors working across materials, manufacturing, and industrial systems a simple question: which startups are accelerating Europe’s reindustrialisation?

Here’s who they told us 👇

From AI-designed supply chains and robotic maintenance to carbon-negative materials and bio-based production, these 24 startups were top of mind for investors.

Next up, all these investors, some of the startups mentioned and all these leading companies will be at the HackSummit next week.

If you haven’t already, it’s time to block your schedule, book your travel and come and join us before the chance to join the event slips a-w-a-y…

That’s why this week’s edition is packed with HackSummit highlights and happenings (and we’ll be back after the event with your usual roundup of industry milestones).

Let’s dive right in.

🎤 Who’s On Stage

How do we rebuild Europe's industrial base?

Europe's manufacturing, energy and materials infrastructure were designed for a world that no longer exists.

April 22 is for those rebuilding it across physics, chemistry, and engineering.

Expect candid discussions, small group workshops and actionable lessons on what it takes to build across critical minerals (Hades Mining, Milvus Advanced, DEScycle), energy infrastructure (Voltfang, CorPower, EPYR, Enerdrape), advanced materials (Modern Meadow, Seprify), AI in manufacturing (Altrove, Cloover), in-space production (Pave Space) and frontier resources (Phlair, Hypercube).

🎯 The Ones to Meet at the Startup Fair

At this year’s HackSummit Startup Fair, 30 climate startups are building solutions with industrial relevance, from eDNA biodiversity monitoring and nature-based remediation, to hydrogen-powered maritime fleets, foldable PV systems for commercial rooftops, and micromobility battery reconditioning and recycling.

The lineup reflects the breadth of climate innovation including startups turning CO₂ and water into sustainable fuels, upcycling biogenic CO₂ side-streams into valuable products, developing custom synthetic proteins that bind metals, and reinventing supply chains with competitive circular materials.

The HackSummit Startup Fair is one of the best places to meet founders early and see the technologies shaping the next wave of climate and industrial transformation.

👩‍💻 Hackathon Builder Challenge

5 years in, and we’re finally going back to our roots by hosting a Hackathon.

We’re bringing together engineers, scientists, builders, and creatives for an 18-hour challenge to build solutions that actually matter, focused on the future of industrial renaissance and sovereignty.

On April 22, teams tackle real-world challenges with SICPA.

Through the PROVE track, builders turn the invisible into tamper-resistant proof, using AI, sensing, and authentication tech to verify claims across critical minerals, natural resources, and circular supply chains.

We’ll invite the top teams back to pitch live on the HackSummit main stage on April 23.

⚒️ Meet the teams behind the challenge, become a mentor and see what can happen when you give smart people 18 hours and no off switch.

🪅 Come for the Summit, Stay for the Side Events

Beyond the HackSummit programme, make the most of your trip by joining in the Side Events taking place across the city. 

👩‍💻 Hackathon, April 22

18 hours to build something real. This hackathon brings together the brightest minds from leading technical and business universities to build the future of European Manufacturing.

📈 Hack Pilot Day, April 24

Connect with SMEs facing real operational challenges, and explore where your solution could be relevant, with companies matched to your use cases in advance. The Hack Pilot Day opens new opportunities for startups working on industrial efficiency, built environment performance and food resilience. 

🎊 17 Side Events, April 21-24

Whether you’re up for a HackRun outdoors, unwinding with breathwork, starting the day with breakfast, catching up over beers at the AfterPartys or taking a site visit to Voltiris, Enerdrape, Windworks, CompPair and Sunaxer, there’s something for everyone.

The Hack Week is just around the corner, if you’re ready to join us use code FINALCALL for 15% off your pass.

And yes, we’ll be back in your inbox after the HackSummit with your weekly dose of ClimateTech milestones and funding rounds each Friday, as usual.

Hope to see you in Lausanne next week.

Laura at Hack

Hi there,

Venture capital is playing an increasingly decisive role in shaping the future of climate, deep tech, and industrial transformation.

Over the past decade, capital flowing into climate tech alone has grown from a niche category into a multi-billion-euro opportunity, with Europe emerging as one of the most active regions globally.

Our list of 180 must-know VC partners highlights the General Partners behind Europe’s most active VCs.

Their thesis-driven capital targets hard problems with long timelines, like decarbonising supply chains, reinventing materials, and rebuilding how we produce food at scale.

In this week’s edition: 

🚀 Starcloud raises $170M to build solar-powered data centres in space
🌊 PuriFire’s tech that turns wastewater into green fuels
🔋 tozero opens Europe’s first industrial-scale battery recycling plant

The Digest

Credit: Sifted

🇪🇺 Good Read: Ahead of HackSummit, April 22-23, we caught up with Sifted to share how Europe’s deeptech edge could become a global advantage if the region can better translate innovation into scalable, commercial success. 

🚀 US-based Starcloud raised $170 million, in a Series A funding round led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures, to build space-based data centres powered by continuous solar energy.

🇯🇵 Japan-based TODA Advanced Materials is shutting its pCAM plant in Sarnia, Ontario - one of the only large-scale facilities in the West producing a key battery material - highlighting a major gap in local supply chains and the difficulty of building a fully circular battery industry without this step.

🌍 EarthScale is a free, UK-wide 12-month programme helping IP-rich climate tech ventures to scale, navigate manufacturing and raise Series A funding. Apply here before 13th April.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Studio Lazareff

🇫🇷 French precision fermentation company Standing Ovation raised €30 million in a Series B funding round backed by investors including Bpifrance, Crédit Mutuel Innovation, Bel Group, Danone Ventures and Astanor. It will use the funds to scale commercial rollout of its animal-free casein and expand into global markets.

🇳🇱 The Dutch Research Council awarded €4.1 million to three cellular agriculture projects under the National Growth Fund programme to advance cultivated meat and precision fermentation technologies, with the funding aimed at scaling production and reducing costs.

🥕 Austrian startup Afreshed has acquired German rival Etepetete to consolidate the “ugly produce” food waste market in the DACH region, alongside securing a mid-seven-figure investment from Raiffeisen-Holding Niederösterreich-Wien to fund its expansion into Germany and further develop its tech-driven logistics and route-optimisation platform.

🥛 Mississippi has passed legislation banning the sale of lab-grown dairy products, including cell-cultured milk, becoming the first US state to extend cultivated meat restrictions to dairy.

Construction x Climate

Credit: ecoworks

🏡 Germany’s ecoworks secured €23 million to deploy its AI-powered serial renovation technology to modernise residential buildings at scale, with the funding supporting the rollout of Germany’s largest neighbourhood-scale retrofit project and accelerating climate-neutral housing upgrades. 

🧱 Swedish startup Enkei closed a pre-seed funding round backed by investors including Anders Lendager, Christina Åqvist, Ulf Mattsson, Fabian Månsson and RadCap to scale its circular materials platform that converts construction waste into design-grade materials.

The HackSummit Stage is Set

The HackSummit stages are where stories and secrets are shared to give you a head start on building, funding and scaling.

What’s no secret is that we’ve invited some of the industry’s most ambitious and bullish investors to give their uncensored opinions on scaling Climate HardTech.

Expect unfiltered insights on what they’re really looking for right now, how the funding landscape is shifting, and where the biggest opportunities lie over the next 12–24 months.

Hear first hand from the investors deciding where capital flows next: NordicNinja VC, FORWARDone, Contrarian Ventures, FLORA Ventures, Planet A Ventures, Nucleus Capital, Visionaries Tomorrow, Synthesis Capital, Ordway Selections, Eurazeo, World Fund, SlateVC, Astanor, Unruly Capital, Kost Capital, Omni Ventures, FoodLabs, 2100 Ventures

See all 30+ Speakers

Energy x Climate

Credit: TerraSpark

👽 TerraSpark, based in Belgium, raised over €5 million pre-seed funding from investors including Daphni, better ventures, the Hans(wo)men Group and strategic angels to develop space-based solar power systems, starting with radio frequency wireless energy transmission on Earth before scaling to orbital infrastructure.

🔥 Switzerland-based SolidWatts raised €1.9 million seed funding from investors including Evercurious VC, Kickfund, Axel Carbon Capital, Uni.Fund and Loggerhead Ventures to scale its solid-state RF industrial heating platform, which uses high-efficiency dielectric heating to replace fossil fuel systems.

🚢 UK startup PuriFire Energys unveiled its proprietary hydrothermal gasification technology that converts wastewater and carbon waste into green hydrogen and bio-methanol for maritime fuel.

🗺️ Interesting: Victor Angot shared this European ecosystem map of critical raw materials.

Funds x Climate

Credit: Your Story

🇸🇬 Singapore-based Circulate Capital raised $220 million at the first close of its Asia Fund II from investors including The Coca-Cola Company, Danone, Dow and Procter & Gamble to back circular economy businesses, with the fund set to scale recycling and circular supply chains across South and Southeast Asia.

👩🏻‍🔬 UK startup Empirical Ventures secured a £10 million commitment from the British Business Bank to invest in “venture scientists” building deeptech and life science startups, with the funding aimed at enabling larger early-stage investments and helping scientists commercialise breakthrough research into scalable companies.

Looking for your first / next pilot partner?

We’re hosting the first Hack Pilot Day: a curated matchmaking day designed to connect startups with established companies to build pilots.

You'll be matched with curated SMEs looking to collaborate with pilot-ready startups.

The goal is simple: create the right conditions to explore collaborations that can actually move forward.

If you're looking for new partners to scale up in Food Resilience, Industrial Efficiency or Built Environment Performance, the Pilot Day is for you.

Apply Today

Materials x Climate

Credit: tozero

🔋Germany’s tozero opened Europe’s first industrial-scale battery recycling plant using its proprietary hydrometallurgical process to recover high-purity lithium and graphite from lithium-ion batteries, designed to reduce reliance on imported critical materials.

🇫🇮 Finland-based Sensmet secured €1.5 million from EIT RawMaterials to scale its µDOES (Micro-Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy) technology for real-time, multi-metal monitoring in liquid processes, with the funding set to expand deployment across battery metals production, recycling and other critical raw material value chains.

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Metafuels

✈️ Switzerland-based Metafuels secured a €1.92 million grant from the Dutch government to advance its Rotterdam e-SAF project, which uses proprietary methanol-to-jet “aerobrew” technology to produce scalable sustainable aviation fuel.

🔋 April Fool x Climate

Introducing the WOMBATTERY.

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

If you still picture factories as smokestacks and assembly lines, let’s bring you up to speed.

A new generation of “factories” is emerging powered by by biology, waste streams, and entirely new production logics.

Think microbes instead of petrochemicals. Waste as feedstock. Precision fermentation and synbio turning raw materials into programmable platforms.

It’s already happening across Europe’s industrial base, as founders scale technologies designed to decarbonise materials, localise supply chains, these 320 startups are redefining what manufacturing looks like. 

In this week’s edition: 

🧵 Renasens is spinning CO₂ into textiles
🚀 Arbor Energy scores a billion-dollar order
⚡ Entrix raises €43M to tame the grid

The Digest

Credit: Startup Daily

🤝🏼 A new EU–Australia trade agreement could unlock access to Horizon Europe, a $155 billion research and innovation fund, giving Australian startups and institutions opportunities to collaborate and secure funding across areas like advanced computing, clean tech and health. 

🧊 Interesting: A study of an Alpine glacier ice core has revealed that human-caused pollution dates back to the Roman era, long before industrialisation, highlighting early impacts from activities like metal production and biomass burning.

😎 Dealroom shared its list of the 30 most influential people shaping Europe’s deep tech system right now. Are you on it?

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Miraterra

👩🏻‍💻 Canadian startup Miraterra closed a $16 million seed extension led by At One Ventures with participation from S2G Investments, Sitka Foundation, iSelect and new investor Farm Credit Canada. It is developing advanced soil measurement technology that combines chemical and biological analysis, and will use the funds to further expand its platform.

🇦🇺 Australia’s Cauldron Ferm raised $13.25 million in a Series A2 funding round led by Main Sequence Ventures with participation from Horizons Ventures, SOSV and NGS Super to scale its continuous “hyper-fermentation” platform for producing bio-based ingredients more efficiently.

🐮 Australian agtech Rumin8, which is developing methane-reducing feed additives for cattle, raised $4.3 million from New Zealand’s AgriZeroNZ to advance trials ahead of commercial rollout. 

🐄 Swedish startup Volta Greentech secured €1.7 million in a round led by Axel Johnson to support the market launch and further development of its methane-reducing product Lome, designed to help cut cattle emissions.

Carbon x Climate

Credit: Zevero

🤖 UK-based Zevero, a carbon management platform that uses AI to automate emissions data collection and support ESG decision-making, raised $7 million. The round was led by Spiral Capital with participation from Gazelle Capital and Deep 30, and it will use the funds to support its expansion across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

⭐️ Applications are now open for Frontier’s 2026 Innovation Program, supporting breakthrough carbon removal solutions tackling key scaling and measurement challenges. Find out more and apply here.

Investors Heading to HackSummit

Extantia, SET Ventures, SpeedInvest, Astanor at HackSummit

Investors at the HackSummit represent one of the most influential concentrations of climate and hard tech capital in Europe looking to fund tomorrow’s manufacturers.

You’ll meet the funders writing checks at global banks, CVCs, LPs, VCs and accelerators who are all actively backing the next generation of industrial innovation.

In the room includes:

• VCs: Astanor, Unruly, Visionaries Tomorrow, Contrarian Ventures, Planet A Ventures, Kompas, Vorwerk Ventures, Underground Ventures, Lightrock

• Banks: Rabobank, UBS, Rentenbank, Julius Bar, Decalia, BPI France

• CVCs: Roche, Aramco Ventures, PINC, Swisscom Ventures, Fortescue

• Accelerators: Carbon13, Biotope, Food Founders Studio, Brainforest

Whether you’re raising capital, exploring partnerships, or building relationships for your next round, it’s time to meet them face to face in Lausanne on 22-23 April.

Tip: The networking app goes live next month so you can schedule 1-1 meetings with potential and existing investors.

Join them in Lausanne

Energy x Climate

Credit: Entrix

🔋 German startup Entrix raised €43 million in a funding round led by Junction Growth Investors and Korys, with participation from BNP Paribas, Allianz, AENU, Enpal, Abacon and Arvantis Group, to scale its AI-driven platform that is designed to optimise battery storage, support grid stability and accelerate renewable energy integration across Europe. 

🆕 Lace Lithography raised $40 million in a round led by Atomico with participation from M12 and Vsquared Ventures to develop a novel atom-based chip manufacturing method that could surpass traditional photolithography.

🔥 Switzerland’s SolidWatts, which is developing high-efficiency electric industrial heating using RF technology, secured €1.9 million seed funding from investors including Evercurious VC, Kickfund, and Axel Carbon Capital to advance its platform.

⚡️ US-based Arbor Energy, which is developing rocket-derived modular turbines, secured a multi-billion-dollar order from GridMarket to deploy up to 5GW of power capacity using its 3D-printed Halcyon systems, aiming to deliver faster, flexible and lower-emission electricity for data centres and industrial users.

Funds x Climate

Credit: 360 Capital

🇮🇹 Italy’s 360 Capital closed €85 million for its Poli360 2 deeptech fund, backed by investors including the European Investment Fund, CDP Venture Capital SGR, and industrial players Brembo, MBDA and Lucchini RS, to invest in early-stage university spinouts across industry automation and sustainability.

🇵🇱 Warsaw-based Montis VC secured €50 million at the first close of its new fund, backed by the European Investment Fund and other institutional investors, to invest in early-stage European startups across energy, industrial tech and AI.

👭🏻 Female-led VC firm VitaminºC reached a first close of its €18 million debut climate fund to invest in early-stage startups across energy, food and agriculture, and carbon removal and adaptation.

🇪🇺 The European Investment Fund launched a €1.5 billion fund of funds to back around 100 growth-stage VC firms, aiming to strengthen Europe’s late-stage funding ecosystem and support the scaling of homegrown tech champions.

🎤 Founders of Tomorrow’s Factories at HackSummit

12 Founders pioneering the future of manufacturing join us on the HackSummit stage.

Across clean industrial heat, biomaterials, modern mining extraction, carbon-storing SCM, in-space manufacturing and sustainable protein, they’ll share their vision, recent milestones and ambitious plans to launch pilots and open factories to upend current systems.

We’ll be joined by: Paebbl, Space Forge, Hades Mining, Altrove, Milvus Advanced, Voltfang, MicroHarvest, EPYR, Modern Synthesis, Phlair, Solar Foods, Notpla

See all Speakers

Materials x Climate

Credit: Epoch Biodesign

🇬🇧 UK-based Epoch Biodesign raised €10.3 million from Extantia Capital, Inditex, Lowercarbon Capital, Happiness Capital, Kibo Invest and Day One Ventures to scale its biorecycling technology, which uses AI-designed enzymes to recycle plastic and textile waste.

🧵 Swedish startup Renasens, which is developing CO₂-based textile recycling technology, secured €10 million seed funding in a round led by Extantia with participation from Course Corrected VC and Norrsken Launcher. 

🔪 Allday Goods, based in the UK, raised €883,000 from FIGR Ventures with participation from Anotherway Ventures, Machroes Holdings and angel investors, to turn plastic waste into premium knives and kitchen tools. 

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Arkadia Space

☄️ Spain’s Arkadia Space, a spacetech startup developing green propulsion systems to replace toxic satellite fuels, secured €14.5 million from the European Innovation Council to scale and commercialise its hydrogen peroxide-based technology.

🚑 US-based Harbinger is expanding into emergency services through a partnership with Frazer to build hybrid ambulances and mobile healthcare vehicles on its flexible electric chassis platform.

🚙 Good read: Dale Vince reflects on building the UK’s first electric car and charging network 15 years ago.

Water x Climate

Credit: blue activity

💧 Germany’s blue activity raised €8.5 million seed funding in a round co-led by Wind Capital and Venture Stars, with participation from Angel Invest, to scale its biocide-free cooling water treatment technology, designed to cut costs and reduce chemical use.

💡 Cool: This handheld device is capable of detecting harmful “forever chemicals” (PFAS) in water within minutes.

🐾 Footsteps x Climate

Are the solutions right under our feet?

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

For years, climate tech rode on urgency. Now, LPs are backing something far more pragmatic.

Insights from General Partners at Atlantic, Climentum Capital, FoodLabs, Nucleus Capital, Oyster Bay Ventures and World Fund show a clear shift: climate hard tech is no longer framed as impact-first; it’s about energy security, industrial resilience, and economic advantage.

The narrative is changing fast. 2026 is all about reindustrialisation as an opportunity. Here’s where LP capital is really heading.

In this week’s edition: 

🧬 Rubi Laboratories is spinning waste carbon into textiles
🚤 Arc secures $50M to scale electric boats
🔌 GridBeyond taps Samsung for AI-powered grid scaling

The Digest

Credit: Earth Blox

⚖️ Edinburgh-based climate analytics startup Earth Blox raised €6.9 million in a funding round led by PXN Ventures, with support from Scottish Enterprise, Archangels and the European Space Agency, to scale its AI-powered platform that helps businesses assess nature and climate risks.

💻 GridBeyond attracted backing from Samsung Ventures to scale its AI-driven platform that manages electricity grids by coordinating distributed energy sources like batteries, renewables, and demand, aiming to improve grid stability and efficiency as power systems become more complex.

📉 Maersk is winding down its corporate venture capital arm Maersk Growth as it refocuses on its core business, halting new startup investments and scaling back the unit to manage its existing portfolio. 

🚀 Applications are open for Carbon13's European Venture Accelerator: 12 months one on one support with €150-250k funding opportunity. Designed for startups looking to raise €1-3 million in the next 12-18 months.

🎙️ Podcast Opportunity: Hugo Rauch of New Wave joins the HackSummit to sit down with investors and startups. Attending HackSummit? Book a slot by signing up here.

👀 Next Impact Europe has opened nominations for a new initiative spotlighting the next generation of diverse-led impact startups emerging across Europe. The initiative will publish a curated list of 50 companies to watch, nominate a startup here. 

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Built in Montreal

💩 Solugen, based in Canada, secured a $50 million equity round led by Idealist Capital with participation from Canada Growth Fund. It will use the funds to scale production of its circular, manure-derived nitrogen fertiliser Azogen to meet rising demand for low-carbon farming solutions.

🚜 US-based AgZen raised a $10 million Series B led by DCVC Bio with participation from Material Impact and Astanor, plus a strategic investment from Syngenta Group Ventures. It will use the funds to scale its AI-powered smart spraying system that enables farmers to reduce chemical use by up to 50% without impacting yields.

🥃 Supercritical has successfully produced the world’s first direct-fired hydrogen-distilled whisky through the WhiskHy project, in collaboration with Suntory Global Spirits and the Manufacturing Technology Centre and backed by the UK government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, while also scaling its membrane-free electrolyser to an industrial-ready TRL 5 system.

🏭 Danish sustainable protein company Unibio is partnering with Saudi Industrial Investment Group to build the world’s largest single-cell protein plant in Saudi Arabia, using gas fermentation technology to produce alternative protein for animal feed.

Carbon x Climate

Credit: LinkedIn

🐜 Researchers have discovered that the ant species Sericomyrmex amabilis, found in Central and South America, can capture carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into mineralised dolomite within its exoskeleton.

😎 How it started vs how it’s going: Check out Parallel Carbon’s Malachite facility. 

Get Found, Get Funded at HackSummit

Snapshot of investors confirmed to join HackSummit

A powerhouse lineup of renowned investors take the stage at HackSummit on April 22-23.

Together with the Founders they’ve backed, they’ll reveal why they invested in breakout startups, where they’re deploying capital next, and what it really takes for founders to get on their radar.

Listen out for actionable insights, real investment frameworks, and the signals they look for before writing a cheque. Plus, schedule 1-1 meetings with them at the Summit.

With: Contrarian Ventures, FORWARD.one, Unruly Capital, Visionaries Tomorrow, Flora Ventures, Kost Capital, Slate VC, Eurazeo, Decalia, Planet A Ventures, Nucleus Capital, Synthesis Capital, Solvable Syndicate and Ordway Selections.

Join them in Lausanne

Construction x Climate

Credit: Cocoon

🧱 UK-based Cocoon raised a $15 million Series A funding round led by 2150, with participation from Brick & Mortar Ventures and The Venture Collective alongside existing investors, to scale its low-cost, low-carbon cementitious materials.

🏗️ Austria’s Sequestra secured €3 million in a seed funding round led by VSE Beteiligungs-GmbH with support from Dr. Rudolf Fries Familien-Privatstiftung to scale its CO₂ mineralisation technology, designed to turn emissions and waste into stable, reusable materials. 

Funds x Climate

Credit: Partech

🇫🇷 Paris-based Partech closed a €300 million impact fund backed by global institutional investors to support European industrial and climate tech scaleups, targeting revenue-generating B2B companies. 

🇳🇱 Rabobank launched the €102 million Rabo Impact Foundation to invest in high-impact, early-stage projects in the Netherlands, aiming to drive systemic change in key societal areas while targeting growth to €1 billion.

🇪🇸 Spanish investment firm GVC Gaesco Alternative Investments launched a €70 million Resilient Infratech Ventures fund to back startups building energy, industrial, and digital infrastructure technologies.

How Hades Reinvents Access to the Deep Underground

Hades Mining

Energy and critical minerals are access problems.

A huge share of what we need already exists, geothermal energy, high-value mineral deposits, but sits kilometres below ground, beyond what current drilling systems can reach economically.

That’s where Hades Mining comes in

They’re building for a future where access to the subsurface becomes a core capability to reshape energy, industrial capacity, and geopolitical resilience.

At the center of this is IPL Cerberus:
→ a laser-based drilling system
→ designed to operate at extreme depths
→ with the ambition of becoming the fastest drill on the planet

If it works, it could change the equation entirely.

And they have recently raised €15 million to get there faster. The round was co-led by HV Capital and Headline, with participation from Project A and Visionaries Tomorrow, Founders Factory, Viessmann Generations Group, Interface Capital, and FounderLake.

Next up, Co-Founder and CEO Max Werner joins Thong Le Hoang at Visionaries Tomorrow for a fireside chat at the HackSummit to discuss Hades' and Europe's role in sustainable mining.

We caught up with Max before he joins us at the summit to get the inside track on what they're building and how they're scaling from prototype to industrial scale.

Read the Interview

Materials x Climate

Credit: WeSort.AI

🇩🇪 Germany’s WeSort.AI secured €10 million from investors including Infinity Recycling, Green Generation Fund, Vent.io and SPRIND to scale its AI-powered sorting technology that recovers critical raw materials like lithium and cobalt from waste.

👗 Rubi Laboratories, based in the US, secured $7.5 million in new funding alongside $60 million in offtake agreements from investors including AP Ventures, FH One, Talis Capital and H&M Group, to scale its cell-free biocatalysis platform that uses engineered enzymes to convert waste carbon into materials, with the goal of creating more sustainable fibres that can be spun into materials like viscose and lyocell.

🧪 German startup Level Nine raised €4 million in a seed round led by Visionaries Tomorrow to develop next-generation catalysts that convert biomass and waste into sustainable chemical feedstocks.

🇫🇮 Finland’s Elea & Lili raised €2.5 million in a seed funding round led by Lifeline Ventures to scale its cellulose-based, fossil-free absorbent materials that replace plastic-based superabsorbents, with the funds aimed at pilot production, industrial validation, and early commercial launches in Europe and the US. 

🔋 US-based critical metals refining company Nth Cycle has signed a landmark $1.1 billion long-term offtake agreement with Trafigura to supply nickel and lithium from recycled battery materials. 

💡 A growing list of Europe’s manufacturers of tomorrow. Who get’s your vote?

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Arc

🚤 LA-based Arc secured $50 million from Eclipse, Andreessen Horowitz, Menlo Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Necessary Ventures, and Offline Ventures to expand beyond consumer boats into commercial and defense markets, aiming to scale its electric propulsion technology across the broader marine industry.

⛴️ Candela, a Stockholm-based electric ferry startup, raised €30 million from the World Bank’s IFC alongside existing investors including EQT Ventures, SEB Private Equity, KanDela and Ocean Zero, to scale production of its energy-efficient hydrofoil vessels and build a new factory to support its global expansion.

🫣 Packaging Fails x Climate

A painfully relatable mashup of packaging fails, where great design meets real-world chaos.

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

The energy transition runs on metals.

Lithium, copper, rare earths… these are the building blocks of batteries, EVs and wind turbines. Yet Europe still imports most of the critical minerals it depends on.

We talked to 10 founders, investors and operators across the ecosystem, and mapped 60 ways Europe could rebuild its mineral and metals supply chain.

From AI-driven exploration to circular metals systems, the climate deep tech opportunity is bigger than most people realise. 

In this week’s edition: 

💧 €100M fund launches to tackle water scarcity and pollution
🌋 Telura raises €4M to drill for geothermal energy
⚡ Renewables are getting AI “virtual engineers” 

The Digest

Credit: Extantia

🗺️ Interesting: Extantia has mapped part of the European robotics ecosystem to get a sense of the landscape.

🛰️ AIRMO, a Berlin- and Luxembourg-based space-tech startup developing airborne and satellite systems to monitor greenhouse-gas emissions, raised €5 million in a seed funding round led by Ananda Impact Ventures to launch its first methane-detecting satellite in 2027

♻️ UK-based COOloop raised £150,000 seed funding from Carbon13 Ventures to commercialise its catalytic process that converts captured CO₂ and renewable hydrogen into carbon-negative acetic acid.

🏅 The BEAM Circular Accelerator announced its second cohort of startups working to scale technologies that convert agricultural and organic waste into valuable products.

🇫🇷 Join us in Paris on 19th March for the next ClimateHack Meetup. Free to attend.

👩🏻‍🔬 SPRIND and Builders Vision are partnering with Deep Science Ventures to fully fund 5 PhDs for researchers developing novel solutions to critical climate and health issues.

🧪 Anima is launching the 2nd edition of the Out of the Lab Challenge: €50,000 to accelerate your transition from lab to market. Apply today.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Tropic

🍌 UK agri-biotech Tropic raised $105 million Series C funding in a round co-led by Forbion’s Bioeconomy Fund and Corteva, with backing from Just Climate, IQ Capital, ABN Amro, Invest International and existing investors including Temasek and Five Seasons Ventures, to scale commercial production of its gene-edited bananas and rice and expand its pipeline of climate-resilient crops.

🤠 Dutch startup Those Vegan Cowboys raised €12.25 million from crowd investors via Invesdor, a privately owned impact fund, and earlier investors including dairy farmers and cheesemakers, to prepare for industrial-scale manufacturing of its precision-fermented casein proteins.

🌾 UK-based Cytotrait raised £3 million seed funding in a round led by Northern Gritstone, with participation from the UK Innovation & Science Seed Fund and the Northern Universities Ventures Fund, to advance its MOSS gene-editing platform and expand crop research programmes in wheat, maize, potato and canola aimed at improving yield, resilience and sustainability.

🍼 Australian precision-fermentation startup All G received a A$1.1 million grant from the New South Wales government’s Biosciences Fund to scale up production of its human beta-casein protein and advance proof-of-concept manufacturing and regulatory preparation for use in infant formula.

Biodiversity x Climate

Credit: City Detect

🤖 City Detect, a US startup using computer vision to help municipalities monitor urban issues like graffiti, illegal dumping and building decay, secured $13 million in a Series A funding round led by Prudence Venture Capital to expand its AI system that analyses images captured from cameras mounted on public vehicles such as garbage trucks and street sweepers.

🌎 Austrian AI startup Another Earth raised €3.5 million to scale its data and simulation platform that generates synthetic Earth-observation data, designed for applications such as climate analysis, energy planning, urban development and disaster management.

📈 New research published in the journal Communications Biology shows that microbial necromass (the remains of dead soil microbes) plays a major role in boosting stored carbon and nitrogen in restored soils, particularly in semi-arid regions undergoing afforestation.

🐞 Good Read: Trump may have killed the first-ever National Nature Assessment, but it’s now been released independently

👀 Good watch: Elena Doms shares what’s new in Natural Capital in one minute. 

🌧️ Interesting: Google is using old news reports and AI to predict flash floods.

Get Found, Get Funded at HackSummit

Snapshot of investors confirmed to join HackSummit

We’re just one month away from Europe’s leading Founders and Funders converging at the HackSummit on April 22-23.

Where you’ll connect with investors from leading banks, asset managers, VCs and angel syndicates looking for their next opportunity.

Last year, over 4,000 meetings took place via the 1-1 networking app alone plus 1,000s more spontaneous meetings and connections happened across the 2 days.

It’s time to broaden your investment network, explore new partnerships, and spark new conversations.

Ready to join us? Reserve your place today before the ticket prices increase on Monday.

Join them in Lausanne

Energy x Climate

Credit: MGA Thermal

🇦🇺 MGA Thermal raised $17 million in a funding round led by IP Group Australia with support from Main Sequence to scale its long-duration thermal energy storage technology that converts renewable electricity into industrial heat

⚡️ Zurich-based energy hardware startup Hyperscale Power, which is developing solid-state transformers for AI data centres, EV charging and renewable infrastructure, raised €5 million in a seed funding round co-led by World Fund and Vsquared Ventures to expand its operations.

🌋 Telura, a Munich-based startup developing electric impulse drilling technology for geothermal energy, came out of stealth with €4 million pre-seed funding from Nucleus Capital, Possible Ventures and First Momentum to accelerate development and prepare for market entry in 2026.

👷‍♀️ Barcelona-based Delfos Energy raised a €3 million seed extension from investors including Vox Capital/COPEL, Headline, Contrarian Ventures, DOMO VC and EDP Ventures to further develop its AI “virtual engineer” platform for renewable energy operations.

🇫🇷 French startup Mantle8 secured a €2.06 million grant from the EU’s Just Transition Fund to advance its geoscience-driven platform for identifying underground natural hydrogen resources.

☁️ Pure Data Centres has partnered with AVK to deploy Europe’s first large-scale 110MW on-site microgrid at its Dublin data centre campus, providing independent power generation and battery storage to support AI and cloud infrastructure while easing pressure on the national electricity grid. 

⚛️ TerraPower has received approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a next-generation 345-MW sodium-cooled Natrium nuclear reactor in Wyoming, marking the first US permit for a commercial reactor in nearly a decade.

🔋 Google and Tesla have joined companies including Carrier and Span to launch the Utilize coalition, arguing the power grid is often underused and pushing for policies that better deploy tools like batteries, demand response and virtual power plants to tap unused capacity.

🤝🏼 Studsvik has acquired Swedish nuclear project developer Kärnfull Next, marking the first exit for climate tech investor Climentum Capital’s Fund I.

Funds x Climate

Credit: Emerald Technology Ventures

💧 Emerald Technology Ventures raised €100 million for its Global Water Fund II, backing startups developing technologies for water treatment, reuse, monitoring and infrastructure resilience as demand grows for solutions addressing water scarcity and contamination. 

💰 Breakout Ventures launched a $114 million Fund III backed by investors including Cortes Capital, S-Cubed Capital, The Kraft Group, Pinegrove Venture Partners, JIMCO and Korea Omega Investment Corporation to support early-stage startups commercialising scientific breakthroughs across areas like AI-driven biology, chemistry and advanced materials.

🦸‍♀️ Companies including Amazon, Google, Salesforce and JPMorgan Chase have launched the Superpollutant Action Initiative, committing $100 million by 2030 to cut high-impact warming gases such as methane, refrigerants, black carbon and nitrous oxide.

🌍 Persistent launched the Persistent Africa Climate Venture Builder Fund, targeting $70 million to back early-stage climate startups across Africa in energy, agriculture and resource transitions, with anchor investors including African Development Bank Group, Nordic Development Fund and FSD Africa Investments.

Stand out from the Crowd

2025 HackSummit Startup Fair

Position your startup as a leading European HardTech for Climate

Filling up fast: It’s time to secure one of the last remaining spots in the HackSummit Startup Fair.

The Startup Fair is central to the HackSummit and it is where up-and-coming Founders demo their technology, attract investors and potential partners and get the word out about their solution.

Apply today if you’re building in climate, industrial, food, energy, materials, or deep tech, and showcase your solution to a highly targeted audience.

Showcase your Startup

Materials x Climate

Credit: Seprify

🇨🇭 Swiss biomaterials startup Seprify raised €13.4 million in a Series A funding round backed by Inter IKEA Group alongside Una Terra Early Growth Fund, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and Kickfund. It will use the funds to scale its cellulose-based materials platform that replaces titanium dioxide in applications such as food, cosmetics and coatings.

🧱 CURA, which is developing an electrochemical process to produce low-carbon cement, has partnered with Grand Forks Concrete Ltd. to build a 100-tonne-per-year pilot plant and a 30,000-tonne-per-year commercial facility in Taber, Alberta, converting agricultural spent lime waste into decarbonized cement and captured CO₂.

🪸 noriware launched norifresh™, a seaweed-based, 100% plastic-free packaging film that can run on standard top-seal lines and heat-seal directly to cardboard trays without coatings or adhesives, enabling fresh produce packs that can be recycled entirely in the paper stream.

👀 Interesting: According to International Union for Conservation of Nature research, synthetic textiles (35%) and tyre wear (28%) are the largest sources of microplastics, while plastic packaging and personal care products account for only about 6%.

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Group14 Technologies

🏭 Group14 Technologies has opened a new BAM-3 factory in South Korea to produce silicon anode battery materials that enable flash-charging electric vehicles, with the facility capable of producing 2,000 metric tons annually, enough for about 100,000 long-range EVs.

🚕 Electric air taxis developed by companies such as Archer Aviation, Joby Aviation, Beta Technologies and Wisk Aero are set to begin large-scale testing across 26 US states this summer under a new three-year FAA pilot program.

👏🏼 10 and 11 Year Olds x Climate

A 10-year-old designer just debuted his collection made from recycled materials at Paris Fashion Week!

And 11-year old Wynter tells Donald Trump her fears and hopes with conviction

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

With International Women’s Day this Sunday, we’re zooming in on some of the women reshaping Europe’s industrial landscape.

Across climate tech, energy, advanced materials and manufacturing, founders, scientists and investors are rebuilding the systems that power our economy, accelerating what many are calling Europe’s industrial renaissance.

Here are 101 women driving the shift.

If you’re a woman Founder working in Climate, we’d love to see (and celebrate you) at HackSummit, April 22-23, you can save 40% with code WOMENINCLIMATE

Happy International Women’s Day 💜 

In this week’s edition: 

🔥 RIFT fires up €113M to scale iron fuel for industrial heat
🧬 CO₂-based chemicals land at L’Oréal
🪨 Litherm is electrifying lime and cement production

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Guoke Xinglian Technology Co

👶🏻 China’s Guoke Xinglian Technology Co, a precision-fermentation biotech developing human-identical milk proteins, raised ¥100 million ($14.6 million) in a Series A+ funding round led by Shanghai Zhuiguang Julian, Lenovo Capital, and a fund under Changjin Holdings to scale industrial production, starting with lactoferrin.

🌾 Belgian agtech startup Rainbow Crops has been awarded a $7 million grant from the Gates Foundation to advance its AI- and genome-editing-powered platform for developing climate-resilient crops, initially focusing on improving heat- and drought-tolerant varieties of corn, sorghum and rice for smallholder farmers.

🍇 Amatera, based in France, raised €6 million seed funding in a round co-led by Demea Sustainable Investment and Oyster Bay Venture Capital with participation from PINC, Mudcake and Exceptional Ventures. It will use the funds to scale its AI-driven plant cell biology platform to accelerate breeding of climate-resilient crops, starting with coffee and wine grapes.

⏩️ The UN Food and Agriculture Organization is urging governments to streamline and clarify regulatory frameworks for cultivated meat and precision-fermented foods, recommending clearer authority oversight, updated food safety and labelling rules, and coordinated international standards to support safe market entry and global trade.

Carbon x Climate

Credit: Carbonfuture

✅ US aerospace company Boeing has signed a multi-year agreement with Carbonfuture to purchase at least 40,000 tonnes of durable carbon dioxide removal credits from biochar projects.

🏖️ A new study has identified several US coastal hubs as the most promising locations for scaling electrochemical marine carbon dioxide removal, highlighting how existing seawater-intake infrastructure, energy availability and industrial emissions could support large-scale ocean-based carbon removal.

Chemicals x Climate

Credit: PlasmaLeap Technologies

🇦🇺 Australia’s PlasmaLeap Technologies, a University of Sydney spinout developing zero-emissions modular reactors to produce green ammonia and nitrate for fertiliser and fuels, secured $20 million Series A funding in a round co-led by the Gates Foundation, Investible and Yara Growth Ventures with support from Twynam, GrainCorp Ventures, Uniseed/UniSuper, Artesian, SVG Ventures and Agnition Ventures.

🚜 UK-based agtech startup Bindbridge secured $3.8 million from Speedinvest and Nucleus Capital. Its AI-driven BRIDGE platform designs molecular glues for next-generation herbicides and crop protection, and it will use the funds to advance crop-resilience solutions and accelerate discovery of new agricultural molecules.

🥔 DTU spin-out Mycoverse raised €2.4 million in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Future Food Fund and High-Tech Gründerfonds with participation from PINC. It is developing AI-driven fungal biological crop protection to replace chemical pesticides, and will use the funds to advance its first solution targeting potato late blight.

🧪 French startup Dioxycle has partnered with L'Oréal Groupe to deploy its sustainable “drop-in” chemicals produced from captured CO₂, electricity and water.

Construction x Climate

Credit: ISAAC antisismica

🫨 Italy’s ISAAC antisismica raised €14 million from CDP Venture Capital, 360 Capital Partners, Axon Partners Group, Gruppo Azimut, Ring Capital and NovaCapital. It develops non-invasive active mass damper systems to protect existing buildings from earthquakes, and will use the funds to expand its seismic resilience technology and accelerate deployment across the construction sector.

🏗️ German startup Litherm Technologies GmbH secured €6.5 million seed funding from investors including bmp Ventures, Graymont, SkreenHouse Ventures, Kalkfabrik Netstal AG, Zeitinger Invest, the Breakthrough Energy Foundation and UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators to industrialise its fully electric calcination technology for CO₂-free lime and cement production.

Women on Stage at the HackSummit

The HackSummit lineup is brimming with talent as Founders and Partners join us on stage to share their stories, strategies and grit to scale the future of Hard Tech.

A snapshot of female talents include:

🧱 Marta Sjögren, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Paebbl, turning captured CO₂ into carbon-storing materials that can be used in concrete and construction.

🔬 Katelijne Bekers, CEO and Co-Founder at MicroHarvest, using microorganisms, nature’s most efficient protein factories, to scale tasty, healthy, sustainable protein.

🏭  Léa Dardenne, Co-Founder and Co-CEO at Epyr, turning renewable power into high-temperature heat with thermal energy storage.

💶 Alice Besomi, Managing Director at Eurazeo, backing talented entrepreneurs with a focus on fast-growing companies building solutions for sustainable cities.

💰 Bodil Siden, General Partner at Kost Capital, champion visionary entrepreneurs leading the nutrition transition across Europe.

💸 Beau-Anne Chilla, Partner at FORWARD.one, investing in the people building the automation, quantum, and energy infrastructure Europe needs in the next decade.

Ready to join them? Female Founders in Climate save 40% on their HackSummit pass with code WOMENINCLIMATE.

Yes - Sign me up

Energy x Climate

Credit: RIFT

🔥 Netherlands-based RIFT, which is developing iron fuel technology to decarbonise industrial heat, secured €113.8 million in combined Series B and EU Innovation Fund financing led by PGGM with participation from Invest-NL, Oost NL, Rubio Impact Ventures, BOM and Energietransitiefonds Rotterdam to move toward commercial deployment and build its first production facility capable of delivering 340 GWh of CO₂-free industrial heat annually.

🇸🇰 GA Drilling, based in Slovakia, raised $44.1 million in a round led by TomEnterprise AB with participation from Underground Ventures and strategic investor Nabors Industries to accelerate commercial deployment of its NexTitan drilling technology for deep geothermal energy projects. 

🔋Germany-based battery manufacturer UniverCell secured €30 million in a Series B funding round co-led by the DeepTech & Climate Fonds, IKA and WIKA with support from the European Innovation Council Fund to scale production capacity and advance its dry-coating lithium-ion battery technology.

☀️ Norwegian energy storage scaleup Photoncycle raised €15 million Series A funding in a round led by NordicNinja and Voima Ventures, with participation from Lifeline Ventures, Eviny Ventures, Luminar Ventures and Momentum, to commercialise its solid-state hydrogen systems that allow households to store surplus summer solar energy for winter heating and electricity.

🌬️ Offshore wind developer Aikido plans to deploy a submerged 100-kW demonstration data center inside the pods of a floating offshore wind turbine off the Norwegian coast, aiming to test ocean-based, wind-powered computing infrastructure that could scale to multi-megawatt AI data centers by 2028. 

💡 Researchers at the University of Queensland have developed ultra-thin, high-strength ion-transport membranes using a nanoconfinement polymerisation technique to improve the durability and performance of fuel cells, batteries and electrolysers, with next steps focused on scaling the fabrication method for commercial clean-energy applications.

🔥 60+ startups on the Geothermal Market Map by Mountauk Climate

Materials x Climate

Credit: Shellworks

🛢️ UK-based biomaterials startup Shellworks raised $15 million, in a Series A funding round led by alter equity with participation from JamJar, Founder Collective, LocalGlobe, Third Sphere and Nat Friedman, to scale production of its microbially fermented plastic alternative Vivomer, made from waste feedstocks like used cooking oil. 

🪸 Waiākea Hawaiian Volcanic Beverages launched the world’s first commercial product labels printed with algae-based ink, developed in partnership with Living Ink Technologies, Actega and NextGen Label Group.

🔝 H&M Foundation reveals the 20 top finalists for this year’s Global Challenge Award. 

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Zeno

🏍️ Electric mobility startup Zeno raised $25 million in a Series A round led by Congruent Ventures, with participation from Active Impact and Lowercarbon Ventures plus debt from Camber Road and Trifecta Capital, to scale production of its Emara electric motorcycles and expand its battery-swap network across East Africa.

🔋 China’s BYD unveiled its Blade Battery 2.0 system, capable of charging an EV from 10% to 70% in about five minutes when paired with the company’s new 1.5-MW Flash Charging stations. 

Water x Climate

Credit: @engineeringfacts

🚰 US-based Atoco, founded by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Omar Yaghi, is developing off-grid devices that use metal-organic frameworks to capture water from air and produce up to 1,000 litres of drinking water per day using solar heat, targeting deployment in drought-prone regions, disaster zones and remote communities.

💧 France’s Ilion Water Technologies raised €3.8 million pre-seed funding from Demea Sustainable Investment and Critical Path Ventures to scale its patented low-voltage, pressure-free membrane technology for energy-efficient water purification.

 😫 Reality x Climate

True. Story.

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

Space is no longer just the final frontier, it’s fast becoming critical climate infrastructure.

This week we’re zooming out (literally) to look at the new wave of spacetech quietly being built above our heads, where microgravity manufacturing and orbital platforms could unlock breakthroughs that are difficult - or impossible - to achieve on Earth.

From next-gen materials to cleaner, more efficient production systems, the implications for climate and deep tech are bigger than most people realise.

If you’re curious where climate innovation goes once Earth gets too crowded, this one’s for you.

And if you want the inside track, don’t miss Joshua Western from Space Forge speaking live at the HackSummit 🚀

In this week’s edition: 

🦌 Flox Intelligence raises €2.5M to steer wildlife off roads
🌳 An MIT study maps the global tree shade inequality gap
🧵 CLIMATEX scales fully recyclable textiles

The Digest

Credit: Ark Climate

💰 Milkywire’s 2026 Climate Transformation Fund is now open, backing high-impact projects in nature restoration, decarbonisation and climate innovation. Find out more here.

💡 Good read: The Climate Hub shares three inconvenient truths for climate tech marketers in 2026.

💰 Munich-based GovTech startup Ark Climate raised €2.1 million in a pre-seed round led by Satgana, with backing from another.VC, Voyagers Climate Fund, the German Federal Ministry of Research and angels, to expand its AI-powered platform helping municipalities plan and deliver climate action.

🇨🇭Join us. Become a ClimateHack Ambassador in Zurich to host local Meetups in the city and foster the ClimateTech community.

🎟️ HackSummit early-bird tickets sell out today. Get yours and look forward to joining this April.

🏆 Calling all climatetech founders: applications for the 10th Urban Future Prize Competition are now open.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Verley

🇫🇷 French startup Verley raised €32 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by Alven with participation from Blast, Bpifrance, Sofinnova, Sparkfood, Captech and Founders Future to scale production and commercialise its precision-fermented, cow-free whey proteins in the US.

💻 German AI foodtech startup Foodforecast raised €8 million in a Series A funding round co-led by SHIFT Invest and ECBF to scale its AI forecasting platform that helps ultra-fresh food businesses reduce waste and optimise production. 

♻️ Copenhagen-based Reduced raised €4 million Series A funding in a round led by Delphinus Venture Capital with participation from Novo Holdings, ECBF and EIFO to scale industrial production and expand global partnerships for its fermentation-derived, upcycled savoury flavour enhancers.

🤠 Dutch precision fermentation company Those Vegan Cowboys raised €2.5 million from over 600 new shareholders ahead of its crowdfunding launch to accelerate development and testing of its animal-free casein and cheese products.

🍇 New Zealand cellular horticulture startup Forever Harvest secured NZ$1.2 million pre-seed funding in a round led by Sprout Agritech, with support from the Bioeconomy Science Institute and Callaghan Innovation’s Deep Tech Incubator, to accelerate development, pilot production and commercialisation of its lab-grown fruit and nut ingredients.

Biodiversity x Climate

Credit: Flox Intelligence

🦌 Swedish startup Flox Intelligence raised €2.5 million in a seed+ round led by Tilia Impact Ventures, with support from Satgana, GENIUS NY, J.O.S.S., Unconventional Ventures and Almi Invest, to expand its AI system that safely guides wildlife away from roads, railways and other dangerous infrastructure.

🌳 An MIT-led study published in Nature Communications finds that wealthier neighbourhoods consistently have more tree shade than poorer areas across global cities, highlighting urban heat inequality and the need to prioritise tree planting along pedestrian and transit routes.

🐦 Renewable energy consultancy Natural Power has updated the free OCcAM Excel tool, originally developed by SSE Renewables and now hosted by OWIC, to help offshore wind developers quickly assess potential seabird mortality risks during early project planning.

💧Interesting: Forget having a pool installed; try a natural swimming pond instead!

🌈 Cool: A rainbow nudibranch off the UK coast uses recycled toxins, not a shell, for its brilliant defence.

Energy x Climate

Credit: Hybrid Greentech

☁️ Copenhagen-based Hybrid Greentech raised over €15 million from Nordic Alpha Partners to expand its cloud-based virtual power plant platform across Europe, supporting deeper integration of renewable and battery assets into energy markets.

🇩🇪 German energy startup Einklang secured €2.2 million in a funding round led by Vireo Ventures, with backing from SI Ventures, Saxovent, Angel Invest, Heimatboost and DnA Ventures. It will use the funds to scale its battery-optimised electricity tariff platform that helps German SMEs cut power costs and improve energy flexibility.

🏡 London-based energy optimisation and home automation startup Tewke raised £1.5 million in its second funding round from JamJar Investments, Cur8 Capital, Energy Mix Ventures, Project Ventures and angel Vlad Yatsenko to scale its Tap smart home platform and advance AI-powered residential energy management.

⚛️ Proxima Fusion has signed an MoU with the Free State of Bavaria, RWE and the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics to develop Europe’s first commercial stellarator fusion power pathway, beginning with the Alpha demonstrator in the 2030s and targeting the Stellaris grid-connected plant.

🌊 A study published in Nature Communications reports a polymeric carbon nitride photocatalyst that enables efficient sunlight-driven hydrogen production directly from seawater at ambient pressure, advancing scalable and decentralised green hydrogen generation without freshwater or vacuum requirements.

🔋 Google plans to build its first Minnesota data center powered by 1.9GW of clean energy, including a 300MW, 100-hour iron-air battery from Form Energy, to enable longer-duration renewable power use and advance its low-carbon infrastructure strategy.

📈 According to GlobalData, global low-carbon hydrogen production reached 0.84 mtpa in 2024 and could grow to 42–65.3 mtpa by 2030, with green hydrogen projected to dominate supply at nearly 89%.

🌀 Interesting: Caie Kelly at Lowercarbon Capital explains her layered supercycle theory.

2026 Summit Speakers

Ambitious builders and backers in European Deep Tech will join the HackSummit to share their journey so far, bold vision to scale up and navigating the roadblocks to get there faster.

Hear from Founders turning breakthrough science into real-world impact:

🧱 Future-proof materials made of CO2 - Paebbl
⛏️ Technology-first modern deep tech mining - Hades Mining
🚜 Autonomous, electric tractor platform designed for agriculture - Voltrac
🔬 Better protein production through natural fermentation - MicroHarvest
🏜️ Making 10-10000 hectare microclimates up to 15ºC cooler - AtmoCooling
🧬 Manufacturing tangible alternatives for critical materials with AI - altrove
⚡️ Decentralising the grid with smart, sustainable storage systems - Voltfang
🪐 Space-derived crystal seeds for semiconductor substrates on Earth - Space Forge

And joining them on stage are the Partners shaping what gets funded next:

💰 Funding and scaling Europe's best innovations - FORWARD.one
💶 Investing in the crazy, before it becomes normal - Unruly Capital
💸 €100m early-stage industrial deep tech fund - Visionaries Tomorrow
📈 Backing the boldest Climate Tech Founders at the earliest stages - Contrarian Ventures

See all Speakers

Funds x Climate

Credit: Syndicate One

🇧🇪 Brussels-based VC Syndicate One reached a €22 million first close for its second fund, backed by Sofina, Finhouse, COI, PMV, SFPIM, Finance&Invest Brussels and Wallonie Entreprendre, to invest in and support early-stage technology startups founded by Belgian entrepreneurs.

Materials x Climate

Credit: Tech.EU

👚 Swiss textile technology company CLIMATEX AG raised €3.5 million in a round led by the Collateral Good Textile & Fashion Innovation Fund, with support from existing investors, to scale sales and market adoption of its patented circular, fully recyclable textile technologies.

🚗 EU-funded project Fabulose, coordinated by Germany’s DITF and backed by the CBE JU, is developing scalable, recyclable leather-like fabrics using fermentation-derived bacterial cellulose, cyanophycin and pigments to replace animal and plastic-based materials in automotive, fashion and furniture.

💡 Interesting: What it takes to make a killer novel permanent magnet.

Looking for your first / next pilot partner?

We’re hosting the first Hack Pilot Day: a curated matchmaking day designed to connect startups with established companies to build pilots.

You'll be matched with curated SMEs looking to collaborate with pilot-ready startups.

The goal is simple: create the right conditions to explore collaborations that can actually move forward.

If you're looking for new partners to scale up in Food Resilience, Industrial Efficiency or Built Environment Performance, the Pilot Day is for you.

Apply Today

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Einride

🇸🇪 Swedish electric and autonomous freight startup Einride has raised $113 million from investors including EQT Ventures ahead of its planned New York SPAC listing to support technology development and global expansion of its digital logistics platform.

🚙 UK-based autonomous driving startup Wayve secured a £25 million investment from the British Business Bank as part of its $1.2 billion Series D to advance its AI foundation models that enable vehicles to learn and navigate real-world environments.

✈️ Swiss sustainable fuels company Metafuels raised $24 million, in a funding round led by UVC Partners with support from Energy Impact Partners, RockCreek, Verve Ventures and Fortescue, to scale production of its methanol-to-jet sustainable aviation fuel and advance commercial deployment from Rotterdam.

🚲 Sparqle, based in Amsterdam, raised €1.5 million to expand its emission-free e-commerce delivery network across Europe using e-cargo bikes, electric vehicles and proprietary logistics software.

⛴️ Norwegian tourism and technology company Brim Explorer has signed contracts to build two battery-powered high-speed trimaran passenger vessels, to enable zero-emission sightseeing cruises.

 💅🏻 Manicure x Climate

This Founder mapped the copper oxidation pathway on her nails

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

In climate tech, the lab is the easy(ish) part. Scale is where the heat really kicks in.

Founders are nailing the chemistry, the biology, and the hardware. But commercial reality still runs through procurement teams, industrial timelines, and corporate balance sheets.

When breakthroughs are achieved, next comes the bureaucracy. 

Corporate venture capital is often where that leap to real-world deployment begins. So we built a fresh map of 88 European CVCs operating right at this critical interface.

See who’s shaping what actually scales.

In this week’s edition: 

⚡ Heron Power and DG Matrix raise big for next-gen grid hardware
🌊 Gigablue secures $20M to scale ocean carbon removal
🌡️ Helion’s fusion power casually hits 150 million °C

The Digest

Credit: Cocoon

💡 Interesting: Eliot Brooks at Cocoon shares the three things that helped as they were scaling their tech.

💧 US-based PolyGone Systems Inc, which develops technologies to monitor and remove microplastics from water systems, closed its oversubscribed seed round with $4 million to fund large-scale commercial deployments. The round was led by FYRFLY Venture Partners, with participation from Tech Council Ventures, Interstate Fusion Ventures, Golden Seeds and angel investors, plus matching support from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

🌳 European nature intelligence startup refinq raised a €2.2 million seed round led by aws Gründungsfonds with participation from SymbiaVC, Fund F and angel Olivier Schwab, plus support from FFG, to scale its platform which translates geospatial and climate data into financial nature-risk insights for industry. 

🇰🇪 🇳🇱 Here’s what went on at ClimateHack Nairobi and ClimateHack Amsterdam.

🌍 If you are building a science-driven climate venture in Southern Africa, the Kinjani Lab may be for you.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: NANDO

🤖 Italy’s NANDO secured €3.3 million in a funding round led by MAIA Ventures and CDP Venture Capital with participation from the Piemonte Next Fund, Club degli Investitori, La4G and EMBA Capital Partners. It will use the funds to expand its AI-powered waste and food-waste monitoring and optimisation solutions.

🐮 New Zealand-based agri-biotech startup Ruminant BioTech has launched a CAD$7.6 million research programme in Canada, supported by a CAD$2.8 million Alberta government grant plus industry co-funding and company capital, to validate and commercialise its slow-release methane-reduction bolus for pasture-raised cattle.

☕️ Belgian startup Koppie, which makes a single-ingredient coffee alternative from fermented and roasted peas that can be brewed like coffee, secured follow-on funding from DOEN Ventures to support scaling and commercialisation with its first launch partners.

🍫 Cargill has partnered with Israeli startup Kokomodo, which develops cell-based cocoa ingredients, in a collaboration supported by funding from EIT Food to validate, test and scale cell-based chocolate applications in industrial settings and accelerate their path to market.

🚜 US-based precision agriculture company TerraClear launched TerraScout, a fully autonomous field robot that captures high-resolution images to map rocks and identify weeds in broad-acre row crops, enabling real-time planning to improve farm efficiency and input use.

Energy x Climate

Credit: TechCrunch

🇺🇸 US-based Heron Power raised $140 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism Fund and Breakthrough Energy Ventures with participation from Capricorn Investment Group, Energy Impact Partners, Gigascale Capital and Valor Atreides AI Fund to build large-scale manufacturing capacity for its more efficient solid-state transformers supporting data centers, renewable energy and grid applications.

💵 Another US solid-state transformer startup, DG Matrix, secured $60 million Series A funding in a round led by Engine Ventures with participation from ABB, Cerberus Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Clean Energy Ventures, Fine Structure Ventures, Helios Climate Ventures, MCJ and Piedmont Capital. It will use the funds to scale deployment of its more energy-efficient Interport power-routing technology for data centers and other electrification applications, designed to support more sustainable power infrastructure.

🇩🇪 Munich-based nuuEnergy, which builds and operates digitally enabled regional heat-pump installation businesses, raised €4.3 million in a seed funding round led by amberra with participation from EnjoyVenture and existing investors HTGF, Vireo Ventures, better ventures and Bynd Venture Capital to expand its operations.

🥵 Fusion energy startup Helion announced that its Polaris prototype reactor has reached plasma temperatures of 150 million °C using deuterium–tritium fuel, as it advances toward commercial fusion power.

ESG x Climate

Credit: UK Tech News

🟢 A new report commissioned by environmental groups including Friends of the Earth US and Green Web Foundation finds that 74% of Big Tech claims about AI delivering climate benefits are unproven and may amount to greenwashing, warning that the technology’s growing energy, water and land demands risk outweighing its environmental gains.

🤝🏼 London-based supply chain impact analytics company Mondra has merged with Austrian sustainability intelligence platform inoqo to form a unified global entity under the Mondra brand, aiming to expand capabilities and accelerate food system decarbonisation worldwide.

Stand out from the Crowd

2025 HackSummit Startup Fair

Are you ready to position your startup as one of Europe’s most promising HardTechs?

Then it’s time to secure your spot in the HackSummit Startup Fair.

The Startup Fair is central to the HackSummit and it is where up-and-coming Founders demo their technology, attract investors and potential partners and get the word out about their solution.

Apply today if you’re building in climate, industrial, food, energy, materials, or deep tech, and showcase your solution to a highly targeted audience.

Showcase your Startup

Funds x Climate

Credit: TechCrunch

🗻 US venture firm Climactic launched the $11 million Material Scale, a hybrid debt-equity financing platform initially backed by Ralph Lauren and Structure Climate, to help climate materials startups overcome scale-up barriers.

🇦🇺 The Australian federal government has awarded $12.7 million under its Critical Technologies Challenge Program to eight projects, including one with NEXTDC and Fujitsu developing AI and quantum tools to cool data centres more efficiently and cut carbon emissions, to advance prototype development across energy, healthcare and resources.

🐙 Octopus Energy announced it is investing just under $1 billion through its Octopus Energy Generation arm into the Californian clean tech sector, backing two carbon-removal companies focused on grassland restoration and reforestation and acquiring a solar-plus-battery project.

Materials x Climate

Credit: Everydye

👕 French textile tech startup Everdye has developed a room-temperature dyeing process that could cut energy use by up to 90% and significantly reduce wastewater pollution while achieving cost parity with conventional petrochemical dyes, aiming to help fashion brands decarbonise one of the industry’s most resource-intensive steps.

🌈 Good watch: Women in Mexico creating a beautiful ‘woven sky’.

Looking for your first / next pilot partner?

We’re hosting the first Hack Pilot Day: a curated matchmaking day designed to connect startups with established companies to build pilots.

By joining, you'll be matched with curated SMEs looking to collaborate with pilot-ready startups.

The goal is simple: create the right conditions to explore collaborations that can actually move forward.

If you're looking for new partners to scaleup in Food Resilience, Industrial Efficiency or Built Environment Performance, the Pilot Day is for you.

Apply Today

Mobility x Climate

Credit: HeyCharge

🚗 Munich-based EV charging technology company HeyCharge secured a €2.5 million grant from the European Innovation Council Accelerator to advance and pilot its SecureCharge FLEX platform across Europe.

🚙 Schneider Electric launched the EVlink Pro DC 720, a next-generation high-power EV charging system able to deliver up to 720 kW and charge up to 12 vehicles simultaneously for commercial, fleet and public charging sites.

💡 Interesting: TechCrunch shares what the Epstein files reveal about EV startups and Silicon Valley.

 🎿 Winter Olympics x Climate

🤦‍♀️ Getting disqualified for PFAS:

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

Clean energy and critical minerals both depend on one hard truth: you still have to get underground.

This week, Munich-based Hades Mining raised €15 million to scale high-power laser drilling designed to unlock deep geothermal and critical minerals faster, cheaper and with far lower environmental impact than conventional methods.

If it works at industrial scale, it could rewrite the economics of subsurface extraction in Europe.

Plus get the inside track on their scaleup plans on April 22 when Founder and CEO Max Werner joins Thong Le Hoang, Founding Partner of Visionairies Tomorrow on the HackSummit Stage.

In this week’s edition: 

💥 Fusion startup Inertia lands $450M to ultra-high-power laser systems
👕 The EU’s banned destruction of unsold apparel and footwear
✈️ HAMR Energy raises $10M to turn forestry waste into low-carbon methanol and SAF

The Digest

Volunteer at the HackSummit

🇨🇭Join us. Become a ClimateHack Ambassador in Zurich to host local Meetups in the city and foster the ClimateTech community. Or become a volunteer at the HackSummit.

👎🏼 The Trump administration’s EPA plans to repeal the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health, in a move that could weaken climate regulations, spark lawsuits, and widen the policy gap with other major economies.

👀 Good read: USA TODAY’s bestselling Disciplined Entrepreneurship for Climate and Energy Ventures helps founders build climate and energy startups using MIT’s proven frameworks.

🇳🇱 ClimateHack returns to Amsterdam on February 18th, join us to hear 2030 predictions from 5 VCs. Book your free place here.

🎯 600+ Startup Accelerators in Europe - Mapped and organised for 2026.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: MicroHarvest

🏭 Germany’s MicroHarvest received a €5.5 million government grant to build its first industrial-scale microbial protein plant in Leuna, which will convert agricultural waste into up to 15,000 tonnes of protein annually for pet food, aquaculture and human nutrition.

🌱 The Bland Company, based in the UK, raised $2.67 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Initialized Capital with backing from Entrepreneur First, Transpose Platform, Behind Genius Ventures, Alumni Ventures and Vento to scale its technology that converts agricultural side streams into highly functional, soluble plant proteins, which are designed to replace eggs across multiple food applications.

🍌 Chiquita has completed the Yelloway banana pan-genome with partner KeyGene to map the full genetic diversity of Musa acuminata and accelerate breeding of disease-resistant, climate-resilient bananas, and is opening up the dataset to researchers to speed up industry-wide innovation.

🍬 Israel’s Amai Proteins received a US FDA“no questions” letter for its precision-fermented sweet protein Sweelin, clearing it for use as a general food and beverage sweetener and enabling commercial rollout.

Carbon x Climate

Credit: pHathom Technologies

🇨🇦 Canadian startup pHathom Technologies raised $4 million seed funding, in a round led by Propeller Ventures with backing from NBIF, Invest Nova Scotia and Carmeuse Ventures, to scale its carbon capture and durable storage platform.

🪨 Google- and Microsoft-backed US carbon removal startup Terradot has acquired smaller rival Eion to scale its enhanced rock weathering operations, as large institutional buyers push for bigger providers able to deliver high-volume carbon removal contracts.

🚢 UK-based Seabound has completed full-scale testing of its modular “Seabound Container” onboard carbon capture systems for ships, with results meeting or exceeding projections.

Energy x Climate

Credit: TechCrunch

⚛️ Fusion startup Inertia Enterprises raised $450 million in a Series A funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners with backing from GV and others to build ultra-high-power laser systems based on National Ignition Facility technology, with plans to begin constructing a grid-scale facility around 2030.

🦄 Australian AI-powered digital twin infrastructure platform Neara secured $90 million in a Series D led by TCV with backing from Partners Group, EQT, Square Peg and Skip Capital, valuing the company at over $1 billion, to expand its physics-based grid modelling technology globally and accelerate machine learning development for energy network resilience and capacity planning.

🇬🇧 London-based energy scaleup tem raised £55 million Series B funding in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with backing from Hitachi Ventures, Voyager Ventures, Schroders Capital, Allianz, AlbionVC, Atomico and Revent. It will use the funds to scale its AI-native energy transaction infrastructure, designed to modernise and streamline energy pricing and trading.

🇩🇪 Germany’s metiundo raised €40 million in a funding round led by Octopus Energy Generation to scale its integrated smart metering systems and software platform that digitises energy and water data for buildings.

🔋 Munich-based battery software firm TWAICE secured a €24 million venture debt financing from the European Investment Bank to scale its predictive battery analytics platform for energy storage and electric mobility operations.

💻 Finnish energy software startup Capalo AI secured €11 million Series A funding, in a round led by Heartcore Capital, with participation from Tesi and existing investors including VentureFriends, PROfounders, Inventure and Innovestor, to scale its AI-powered virtual power plant platform that optimises and trades battery energy storage systems.

🇪🇸 Barcelona-based Waste to Energy Advanced Solutions raised €10 million in a funding round led by SC Net Zero Ventures, with participation from Shell Ventures and Cemex Ventures. It will use the funds to scale its gasification systems that convert waste and biomass into syngas and low-carbon fuels.

🏘️ xWatts, based in London, raised £1.6 million seed funding in a round led by Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, with backing from Cambridge Angels, Parkwalk and R42, to scale its AI-powered energy management platform that actively optimises energy systems across complex real estate portfolios.

🇸🇪 Swedish data infrastructure startup Vesiro, a spinout from Chalmers University, secured €1.6 million in seed funding from investors including Chalmers Ventures and Industrifonden to scale its Elasticsearch performance plug-in that reduces server needs and energy consumption for large-scale data search and analytics.

☀️ UK-based solar thermal company Naked Energy launched VirtuMAX, a high-density, ground-mounted evacuated tube solar thermal system with integrated reflectors designed to deliver renewable heat for industrial and district heating projects.

ESG x Climate

Credit: Dcycle

💪🏼 Sustainability data platform Dcycle has acquired AI-powered ESG reporting software firm ESG-X to strengthen its integrated sustainability data and CSRD-aligned reporting capabilities, amid growing consolidation and tighter regulatory demands in the ESG software market.

Looking for your first / next pilot partner?

We’re hosting the first Hack Pilot Day: a curated matchmaking day designed to connect startups with established companies to build pilots.

By joining, you'll be matched with curated SMEs looking to collaborate with pilot-ready startups.

The goal is simple: create the right conditions to explore collaborations that can actually move forward.

If you're looking for new partners to scaleup in Food Resilience, Industrial Efficiency or Built Environment Performance, the Pilot Day is for you.

Apply Today

Materials x Climate

Credit: Hades Mining

💥 Munich-based deeptech mining startup Hades raised €15 million, in a seed funding round co-led by HV Capital and Headline, to further develop its laser-based drilling technology for faster, cheaper access to critical minerals and geothermal energy.

👗 The European Commission has adopted new rules under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation banning the destruction of unsold apparel, accessories and footwear, with large companies required to comply from July 2026.

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Ever

🚗 EV marketplace startup Ever secured $31 million Series A funding in a round led by Eclipse with backing from Ibex Investors, Lifeline Ventures and JIMCO to scale its AI-native, full-stack platform for buying and selling used electric vehicles.

✈️ Australian low-carbon fuels startup HAMR Energy raised $10 million in a Series A round backed by Airbus, Qantas and Thyssenkrupp Uhde to scale projects that convert plantation forestry residues into low-carbon methanol and sustainable aviation fuel for shipping and aviation.

 👀 Resilience x Climate

⛈️ What storm-proof adaptation looks like:

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

Climate tech is back in the funding game.

The first few weeks of 2026 have already delivered a mini-surge of 15 new climate and sustainability funds. While it’s not back to the frenzy years, it’s sharper, more selective, and more thesis-driven, with a clear pulse of cautious optimism running through the capital stack. 

Fresh vehicles are forming, mandates are tightening, and investors are gearing up for the next wave of deployable climate solutions.

The capital isn’t flooding, but it’s definitely flowing again.

In this week’s edition: 

⚛️ Avalanche Fusion plugs in $29M to fire up compact fusion reactors
♻️ Recupere Metals is turning scrap copper into high-performance wire
🎨 Sparxell lands €4.2M to replace toxic dyes with plant-powered colour tech

The Digest

ClimateHack Nairobi

👋 Here’s what happened at this week’s ClimateHack Nairobi Meetup. Join us next at a ClimateHack Meetup in Nairobi and Amsterdam.

🔎 5-point checklist to hire the right founding teams.

🇨🇭Join us. Become a ClimateHack Ambassador in Zurich to host local Meetups in the city and foster the ClimateTech community.

🛰️ Space4Good has been selected as an External Service Provider under the European FIERCE programme. European SMEs can apply for vouchers of up to €50k to work on assessing, testing or developing solutions using satellite Earth Observation

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: UBEES

🐝 French regenerative agriculture startup UBEES raised €8 million Series A funding in a round co-led by Starquest and Capagro with participation from Newtree Impact. It will use the funds to further develop its technology-enabled beekeeping and pollination programmes, designed to improve crop yields and biodiversity.

​​🇧🇷 Brazil-focused agtech VC firm SP Ventures secured an $8 million commitment from the Soros Economic Development Fund for its AgVentures III Climate Investment Fund, with which it will back Global South agtech startups developing climate-resilient, regenerative and low-emissions agricultural technologies and inclusive rural financial systems.

🥩 US cultivated meat startup Evergreen Connect (formerly Omeat) secured $6 million from investors including S2G Investments, BOLD Capital Partners and Good Startup to support the commercial launch of its blended beef products in the US and Singapore.

♻️ Amsterdam-based Proba, which turns fertiliser-related emission reductions into certified Scope 3 results for agri-food supply chains, raised €1.25 million from existing backers including Future Food Fund, Yield Lab Europe and Value Factory Ventures to expand into the US and Brazil.

Carbon x Climate

Credit: Varaha

🇮🇳 India’s Varaha raised $20 million Series B funding in a round led by WestBridge Capital with participation from RTP Global and Omnivore. It will use the funds to scale low-cost carbon removal projects across the Global South, including regenerative agriculture, biochar and enhanced rock weathering, and expand into new Asian markets.

🇪🇺 The European Commission has adopted its first voluntary EU standards to certify permanent carbon removal projects, designed to create clear rules for measurement and permanence, enable project certification, and support investment while reducing greenwashing risk.

Energy x Climate

Credit: Lunar Energy

🔋 US residential battery and virtual power plant startup Lunar Energy raised a $130 million Series C led by Activate Capital and a $102 million Series D led by B Capital and Prelude Ventures to scale home battery manufacturing and expand grid-supporting stationary storage systems.

☀️ Alight secured a £34 million financing facility from SEB to build and operate over 50 MW of behind-the-meter solar projects for UK commercial and industrial customers under long-term PPAs.

⚛️ Compact nuclear fusion startup Avalanche Fusion raised an additional $29 million in a funding round led by RA Capital Management with backing from Toyota Ventures, Founders Fund and Lowercarbon Capital to further develop its desktop-sized high-voltage fusion reactors. See the infrastructure up close.

🇨🇭 Swiss startup enshift secured €18.5 million Series A funding in a round led by Swiss Solar Group. It delivers integrated energy transition solutions, and will use the funds to scale across Europe amid new Swiss and EU energy regulations driving demand. 

💻 New York-based data center optimisation startup Lucend raised $3.3 million seed funding, in a round led by Remarkable Ventures Climate with investors including Mitsubishi Electric Innovation Fund, New Climate Ventures, Avesta, Stepchange and 4impact Capital, to scale software that uses existing sensor data to cut energy, water use and operating costs without new hardware.

🪨 Vema Hydrogen has signed a deal to supply California data centers using underground hydrogen produced from iron-rich rock formations, aiming to deliver low-cost, low-carbon hydrogen for industrial and power applications.

🥵 New York-based HVAC startup Gradient launched its Nexus software platform to network and manage its window-mounted heat pumps across multifamily buildings, helping landlords retrofit older properties with low-cost electric heating and cooling while reducing energy use and easing grid demand.

Funds x Climate

Credit: Kembara

🇪🇸 Spain-based VC firm Mundi Ventures completed a €750 million first close for its deeptech and climate-focused Kembara Fund I, backed by a €350 million European Investment Fund commitment, to invest in European Series B and C scaleups with large tickets and blended equity and non-dilutive financing to bridge the growth capital gap.

💰 Slate Venture Capital secured €132 million at the first close of its inaugural growth fund, backed by investors including the European Investment Fund, Bpifrance, FNVI and BNP Paribas to invest in European B2B companies scaling energy transition, low-carbon industrial and circular economy technologies.

🇩🇰 Denmark’s BioInnovation Institute secured up to €25 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to launch its “Upscalator” initiative supporting early-stage European biosolutions startups with facilities, expertise and capital to accelerate their market readiness and green transition impact.

🇩🇪 Munich-based deeptech investor Vanagon Ventures closed its first fund with €20 million in private capital to back pre-seed and seed-stage European B2B deeptech startups in sectors such as manufacturing, materials, AI and natural capital.

💶 Eurazeo launched a €500 million target Future Industries Fund to invest €10-30 million tickets in late-stage and early-growth European climate and industrial tech companies, focusing on capital-intensive sectors such as energy, buildings, infrastructure and resource supply chains.

🇦🇺 The Australian government has finalised the design of a A$5 billion Net Zero Fund that will lend to heavy industry on highly concessional terms to help firms decarbonise and adopt clean technologies.

Get In Front of Hundreds of Decision Makers

2025 HackSummit Startup Fair

Are you ready to position your startup as one of Europe’s most promising HardTechs?

Good news, we’ve opened applications to join the HackSummit Startup Fair.

The Startup Fair is central to the HackSummit and it is where up-and-coming Founders demo their technology, attract investors and potential partners and get the word out about their solution.

Apply today if you’re building in climate, industrial, food, energy, materials, or deep tech, and want to showcase your solution to a highly targeted audience.

Confirm your place

Materials x Climate

Credit: R3 Robotics

🤖 Germany’s R3 Robotics raised €20 million in combined Series A funding and grants from investors including HG Ventures, Suma Capital and the EIC Fund to scale its AI and computer-vision-driven robotic systems for automated disassembly of EV batteries and other electrified vehicle components.

📝 London-based AI materials design startup Polaron raised $8 million seed funding in a round led by Racine², with participation from Speedinvest and Futurepresent, to expand its AI platform that predicts and optimises advanced material performance from microscopy data across sectors such as EV batteries and manufacturing. 

♻️ Biomaterials startup Dionymer, based in France, secured €7 million in a seed funding round led by UI Investissement, with participation from BNP Paribas Développement, Bpifrance, NACO and existing backers including AFI Ventures, IRDI Capital Investissement, AQUITI Gestion and ResiliAnce.io, to scale industrial production and commercial deployment of its biodegradable PHA polymers made from biowaste.

🇫🇷 French copper recycling startup Recupere Metals raised a €5 million seed round from investors including SISTAFUND, Norrsken Evolve, Endgame Capital, Ring Capital, Triple Impact Ventures, Ventures Together, Earth Venture Capital and Sake Bosch to scale its mechanical upgrading technology that turns scrap copper into high-conductivity wire without smelting or virgin metal.

🎨 Cambridge University spin-out Sparxell secured €4.2 million in pre-Series A funding led by SWEN Capital Partners with participation from Alpha Star Capital and Cambridge Enterprise. It will use the funds to scale manufacturing and commercialise its plant-based, biodegradable structural colour technology as a replacement for toxic synthetic dyes and pigments.

🧖‍♀️ US-based Savor, which makes agriculture-free fats from captured carbon and green hydrogen, launched a beauty and personal care division with low-emissions lipid ingredients to replace palm and other tropical oils in cosmetics and skincare products.

🔥 Good Read: Jonathan Healy at Cathay Innovation says that mining is hot for a reason.

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Additive Drives

🚙 German startup Additive Drives raised over €25 million from Nordic Alpha Partners and existing investor AM Ventures to scale global production and deployment of its 3D-printed, lightweight, magnet-free electric motors aimed at cutting energy consumption and accelerating electrification across the industrial and mobility sectors.

🛻 A driverless shuttle trial will launch in Kirkwall, Orkney, led by Urban Foresight using autonomous Auto-Pod vehicles from UK company Aurrigo, to study the feasibility and emissions benefits of zero-emission self-driving transport for rural communities.

Water x Climate

Credit: TechCrunch

🌊 Seattle-based ocean data startup Apeiron Labs raised $9.5 million Series A funding in a round led by Dyne Ventures, RA Capital Management Planetary Health and S2G Investments. It will use the funds to scale low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles that repeatedly sample subsurface ocean conditions and deliver far cheaper, persistent data for defence, fisheries and climate uses.

🍇 Heard on the grape vine: Nestlé is set to sell its $5.8B Global Water Business.

 🤠 Cabriolet x Climate

🪴 How to have your own garden in a public space:

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Venture capital firms across Europe and beyond are pouring fresh millions into deep tech, life sciences and climate innovation, signalling sustained investor confidence in science-led startups tackling some of the world’s biggest health, environmental and societal challenges.

From major philanthropic-backed and government commitments to multi-million-dollar venture funds, this new wave of capital is targeting early and later stage on clean energy, biodiversity protection, advanced materials and industrial decarbonisation.

These Funds Announced Fresh Capital in 2026

Correct as of 6. February 2026.

🇪🇸 Spain-based VC firm Mundi Ventures completed a €750 million first close for its deeptech and climate-focused Kembara Fund I, backed by a €350 million European Investment Fund commitment, to invest in European Series B and C scaleups with large tickets and blended equity and non-dilutive financing to bridge the growth capital gap.

💶 The Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed up to €736 million to the Copenhagen-based BioInnovation Institute through 2035 to expand its support for life science and deep tech startups across Europe addressing health, climate and societal challenges.

💶 Eurazeo launched a €500 million target Future Industries Fund to invest €10-30 million tickets in late-stage and early-growth European climate and industrial tech companies, focusing on capital-intensive sectors such as energy, buildings, infrastructure and resource supply chains.

💰 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.

💰 Slate Venture Capital secured €132 million at the first close of its inaugural growth fund, backed by investors including the European Investment Fund, Bpifrance, FNVI and BNP Paribas to invest in European B2B companies scaling energy transition, low-carbon industrial and circular economy technologies.

🇩🇰 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.

🦄 German VC firm Ananda Impact Ventures secured €73 million in the first close of its fifth Core Impact Fund from backers including the European Investment Fund, NRW.BANK, Investcorp-Tages, Mercator Foundation and more than 40 European family offices. It will use the funds to invest in early-stage frontier technology startups positioned to become the next generation of European impact unicorns in areas such as climate, health, biodiversity and social inclusion.

🇩🇰 Denmark’s BioInnovation Institute secured up to €25 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to launch its “Upscalator” initiative supporting early-stage European biosolutions startups with facilities, expertise and capital to accelerate their market readiness and green transition impact.

Credit: Superorganism

🌲 Biodiversity-focused venture firm Superorganism closed its first fund with $25.9 million, backed by investors including the Cisco Foundation, Builders Vision and a16z partner Jeff Jordan, to support pre-seed and seed startups working to protect nature, reverse species loss and build conservation-enabling technologies.

🇩🇪 Munich-based deeptech investor Vanagon Ventures closed its first fund with €20 million in private capital to back pre-seed and seed-stage European B2B deeptech startups in sectors such as manufacturing, materials, AI and natural capital.

💧 Amsterdam-based PureTerra Ventures launched its second WaterTech fund with a €10 million cornerstone investment from Dutch development bank Invest-NL, targeting €150 million to back early-stage, scalable water efficiency and reuse technologies.

🇦🇺 The Australian government has finalised the design of a A$5 billion Net Zero Fund that will lend to heavy industry on highly concessional terms to help firms decarbonise and adopt clean technologies.

Together with

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

Credit: SET Ventures

🔌 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

Credit: Foodbev

​​🌾 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

Credit: Gigablue

🌊 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.

€350K investment call open for biotech Founders

Biotope Ventures is inviting early-stage biotech founders tackling planetary health challenges to apply for their next basecamp (May 5–22, 2026).

This 3-week hybrid program helps selected startups to validate their science, sharpen their strategy, and pitch directly for a €350K early-stage investment (€250K cash + €100K tailored support).

The program comes with 18 months of bespoke support and access to a powerful scientific and investor network. From application to investment decision takes just four months.

Apply Today

Energy x Climate

Credit: Kirsten Korosec

🔋 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

Credit: Obvious Ventures

💰 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.

First HackSummit Speakers Announced

From creating microclimates up to 15ºC cooler and tapping ultra-deep geothermal heat to manufacturing in space, together they represent the kind of innovation Europe needs to regain industrial relevance.

🌵 Paul Mahacek, Co-Founder and CEO of AtmoCooling. Paul is transforming coastal deserts into worldwide hubs of agriculture, clean energy, and climate resilience, using patented large-scale evaporative cooling, seawater, and solar energy.

Why it matters: Europe’s food security and resilience will depend on its ability to expand productive land, stabilise output under climate stress and reduce dependency on fragile imports.

⛏️ Max Werner, CEO and Founder of Hades Mining. By accessing ultra-deep and stable heat reservoirs beneath the Earth’s crust, Max and his team can unlock geothermal energy at a new scale to build a foundation for energy abundance and global resilience.

Why it matters: Designing for longevity, their technology aligns industrial durability with environmental responsibility.

🪐 Joshua Western, Co-Founder and CEO of SpaceForge. The in-space manufacturing company is building the world's first returnable and re-launchable satellite platform. 

Why it matters: Access to advanced materials is critical for Europe’s industrial future. SpaceForge makes it possible to produce new materials in orbit using 60% less energy, and bring them back for use on Earth.

Meet First Speakers

Materials x Climate

Credit: Co-reactive

🏗️ 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

Credit: Applied Electric Vehicles

🤖 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

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there,

At the World Economic Forum this week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen floated “EU Inc.” - a single company regime that would let startups incorporate, raise, hire and scale across 27 countries under one rulebook. For anyone who’s ever tried to build a pan-European climate startup, or startup of any kind, that’s the holy grail: one market, not a legal obstacle course.

At Hack, we’ve always been unapologetically Europe-based and Europe-bullish, cheerleading the founders building world-class climate companies here long before it was fashionable.

The question is: could “EU Inc.” be the structural shift that finally lets Europe stop exporting its best startups, and start scaling them into global climate superpowers at home?

In this week’s edition: 

⚡ AI hunts for hidden geothermal energy, unlocking terawatt-scale clean power
🦪 €7 million for bicycle tyres made from oyster shells
🧪 France tightens the screws on “forever chemicals” as PFAS get banned from fashion and cosmetics

The Digest

💚 See what happened at ClimateHack Barcelona and Stockholm. Join us next in Amsterdam.

👀 Good read: Noah Geeves shared his hardware scaleup roadmap.

⚡️ Join 250+ energy startups and 250+ active investors at SOSV's VC-Founder Energy Matchup on 2-6 March.

🤝🏼 Microsoft has signed a 12-year agreement to purchase 2.85 million soil carbon removal credits from Indigo’s Carbon by Indigo program.

🌼 Meet the 4 winners of the Innovate4Nature Award 2025.

🔓 Applications are open with 50Years for their US and UK DeepTech startup cohorts.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Innocent Meat

​​🧫 German cultivated meat startup Innocent Meat secured €6 million from backers including GENIUS Venture Capital to develop its automated, plug-and-play production technology and build a demonstration facility as it prepares for regulatory approval and market entry in 2028.

🎨 Danish startup Octarine Bio raised €5 million in a Series A extension led by investors including The Footprint Firm, Edaphon, Unconventional Ventures, DSM-Firmenich Ventures and Oskare Capital, to commercialise its precision-fermented pigments for food, textiles and personal care.

🌻 Netherlands-based Time-Travelling Milkman has partnered with Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre on a €700,000 EU-backed EIT Food project to upcycle sunflower sidestreams into a new plant protein ingredient.

⏩️ Tufts University will use a $2.1 million state grant to launch an innovation hub, bringing together scientists, policymakers and entrepreneurs and providing shared resources such as an open-access cell bank, labs and test kitchen to accelerate the commercialisation of future foods.

🆕 UPSIDE Foods has spun out Lucius Labs, a new division focused on developing and selling fast, lower-cost custom cell culture media for life sciences applications, leveraging its expertise built in cultivated meat to create a new revenue stream.

Chemicals x Climate

Credit: SOLVE Chemistry

🇬🇧 SOLVE Chemistry, based in the UK, raised a £4 million seed funding round led by XTX Ventures with participation from Endgame Capital, SuperSeed, Creator Fund, Inovia Capital and angel investors, to use machine learning and advanced chemistry to cut the time, cost and carbon footprint of chemical process development and manufacturing.

💷 UK-based Anzen Industries raised $2.2 million, in a pre-seed funding round led by LocalGlobe and Creator Fund, to scale its cell-free, enzyme-based biomanufacturing platform for producing high-value chemicals.

🪵 Dutch biotech Mevaldi secured investment from ICOS Capital alongside High-Tech Gründerfonds and ICIG Ventures to scale and commercialise its sugar- and wood-residue-based chemical building block 3MPD for sustainable polymers and polyurethanes.

🇫🇷 France has banned the sale, production and import of clothing and cosmetics containing PFAS “forever chemicals” where safer alternatives exist, effective from 1st January, to protect health and the environment.

HackSummit Returns to Lausanne

HackSummit returns to Lausanne on 22-23 April.

For three decades, Europe separated design and capital from execution, pushing manufacturing complexity into long, global supply chains.

The result: Europe is losing the ability to build, scale, and defend the systems it depends on. Re-industrialisation is now discussed everywhere, but delivery remains slow, fragmented, and undercapitalised.

HackSummit exists for those confronting this gap head on: founders, operators, and capital partners trying to rebuild manufacturing capability inside Europe, under tighter margins, higher energy costs, and heavier regulation.

These companies:

• Operate where physics, regulation, and capex dominate

• Depend on long supply chains, fixed assets, and skilled labour

• Pay for mistakes through downtime, cost overruns, and failed deployments

Come and join us. Head this way to see what’s planned and book your ticket. Or let’s jump on a call to discuss having you involved 👇

Chat with us

Energy x Climate

Credit: Zanskar

🥵 AI-powered geothermal startup Zanskar secured $115 million in a Series C funding round led by Spring Lane Capital to scale its technology for discovering overlooked conventional geothermal resources, which it believes could unlock terawatt-scale clean power potential

🇺🇸 US startup Sage Geosystems raised over $97 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Ormat Technologies and Carbon Direct Capital, with participation from new and existing investors, to commercialise its Pressure Geothermal technology for clean, firm power and energy storage, including its first next-generation geothermal plant.

🇩🇪 Berlin-based energy software startup Cloover raised $22 million Series A funding and secured a $1.2 billion debt facility, backed by a €300 million EIF guarantee, to scale its AI-powered platform that helps finance and manage residential clean energy installations across Europe.

🌬️ UK-based Ionech raised €2.3 million seed funding from Elbow Beach alongside a €807,000 Innovate UK grant to scale and pilot its Air Voltaic Cell technology, which generates electricity from the thermal energy of ambient air for applications such as HVAC, refrigeration and data centres.

⚛️ Fusion power company General Fusion plans to go public via a reverse merger with SPAC Spring Valley III in a deal that could raise up to $335 million and value the company at around $1 billion, funding completion of its inertial-confinement demonstration reactor as it targets growing power demand from data centres and electrification.

✅ AtmosZero has developed a modular, ultra-efficient electric heat pump that can replace fossil-fuel steam boilers by delivering industrial steam up to 150°C, aiming to decarbonise one of manufacturing’s biggest sources of energy use and CO₂ emissions.

Funds x Climate

Credit: Ananda Impact Ventures

🦄 German VC firm Ananda Impact Ventures secured €73 million in the first close of its fifth Core Impact Fund from backers including the European Investment Fund, NRW.BANK, Investcorp-Tages, Mercator Foundation and more than 40 European family offices. It will use the funds to invest in early-stage frontier technology startups positioned to become the next generation of European impact unicorns in areas such as climate, health, biodiversity and social inclusion.

💧 Amsterdam-based PureTerra Ventures launched its second WaterTech fund with a €10 million cornerstone investment from Dutch development bank Invest-NL, targeting €150 million to back early-stage, scalable water efficiency and reuse technologies.

Get the word out about your work in Climate

Building the next big thing in Climate. Make sure the industry knows about it.

ClimateHack’s newsletter lands in the inbox of 10,000 of the smartest minds in Climate, every Friday.

From investors actively looking for new deals, to Founders raising their first or next round, and 1,000s of industry operators and potential partners looking to collaborate.

Now’s your chance: We’re filling up our 2026 advertising calendar to partner with brands who align with our audience of smart, early Climatetech adopters.

Schedule a Call

Materials x Climate

Credit: one.five

🤖 Hamburg-based one.five raised €14 million Series A funding, in a round led by Dr. Hans Riegel Holding with participation from 212 NexT, Symbia VC, Btomorrow Ventures, KIMPA Impact, Zubi Capital and existing investors, to scale its AI platform that helps packaging companies develop market-ready, sustainable products faster.

🦪 Norway’s reTyre secured €7 million in a funding round led by Hatch Blue’s Blue Revolution Fund with participation from Fundracer and existing investors to scale its patented, low-carbon injection-moulding technology for fully recyclable bicycle tyres made from novel materials such as invasive sargassum and oyster shells.

🔋 Researchers at Monash University have developed a greener recycling process using a mild deep eutectic solvent and electrochemical leaching to recover over 95% of high-purity nickel, cobalt, manganese and lithium from spent lithium-ion batteries.

👍🏼 Good Read: Planet A Ventures released its guide to nailing manufacturing software GTM, and it’s packed with resources.

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Fleetzero

🚤 Fleetzero secured $43 million Series A funding in a round led by Obvious Ventures with participation from Maersk Growth, 8090 Industries and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. It will use the funds to scale production of its hybrid and electric marine propulsion systems and launch a new robotics and autonomy R&D lab in Houston.

🚙 UK-based TUAL raised £1.5 million in a funding round led by PT1 with participation from Ascension Ventures and P3A to scale production and deployment of its battery-integrated, ultra-deployable PowerUp charging systems for mission-critical commercial EV fleets across Europe.

✈️ Commodities giant Trafigura has signed a six-year offtake agreement with Syzygy Plasmonics’ subsidiary in Uruguay to purchase the full output of its first commercial biogas-to-sustainable aviation fuel plant from 2028.

🚢 Cargill launched the first of five dual-fuel dry bulk ships, Brave Pioneer, capable of running on green methanol to cut CO₂ emissions by up to 70%, marking a key step in its strategy to decarbonise its ocean freight.

 🕺 Fundraving x Climate

Interpretative dance on how VC funding works:

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial and curation by Nicola

Hi there

We hope your 2026 has got off to a strong start.

Before the year picks up speed, here’s a quick recap of how you can dive deeper into the ClimateHack community this year - whether that’s building, connecting or shaping what comes next:

• Join our team: 2 part-time roles

• Become an Ambassador in Zurich

• Attend a Meetup: Next stops Barcelona and Stockholm

• Share your next milestones and get featured in ClimateHack

• Meet Europe’s industrial builders and funders at HackSummit

• Team up with us on Meetups, Summits and editorial partnerships

In this week’s edition:

🌳 Verna raised $4 million to scale its AI-powered software that helps organisations plan, manage and measure nature restoration projects.
💨 Ammobia raised $7.5 million to scale a lower-temperature, lower-pressure version of the Haber-Bosch process that could cut ammonia production costs by up to 40%.
💫 Type One Energy raised a further $87 million in a convertible note, taking its total funding past $160 million, as it advances its stellarator-based reactor technology.

The Digest

📉 What’s down? The Trump administration is considering stopping the EPA from counting the health and life-saving benefits of cleaner air when setting pollution rules, despite strong evidence that ozone and fine particle pollution cause serious and often fatal diseases.

🎬 70 seconds of good stories in Climate you might have missed.

👀 Good Read: 12 investors shared with TechCrunch what 2026 will bring for climate tech.

🚀 Meet the first 13 change makers joining L'Oréal’s EUR 100 million sustainable innovation "L'AcceleratOR" program.

 📈 Are you building circular or regenerative solutions? Apply to Tech4Regen, EPFL Innovation Park’s 8-month, equity-free acceleration program. Deadline: Jan 31, 2026.

📆 21 European Tech events in Q1, mapped. + Join us April 22-23 at HackSummit.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Mosa Meat

​​🧫 Dutch cultivated meat pioneer Mosa Meat secured €15 million from existing investors including Invest-NL, LIOF, PHW Group and Jitse Groen to extend its runway to 2028, advance regulatory approvals and prepare for market entry, as it brings its hybrid cultivated–plant-based beef burgers to near-commercial pricing after cutting production costs by around 100,000-fold since 2013.

🐟 California’s BlueNalu raised around $11 million in convertible notes and preferred stock led by Agronomics, Siddhi Capital and Lewis & Clark AgriFood, with participation from strategic partners including Griffith Foods, Pulmuone and Rich Products, to scale production and support the commercialisation of its cultivated bluefin tuna toro for premium US sushi and fine-dining markets pending regulatory approval.

🇩🇰 Danish industrial biotech EvodiaBio secured €6 million in a funding round led by RA Capital Management’s Planetary Health Fund with participation from Wild Radicals, Francis Family Funds and existing investors including EIFO, Ananke Ventures, Newtree Impact and PINC. It will use the funds to scale its yeast-based fermentation platform for producing sustainable natural aroma compounds.

🥕 A new peer-reviewed study shows that feeding carrot production side streams to selected fungi can produce high-quality mycelium protein with nutritional value comparable to animal and plant proteins.

Biodiversity x Climate

🐝 Stingless bees of the Amazon have become the first insect granted legal rights after municipalities in Peru recognised their right to exist, enabling stronger protections against pesticides, deforestation and climate impacts for a pollinator essential to rainforest ecosystems, indigenous cultures, and crops like coffee and cacao.

🌳 UK startup Verna raised $4 million from investors led by NAP and Übermorgen, with participation from UK investors including Vanneck, Love Ventures, Concrete Ventures, and Climate VC, to scale its AI-powered software that helps organisations plan, manage and measure nature restoration projects, designed to turn biodiversity commitments into trackable, real-world outcomes.

🌧️ Good watch: Two months into the largest cloud seeding mission in modern American history.

Carbon x Climate

Credit: Plan A

💶 Berlin-based carbon accounting startup Plan A has been acquired by London-based ESG software firm Diginex in a deal valuing Plan A at €55 million, as part of ongoing consolidation in the carbon accounting sector.

🌳 Paris-based Equitable Earth raised a €12.6 million Series A funding round led by a US family office with backing from AENU, noa and Localglobe to scale its digital platform which certifies high-integrity nature-based carbon projects and ensures climate finance reaches ecosystems and local communities.

🧱 UK waste-heat specialist Heatcatcher has delivered an industry-first decarbonisation project at wienerberger’s Warnham brickworks, using a high-temperature heat pump to recover waste heat and water from brick drying and significantly cut natural gas use and CO₂ emissions.

🇮🇳 Indian carbon removal startup Varaha has signed a three-year deal with Microsoft to deliver over 100,000 tonnes of durable biochar-based CO₂ removal in India.

Chemicals x Climate

Credit: BIOWEG

🇩🇪 German biomaterials startup BIOWEG secured €1.5 million from SPRIND in partnership with Technische Universität Berlin to accelerate development of its low-energy, water-based waste-to-value platform that uses fermentation and green chemistry to recover rare earth elements from complex waste streams.

💨 Ammobia raised $7.5 million seed funding, in a round including the likes of Air Liquide, Chevron and Shell, to scale a lower-temperature, lower-pressure version of the Haber-Bosch process that could cut ammonia production costs by up to 40% and significantly reduce emissions.

🧪 Dutch biotech Mevaldi secured funding from High-Tech Gründerfonds and ICIG Ventures to scale and commercialise its patented bio-based 3MPD and Pentonext polymer building blocks, produced from renewable raw materials as sustainable, cost-competitive alternatives to fossil-based chemicals.

🚜 Early-stage agtech startup Naware has developed a chemical-free weed control system that uses computer vision and AI-powered real-time detection to kill weeds with targeted steam, aiming to cut herbicide use and costs for lawn care, golf courses and agriculture.

Electrochemical CCU, explained.

What if waste carbon could become a resource? Electrochemical CO₂ conversion is doing just that by transforming CO₂ into chemicals, polymers, and fuels while cutting reliance on fossil feedstocks.

This approach tackles two problems at once: reducing emissions and creating valuable products. By pairing renewable electricity with advanced catalysts, startups are turning CO₂ into ethylene, formates, syngas, and even jet fuel.

Scale matters. From pilot plants in Canada, the US, and Europe to industrial demos in India and Vietnam, companies are proving that CO₂ can be reused safely and efficiently. But challenges remain: energy demand, catalyst durability, and fast, cost-effective scale-up are critical hurdles to overcome.

Electrochemical CO₂ conversion is moving from lab benches to real-world impact.

In the latest HackTrends, we catch up with Maike Lambarth of Cyclize, Tu Nguyen of CO2L Tech, Raanan Shelach of Carbonade, Yash Sinha of Kaio Labs, Todd Brox of OCOchem and Jonathan Albo of Universidad de Cantabria to explore the opportunities, and obstacles, of turning emissions into industry.

Access the Report

Energy x Climate

Credit: Octopus Energy Group

💸 Octopus Energy Group raised €850 million in a first standalone funding round for its AI-powered utility platform Kraken, led by D1 Capital Partners, valuing Kraken at €7.3 billion and formally spinning it out as an independent company to accelerate global growth as a neutral operating system for utilities.

💫 Fusion startup Type One Energy raised a further $87 million in a convertible note, taking its total funding past $160 million, as it advances its stellarator-based reactor technology works to build its first 350MW commercial fusion plant in partnership with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

♻️ German battery recycling company cylib GmbH secured €63.4 million in non-dilutive funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy via the STARK programme to build Europe’s first industrial-scale LFP battery recycling line in Dormagen.

🌬️ UK-based renewable energy firm Venterra Group secured a £40 million equity investment from General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero venture, First Reserve and existing shareholders to scale its offshore wind services platform.

🥵 Smart home startup Quilt launched a highly efficient three-zone heat pump that uses real-world performance data from its connected units to deliver strong low-temperature and low-demand efficiency, simplifying larger installations and supporting the company’s expansion following its recent $20 million Series B round.

🤝🏼 Alphabet has agreed to acquire clean energy and data-center developer Intersect Power for $4.75 billion in cash plus assumed debt to secure dedicated power generation for its AI-driven data center expansion, bypass grid constraints, and accelerate co-located wind, solar and battery-powered data parks primarily used by Google, with the deal expected to close in the first half of next year.

☀️ Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have demonstrated an efficient, low-cost method to produce hydrogen from sunlight and water using nanoparticles of electrically conductive plastic instead of scarce platinum, marking a major step toward scalable and sustainable solar hydrogen production.

⛔️ The US Department of the Interior has paused leases for five major offshore wind projects totalling nearly 6 GW along the US East Coast, citing national security concerns over radar interference. So three offshore wind developers - Ørsted, Equinor, and Dominion Energy - are suing.

🤷🏻 Good Read: Heatmap explains why 2025 was the year of energy policy confusion.

⚛️ The UK’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has achieved a UK-first nuclear safety milestone by safely processing a can of plutonium residue into a stable waste form at Sellafield, marking the start of a programme to immobilise legacy plutonium for permanent disposal and significantly advance long-term national nuclear safety.

ESG x Climate

Credit: osapiens

🦄 German ESG software company osapiens has become a unicorn after raising $100 million in a Series C funding round led by BlackRock-Temasek’s Decarbonization Partners, valuing it at over $1.1 billion and funding further product development and international expansion.

Get the word out about your work in Climate

Building the next big thing in Climate. Make sure the industry knows about it.

ClimateHack’s newsletter lands in the inbox of 10,000 of the smartest minds in Climate, every Friday.

From investors actively looking for new deals, to Founders raising their first or next round, and 1,000s of industry operators and potential partners looking to collaborate.

Now’s your chance: We’re filling up our 2026 advertising calendar to partner with brands who align with our audience of smart, early Climatetech adopters.

Schedule a Call

Funds x Climate

Credit: Superorganism

🌲 Biodiversity-focused venture firm Superorganism closed its first fund with $25.9 million, backed by investors including the Cisco Foundation, Builders Vision and a16z partner Jeff Jordan, to support pre-seed and seed startups working to protect nature, reverse species loss and build conservation-enabling technologies.

💶 The Novo Nordisk Foundation has committed up to €736 million to the Copenhagen-based BioInnovation Institute through 2035 to expand its support for life science and deep tech startups across Europe addressing health, climate and societal challenges.

🍿 ‘10 things I hate about your pitch’ by Andrew Lee of a16z speedrun.

💰 Save this: A list of the top Deep Tech Grants in Europe.

Materials x Climate

Credit: Notpla

☕️ UK startup Notpla and 14 partners secured a €4 million grant from Horizon Europe to develop plastic-free, home-compostable coffee cups using seaweed-based materials to replace the plastic linings in conventional paper cups.

🪫 Miami-based Material Hybrid Manufacturing secured $7.1 million seed funding in a round led by Outlander VC and Harpoon Ventures, alongside securing a $1.25 million US Air Force contract, to commercialise its HYBRID3D technology that 3D-prints conformal, shape-free batteries directly into devices for applications ranging from wearables to drones.

🪸 Switzerland’s noriware raised a €4.3 million seed round to commercialise norifresh™, a plastic-free seaweed-based film for fresh produce that runs on existing packaging lines and aims to replace PET ahead of the EU’s 2030 ban on single-use plastic fruit and vegetable packaging.

🧫 Singaporean cultivated seafood company UMAMI Bioworks has signed an MoU with Japan’s Nippon Barrier Free to commercialise cultivated marine ingredients for cosmetics and supplements.

🔋 Climate materials startup Homeostasis has entered a strategic partnership with LAB7, the venture arm of Aramco, to scale technology that converts industrial CO₂ emissions into battery-grade graphite for lithium-ion batteries.

Mobility x Climate

🚚 Electric trucks may be one of the most under-appreciated levers in Europe’s decarbonisation story. Future Energy Ventures map the players in the space.

❄️ Why Sneckdowns are the cheapest traffic consultants in the world.

🚲 UK electric bike startup GIN e-bikes secured a €215,000 secured loan investment from Ukrainian syndicate Toloka.vcto buy 160 new bikes and expand its PLUTO subscription-based e-bike rental service across London, targeting couriers, gig workers and urban commuters.

⚓️ Reinventing and flat-packing shipping containers in 80 seconds. Here’s how.

🐊 VCs x Climate

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola

Hi there

It’s been a year of ups and downs: shutdowns, regulatory shifts, breakthrough technologies, and fresh fundings in ClimateTech. We’ve done our best to keep track here.

Amid all of the headlines, our 24 Ambassadors have been pulling all the strings to bring the community together and hosted 25 Meetups for 2,000+ attendees. Did you join us?

Highlights included pub quizzing, mountain running, forest gatherings and warmups and side events for COP30, World AI Week, Web Summit and the HackSummit.

Take a closer look at what they’ve been up to. And we hope to see you in 2026 at the HackSummit on April 22-23, or at a local Meetup near you.

Here’s to a bright 2026 🌈

In this week’s edition:

⚛️ Radiant Nuclear raised more than $300 million to develop a transportable 1MW microreactor for data centers and industrial sites.
🇩🇰 PSV Hafnium closed its first €60 million fund to invest in around 25 Nordic science-driven startups.
🪶 Everbloom, a materials startup backed by more than $8 million from investors is using AI and upcycled keratin waste from chicken feathers to create biodegradable textile fibres that mimic cashmere and polyester

The Digest

👀 Good Read: Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe explains why President Trump’s move to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research is “like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet”.

🗽 Kickstart 2026 by joining the inaugural Deep Tech New York (DTNY) summit on January 28th, gathering 300+ of the best founders, investors, scholars, and innovators in New York City. 

🎄 Is an artificial Christmas tree better than a natural tree?

📖 Liberation Labs released an Industrial Biotechnology Handbook with lesseons learned from 100 biotech ventures.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Those Vegan Cowboys

​​🧀 Belgium-based precision fermentation startup Those Vegan Cowboys raised €6.25 million to scale production of its animal-free, dairy-identical casein protein and move its cheese, yoghurt and chocolate applications toward commercialisation.

☕️ Wakuli raised a €5 million Series A funding round led by the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund with Rabobank, and joined by ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and Icecat Capital, to scale its regenerative coffee model built around farmer partnerships, living incomes and major emissions reductions.

🏭 Scottish biotech MiAlgae has started building a commercial-scale facility in Grangemouth, backed by a £3 million UK government investment, to upcycle whisky byproducts into fish-free algal omega-3 and significantly scale production ahead of a planned 2026 opening.

🍳 Tallinn-based ÄIO secured a €1.2 million Enterprise Estonia grant to advance its €2.3 million FERM-OIL project, scaling fermentation-derived, non-animal fats and oils made from wood and agricultural side-streams toward industrial food production.

Carbon x Climate

Credit: Carbonfuture

💨 Carbonfuture has surpassed 1.5 million tonnes of facilitated durable carbon removal and closed a Series A2 funding round led by SIX with participation from Idemitsu Americas Holdings, following the industry’s first megatonne-scale biochar removal deal delivered with Microsoft and Exomad Green using its Trust Infrastructure.

Energy x Climate

Credit: Radiant Nuclear

⚛️ Radiant Nuclear raised more than $300 million in a funding round led by Draper Associates and Boost VC at a $1.8 billion valuation to develop a transportable 1MW microreactor for data centers and industrial sites.

💸 London-based Fuse Energy, founded by former Revolut executives, secured $70 million in a funding round led by Balderton Capital and Lowercarbon Capital at a $5 billion valuation to accelerate international expansion of its vertically integrated energy platform.

⚡️ Australian grid-monitoring startup IND Technology raised $50 million in a funding round led by Angeleno Group and Energy Impact Partners, with backing from Edison International and Virescent Ventures, to scale its machine-learning–powered powerline fault detection systems designed to prevent bushfires and grid failures globally.

🍻 Future Greens, a UK–based startup developing fast, modular bioreactors that convert food and brewery waste into heat and power, raised €569,000 in a funding round backed by PXN Group, One Planet Capital, Baltic Ventures, Venture.Community and Lifted Ventures, which it will use to further develop its ten-times-faster anaerobic digestion technology.

💥 Fusion startup Thea Energy unveiled a pixel-like stellarator reactor design that uses arrays of identical superconducting magnets and software-driven controls to tolerate manufacturing imperfections, aiming to lower the cost and complexity of fusion power on the path to commercial-scale plants.

☀️ Naked Energy launched the UK’s first dedicated system design service to help commercial and industrial customers plan and integrate its high-efficiency solar thermal and hybrid solar technologies into optimised, multi-technology heat decarbonisation systems.

🔋Australia’s federal government has overhauled its A$2.3 billion Cheaper Home Batteries Program by nearly tripling funding to A$7.2 billion and reducing subsidies for oversized systems after rapid uptake and cost blowouts revealed the scheme was disproportionately supporting large, expensive home batteries.

👀 Good Read: As AI collides with the energy transition, where does it actually make sense? Planet A investor Jessica Burley explores where AI is already proving its worth in energy systems, where the hype outpaces reality, and how better demand control could reshape the grid over time.

HackSummit Returns to Lausanne

Save the date: HackSummit returns to Lausanne on 22-23 April.

This year marks our 5th Anniversary, and we’re celebrating with our most ambitious edition yet. Here’s what to expect:

• Retreat for Founders and Investors

• 1 Day focused on Industrial Renaissance

• 1 Day dedicated to Food Sovereignty

• Pilot Day for Startups x SMEs

Join us for the full experience, drop in for one day or pick and mix what suits you best, there’s something for everyone.

Head this way to see what’s planned and book your ticket. Or let’s jump on a call to discuss having you involved 👇

Schedule a Call

Funds x Climate

Credit: PSV Hafnium

🇩🇰 Danish deeptech spinout fund PSV Hafnium closed its first €60 million fund to invest in around 25 Nordic science-driven startups emerging from research institutions, backed by the European Investment Fund, Danish sovereign fund EIFO, PSV Foundry and other investors to help bridge the gap from lab to market in areas like quantum, clean energy and science-based AI. 

🚩 Vincent Touati-Tomas shares 8 red flags you might find in a VC.

Materials x Climate

Credit: Everbloom

🪶 Everbloom, a materials startup backed by more than $8 million from investors including Hoxton Ventures and SOSV, is using AI and upcycled keratin waste from chicken feathers to create biodegradable textile fibres that mimic cashmere and polyester, aiming to replace unsustainable animal-derived materials at lower cost.

🧽 A&B Smart Materials raised an oversubscribed £1.5 million pre-seed funding round backed by Triple Impact Ventures alongside Sake Bosch, Caesar Ventures and LIVING HOPE VC to develop fully biodegradable, bio-based alternatives to fossil-derived superabsorbent polymers used in disposable hygiene products.

🇦🇺 Australian startup Uluu secured $1.5 million from the Government of Western Australia’s Carbon Innovation Grants Program to scale production of its plastic-free, climate-positive materials in partnership with global brands.

🪡 Indian luxury fashion brand Jiwya Textiles raised $350,000 from UAE-based Kiara Luxe Holdings to scale its plant-based, biodegradable “soil-to-soil” textile model globally and invest in production, artisan partnerships, and R&D.

👖 Good watch: A startup to stop jeans poisoning our oceans.

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Forest

🚲 London-based e-bike rental startup Forest has partnered with Octopus Energy as its official energy provider, supplying zero-carbon electricity to its 20,000-bike fleet across the capital from December.

🚢 Maritime electrification startup Pyxis secured S$13 million at the first close of its S$18 million growth round, backed by investors including Shift4Good, Motion Ventures and MOL PLUS, to scale electric vessels, charging infrastructure and its Electra™ operating system across Asia.

Holidays Ad x Climate

The heartwarming little story with an important big message.

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola

Hi there

Building on this week’s momentum of an incredible HackSummit NYC (our favourite way to end the year), we’re excited to let you in on our first BIG announcement of 2026:

Save the date: HackSummit returns to Lausanne on 22-23 April.

This year marks our 5th Anniversary, and we’re celebrating with our most ambitious edition yet. Here’s what to expect:

• Retreat for Founders and Investors

• 1 Day focused on Industrial Renaissance

• 1 Day dedicated to Food Sovereignty

• Pilot Day for Startups x SME’s

Join us for the full experience, or pick and mix what suits you best, there’s something for everyone.

Head this way to see what’s planned and book your ticket.

+ Here’s a quick reminder of what we got up to in Lausanne earlier this year…

In this week’s edition:

⛏️ Extantia tracks 50+ startups working across the copper supply chain
💰 FoodLabs closed its third fund with €105 million to invest in early-stage European foodtech startups.
🐦‍⬛ Spoor raised €8 million Series A funding for its AI-powered computer vision to track and identify birds around wind farms.

The Digest

⛏️ Interesting: 50+ startups working across the copper supply chain, by Extantia.

📈 What’s up? The US energy storage sector has surpassed its decade-old goal by deploying 40+ GW of grid-connected batteries - nearly half of all new renewable capacity this year - driven by rapid expansion in states like California, Texas and Arizona.

🏅 Ecosia pledged €1 million to help establish the world’s first Climate Nobel Prize, urging the Nobel Committee to evolve its tradition by creating an award that gives climate innovators global recognition, influence, and momentum equal to other Nobel laureates.

AgriFood x Climate

Credit: Melt&Marble

​​🇸🇪 Swedish startup Melt&Marble raised $8.5 million Series A funding from Industrifonden, the European Innovation Council Fund, Beiersdorf, Valio, Chalmers Ventures, and Catalyze Capital to scale production and commercialise its precision-fermented designer fats, starting with personal care applications next year.

🚀 Australia’s All G has formed a joint venture with France’s Armor Protéines and raised A$10 million ($6.6 million) to accelerate commercialisation of its precision-fermented bovine and human lactoferrin.

🌾 Paris-based ReSoil secured €4 million from Banque des Territoires, InvESS Île-de-France Amorçage, and Generali Impact Investment to scale regenerative agriculture projects across France and expand its digital carbon-management platform supporting farmers’ agroecological transition.

🤝Pow.Bio has partnered with Bühler Group to launch an integrated continuous precision-fermentation platform that accelerates biomanufacturing scale-up, cuts production costs, and boosts performance, designed to offer companies a faster, more efficient alternative to traditional fed-batch systems.

Biodiversity x Climate

Credit: Spoor

🐦‍⬛ Spoor, an Oslo-based startup using AI-powered computer vision to track and identify birds around wind farms, raised €8 million Series A funding to help industries reduce wildlife impacts and comply with tightening environmental regulations.

🌡️ Researchers from the University of Ottawa have created detailed 3D temperature models of the Earth beneath Greenland and northeastern Canada, revealing major thermal variations linked to the region’s tectonic history and significantly improving predictions of how Greenland’s ice sheet will respond to climate change and impact future sea-level rise.

HackSummit Returns to Lausanne

Mark your 2026 calendar: The HackSummit returns to Lausanne on April 22-23 and this edition celebrates 2 big milestones:

• 5th anniversary of the Summit in Lausanne

• 8th edition of the HackSummit globally

So yes… this one’s unmissable. 

Together with the State of Vaud, Nestlé, Foundation Valery and the FIT Foundation, we’re building a full week of engagement around the event. 

If you’re looking to be part of the action too, whether it’s to run on a workshop, host a Side Event, demo your product or take part in the Startup Fair.. or you have another bright idea, we’d love to hear from you.

Now’s the perfect time to see how we can work together to get the word out about your work in ClimateTech. Reply to this email or schedule a quick call with us.

Schedule a Call

Energy x Climate

Credit: Elvy

🇸🇪 Stockholm-based Elvy secured €500 million from Scayl and a banking partner to scale its subscription-based home energy packages, which covers solar panels, heat pumps, and battery systems, with the aim of making clean energy adoption affordable and hassle-free for up to 15,000 new customers.

🏭 Enhanced geothermal startup Fervo Energy raised $462 million, in a round led by B Capital with participation from major investors including Google, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, CPP Investments and others, to complete its 500-MW Cape Station plant in Utah.

☀️ Overview Energy emerged from stealth with $20 million in funding and a plan to deploy geosynchronous-orbit solar arrays that beam power to Earth via infrared lasers, designed to enable solar farms to supply near-continuous energy.

🌊 Scottish tidal energy innovator Orbital Marine Power raised £7 million from investors including PXN Ventures and Scottish Enterprise to accelerate international commercial projects and scale its technology for delivering predictable, renewable power from tidal streams.

🪫 Berlin-based FION Energy secured €1.4 million pre-seed funding from HTGF, Norrsken Evolve and angel investors to scale its AI-powered, turnkey industrial battery storage platform that lowers electricity costs by up to 50% and makes energy use more predictable and competitive for high-consumption manufacturers.

🔋 University of Cambridge spinout Kodiaq Technologies raised £850,000 from a group of angel investors to advance pilot projects for its metal-free, organic-electrolyte energy storage technology, designed to boost flow-battery performance while reducing costs and reliance on critical metals.

⚛️ Good read: Dr. Rita Baranwal shares how to separate hype from reality in nuclear microreactors.

📦 Good watch: Your own power station in a box.

Funds x Climate

Credit: FoodLabs

💰 Berlin-based VC FoodLabs closed its third fund with €105 million to invest in early-stage European foodtech startups across agriculture, food security and health, backed by a mix of family offices, institutional funds and strategic investors including Bitburger Holding, Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank, Red Bull, and Nestlé.

🎓 European VC firm U2V announced the first closing of its €60 million Fund I to invest in up to 25 pre-Seed and Seed DeepTech startups from leading European universities, with a focus on AI computing, IndustrialTech and CleanTech.

💸Paris-based nonprofit makesense closed the first €15 million of its makesense seed II pre-seed fund, to invest €200k–€500k in early-stage circular-economy and socially inclusive startups across Europe.

🚀 Barclays Eagle Labs and Sustainable Ventures have launched a new climate tech accelerator offering UK startups commercial and technical support, learning resources and up to $250,000 in Google Cloud credits to help scale sustainability-focused technologies and accelerate the UK’s net-zero transition.

Materials x Climate

Credit: IFCO

📊 IFCO’s latest ESG report shows how they are committing to transparency, responsible growth and sustainability across the food chain.

💇‍♀️ London-based beauty tech startup yuv raised $12 million in a Series A funding round led by Nineyards Equity to scale its AI-powered, refillable smart hair colour lab system for salons and freelancers, supporting UK expansion and a planned US launch in 2026.

🏭 Watercycle Technologies opened Europe’s first commercial direct lithium extraction plant, scaling its proprietary DLEC™ technology to continually produce hundreds of kilograms of UK-sourced lithium carbonate and marking a major step toward domestic and European lithium supply targets for 2035.

🇺🇦 Ukrainian startup Recycle has launched an app-based platform that pays households and businesses for properly sorted recyclable waste, streamlining sales to certified recycling companies.

Mobility x Climate

Credit: Topsoe

✈️ Topsoe has been selected to conduct a FEED study using its 120MW SOEC electrolyzer technology for Carbon Neutral Fuels’ planned UK plant, which aims to produce 25,000 tons of e-SAF annually from 2031 and cut lifecycle emissions by 89% compared to fossil jet fuel.

Water x Climate

Credit: Jens Hamann

🐟 Researchers at the University of Bonn have created a fish-inspired washing machine filter that mimics the gill arch system to remove over 99% of microplastics from wastewater without clogging.

Cash Flow x Climate

Calculating end of your P&L at your startup.

We’d love to hear from you, how did you like today's email?

Love it😁 Meh 😐 Hate it🙁

Editorial by Laura, Curation by Nicola