🦤 ClimateHack Vol 91: Cultivated quail now on the menu

Hi There,

Hope you had a great Easter break and feeling refreshed for a new quarter ahead.

We’re hearing that deep tech funding is so back and that hardware is cool again, so it’s time to dust off those reactor plans, put on your lab coats or hi vis vests, and get back to building real hard things that solve real hard problems.

As the cliche says, LFG.

In Today’s Edition;

🦤 Cultivated quail now on the menu in Singaporean restaurants, courtesy of cultivate meat producer Vow.
🧊 Paris-based Iceberg Data Lab, raised $10M to provide climate and biodiversity data solutions for financial institutions.
🚒 US-based Burnbot raised $20M to roll out its vegetation-eating fire-management vehicles to help mitigate wildfire disasters.

AgriFood x Climate

🥚 Onego Bio, based in Finland, secured $40 million Series A funding to commercialise its precision fermentation animal-free egg protein, Bioalbumen, for which it soon expects to obtain self-affirmed GRAS status in the US.

🌾 Copenhagen-based REDUCED secured €6 million to convert food and agriculture side streams into useful ingredients using fermentation technology. It will use the funds to further expand its operations.

🥔 Israeli molecular farming startup Finally Foods emerged from stealth with a pre-seed investment from The Kitchen FoodTech Hub, with which it will develop protein from potatoes, starting with casein.

🦤 Australian cultivated meat startup Vow has earned regulatory approval in Singapore for its cultivated quail, which it will soon serve as part of a parfait under its Forged brand at the Mandala Club, followed by other restaurants in the city-state.

🫐 RipeLocker, based in the US, claims it can “double the shelf life” of some high-value crops, including blueberries, cherries, and walnuts. Its patented, re-usable, portable low-atmosphere chambers create a near-vacuum or ultra-low oxygen environment for transport, meaning producers can switch from air to ocean freight, saving costs as well as cutting waste.

🍄 A new initiative, Open Fung, officially launched with a mission to build collective resources to facilitate innovative ways of working with fungi to create sustainable solutions in various fields, including food, materials, and medicine.

🏭 Givaudan, MISTA and Bühler announced the opening of a state-of-the-art extrusion hub at the MISTA Innovation Center in San Francisco, which will offer companies the opportunity to conduct product development trials for their extruded products.

Fires x Climate

🚒 US-based Burnbot raised $20 million to roll out its vegetation-eating fire-management vehicles to help mitigate wildfire disasters as global temperatures and instances of drought continue to increase.

🍳 Kenya’s BURN Manufacturing raised just over $12 million, in a round led by Key Carbon Ltd., for its electric and biomass stoves, which it says have already transformed the lives of over 24 million people since 2014.

Fintech x Climate

🧊 Paris-based Iceberg Data Lab, which provides climate and biodiversity data solutions for financial institutions, raised $10 million Series A funding to accelerate its global expansion plans.

Energy x Climate

🔋 Alsym Energy, based in the US, secured $78 million in a Series C funding round led by General Catalyst and Tata. Its low-cost, high-performance rechargeable battery chemistry is ideal for applications such as stationary storage, maritime shipping, and electric vehicles, plus the startup is aiming to “light up homes for a billion people around the world who don’t get access to electricity”.

🏭 Norway-based Photoncycle raised €5 million for its hydrogen-based technology that can store energy more efficiently in an ammonia synthesis reactor. It will use the funds to build its first few power storage devices in Denmark, which it has chosen as its test market.

💸 Engineers at West Virginia University secured federal funding totalling $15.8 million to support projects that will help slash the cost of clean hydrogen production to $1 per kilogram.

💨 Terraform Industries, based in the US, has developed the Terraformer, a first-of-its-kind system designed to produce synthetic natural gas using air and electricity.

☀️ Cargill has signed five deals to increase its global renewable energy capacity by 42%, bringing an additional 300 megawatts of wind and solar capacity online, as part of its broader GHG emission reduction goals.

Materials x Climate

🌱 British startup Sparxell raised $3.2 million for its sustainable plant-based pigments made from cellulose, which can be extracted from waste streams. It will use the funds to support partnerships with car manufacturers, high-end fashion brands, and cosmetic goods manufacturers.  

🪵 UK-based Bpacks unveiled what it claims is the world’s first bark-based biodegradable bioplastics, designed to replace unsustainable rigid plastics for packaging fresh produce, meat, cosmetics, and more.

🧂 US-based lightweight metal producer Magrathea has signed a supply agreement with Cargill, one of the world’s leading salt producers, to source the necessary material for their pilot and demonstration plant scale-up.

Funds x Climate

🇧🇷 Brazil’s Aqua Capital closed its third flagship fund with $450 million, surpassing its $400 million target, to support sustainable agrifood solutions which contribute to carbon reduction, positive change in greenhouse gas emissions, and small and mid-sized farmers inclusion.

🇮🇱 Israeli VC Maniv closed its latest fund with $140 million to invest in seed-stage startups working to decarbonise and digitise all forms of transportation, including air and sea. It has already supported the likes of Indian two-wheeler EV startup River and Spanish car subscription company Bipi.

🇦🇺Australia’s national science agency CSIRO has allocated $20 million to support startups working across sectors including technology, manufacturing, agriculture, mining, energy and health and biosecurity with improved access to R&D opportunities to help accelerate their growth.

🇬🇧 UK-based, scientist-founded VC Empirical Ventures raised £8.25 million to support early-stage deep science startups solving “some of the most pressing challenges facing humanity” across sectors including life sciences, advanced materials, photonics and quantum hardware, robotics and automation, agchem/tech and deeptech.

Community x Climate

Upcoming Free ClimateHacks Meetups in:

🇳🇱 Amsterdam: 17th April - “Carbon Dioxide Removal 101” with speakers from Carbon Rating, Skytree, SeaO₂. Register Here.

🇺🇸 San Francisco: 22nd April - “Dancing with Elephants - how startups and corporates can build impactful partnerships”. Register Here.

🇨🇭 Zürich: 23rd April - Closing the Loop: Innovating for a Circular Tomorrow with Impact Hub, Ponera Group, reCircle, Treeless Pack. Register Here.

Tweets x Climate

🌋 This makes me feel insecure about my measly desk job..

How did you like today's email?

Love it 😁 Meh 😐 Hate it 🙁

Editorial by Arman, Curation by Nicola