🏭 ClimateHack Vol 36: Decarbonized manufacturing

Hey There,

Next week is International Women's Day 🙋‍♀️

We're putting together a list of the top female leaders, founders, investors and operators in the Climate Tech ecosystem that the world should know.

Have someone to recommend for the list? Drop your suggestions here.

In today's edition:

📈 Exits in climate tech are on the rise. 🤝 Air Company secures $65m deal with the US Defense Department.🏭 A conversation with Join Capital on the need to decarbonize manufacturing.

Digest x Climate

📈 What’s up? Exits in climate tech are up - in fact, there have been nearly 300 in three years - according to data from CTVC.

☀️ Data from the International Energy Agency shows that solar energy will overtake other energy sources by 2027, thanks to cheaper installation costs and growing concerns over energy security.

🌪 Research from Princeton University’s engineering school concludes that back-to-back hurricanes may become “common” for many parts of the world in the coming decades, due to climate change.

📉 What’s down? Financial think tank Planet Tracker claims that PepsiCo will face potentially $4.4 billion of climate-related risk by the end of the decade.

🔎 Good Read: Here are Europe’s climate tech hotbeds, according to Sifted.

Food x Climate

🍫 (Portfolio Co): London-based WNWN secured $5.6 million in a round led by PeakBridge VC for its sustainable cocoa-free chocolate, made via fermentation with legumes and cereals. Our climate syndicate HackCapital took part in this round after WNWN won our demo day back in October (apply here if you'd like to start angel investing in Climate startups with us).

🛒 Divert raised a $100 million funding round and secured a $1 billion infrastructure deal with one of North America’s largest energy infrastructure companies, Enbridge. Divert works with grocery retailers to turn surplus food, which would otherwise have been wasted, into renewable gas using anaerobic digesters.

🇨🇦 The Canadian Minister for Agriculture and Agri-Food announced up to $2.7 million of federal support for four cleantech projects by agri-businesses in Quebec, including streamlining production of insect-based products to be used in animal feed and fertiliser and replacing an oil-filled evaporator with a high-efficiency wood-fired evaporator for maple syrup production.

🧀 SoilLabs, based in Singapore, secured $370,000 seed funding to scale its okara-based production. It uses the soy pulp, a byproduct of soy milk production, in cheese and soup products.

🧫 Aussie cultivated meat startup Vow has begun the regulatory approval process with Food Standards Australia New Zealand, marking a first for the country, with a view to commercialising its cell-based quail in 2024.

🌳 Good Read: Some of the world’s biggest food companies, including Nestlé and General Mills, are working to build regenerative farming practices into their food supply chains.

Energy x Climate

🏢 US-based BlocPower secured $155 million in a round led by VoLo Earth Ventures. It will use the funds to finance community decarbonisation projects, improving the energy consumption and efficiency issues faced by many of the old buildings in the US.

💽 Munich-based quantum computing startup planqc secured a “seven figure” investment from Amadeus APEX. It uses the “particularly clean” chemical element strontium to make its qubits, meaning its quantum computer is likely to be more cost effective and take up less space than those of its rivals.

💡 Good Read: Jack Curtis at Neara talks about the ways the company is working to “almost double the capacity of Essential Energy’s existing network”.

Materials x Climate

🧪 Californian startup Rubi Labs raised $8.7 million seed funding, in a round ​​led by Talis Capital, Patagonia’s Tin Shed Ventures and H&M Group, to commercialise its lyocell yarn made from converted CO2.

🦠 Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund is investing in female-led startup Genecis, as part of its Female Founder Initiative to invest $50 million into women-founded and women-led climate tech companies. Genecis uses specialised bacteria to convert organic waste, such as bread crusts and other food scraps, into sustainable bioplastics.

🌳 US-based P2 Science, Inc. closed a funding round led by Lewis & Clark AgriFood to expand its flagship product platform. Citropol® transforms renewable forest-derived feedstocks into high-performance ingredients for personal care, cosmetics and beauty products.

🧥 Material innovator von Holzhausen unveiled Liquidplant™, a first-of-its-kind 100% plant-based and plastic-free topcoat to replace petroleum-based polyurethane topcoats in a wide range of materials, including traditional and synthetic leather, paper, wood, plastic and fabric.

♻️ A team of researchers led by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has found a way to upcycle single-use plastics, such as grocery bags, used face masks and food wrappers, into useful raw materials.

🍌 Indian materials startup Atma Leather has developed a premium banana leather from upcycled banana crop waste.

Transport x Climate

🤝 Air Company, based in New York, has secured a $65 million deal with the US Defense Department to help it capture CO2 and turn it into sustainable aviation fuel, preventing “fuel transportation as a target for explosives.”

🚲 US-based e-bike startup Velotric raised $7.4 million Series A funding to support its expansion plans. It makes premium electric bicycles for commutes and off-roading for less than $2,000, and supplies them to consumers on a significantly shorter timescale than its competitors, since it directly manages its bikes’ core components.

🛩 Australian startup Kite Magnetics has developed the “world’s most powerful and lightest” electric engine for planes, which is more powerful than a car engine but only weighs as much as a full suitcase, made from a unique new magnetic material called Aeroperm.

🚗 BMW unveiled a pilot fleet of its new hydrogen-based car, the iX5 Hydrogen, made with fuel cells from Toyota and capable of reaching more than 112 miles per hour.

🛫 A Universal Hydrogen-branded Dash-8 plane, equipped with the largest hydrogen fuel cell ever to power an aircraft, made its 15-minute maiden test flight this week.

Conversations x Climate

This week I was introduced to Quentin Calleja of Join Capital, an early-stage VC fund specialized in Industrial Tech, where he focuses on investments in companies decarbonizing manufacturing.

Quentin spent 4+ years operating and supporting Deep Tech startups across Europe and the and has a particular interest in companies solving the world's biggest problems with science and technology.

You can read his full piece here about the importance of decarbonizing the manufacturing industry which goes into detail on why we should be putting more resources to this problem, where emissions are mainly coming from and the various solutions that have VC interest - from low-carbon feedstocks to energy efficiency.

TL;DR

• Manufacturing is a critical sector and the largest contributor to global CO2 emissions, with roughly 30% of global emissions. However, startup funding in this space remains limited, with less than 10% of global Climate Tech VC investments.

• Various approaches can significantly reduce manufacturing emissions: demand-side approaches, energy efficiency, electrification, low-carbon fuels, low-carbon processes, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) or utilization (CCU).

• There is no silver bullet. Decarbonizing manufacturing will require well-designed policies to accelerate innovation and provide incentives for technology deployment, as well as the appropriate level of funding for technology startups in that space.

Resources x Climate

We turned last weeks list of 80+ Swiss Climate Tech startups into a neat little map - note: there are a lot of companies in the energy efficiency space.

Now its time we turn our attention to the next Climate Tech Landscape - let us know which country in the poll below:

Events x Climate

⏰ 7 Days Left: Early Bird Tickets to the HackSummit will be sold out by the next Fridays newsletter. Lock in the Early Bird Rate this weekend and use the code CHNEWSLETTER for 10% off. Lower Carbon Capital, Zero Carbon Capital, FoodLabs, World Fund, Nucleus Capital all confirmed attending - time you jump in too.

🇩🇪 Free Meetup (Berlin) - 4 Speakers announced for our Berlin ClimateHack Meetup on the 16th March, with a focus on Biodiversity - including Planet A Ventures, GoodCarbon, Klim and FoodLabs. Come network with the who's who of Berlin's Climate scene.

Memes x Climate

Just remember, every little counts.

Thanks for reading, have a great weekend ahead - and hit reply if you're ever bored and want to chat.

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Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola.