First to feed additive

Hi there,

Let’s see, what’s on my mind today? Not a ton, beyond trying to get through some serious work in advance this week to get to the beach by Thursday and Friday. If you’re in New York for tech week, give me a holler.

What’s on your mind? Scroll on to make your answer this week’s climate tech updates, including new records for good things (fusion, hybrid powertrain range, etc…) and bad (heat across Asia).

In today’s email:

• One story in a chart and a sentence

• Climate tech and energy headlines from the week

• Climate tech fundraising announcements

THIS WEEK IN CLIMATE TECH & ENERGY

One story in a sentence (and a chart)

• A touch of good news: BloombergNEF put out new estimates this week that postulate that global carbon dioxide emissions may have already peaked (Note: This excludes other potent greenhouse gasses like methane and nitrous oxide) Link.

15 headlines

The good

• The methane-reducing feed additive designed for livestock, Bovaer, already commercially available in Brazil and a handful of other countries, was approved by the FDA for use in the U.S. The feed additive can reduce methane emissions from cattle by up to 30% with consistent application. It’s the first methane-focused feed additive to get approved by the FDA in the U.S.; other feed additives like Experior exist for applications like increasing nitrogen uptake in cattle. Link. Link.

• French scientists were able to sustain a fusion reaction for six minutes in a tokamak, setting a new record. Link.

• Airbus, BMW, Michelin, and eight other companies will receive ~$1.5B in government funding to develop hydrogen power projects. Link.

• Volkswagen wants to develop a ~$22k EV for Europe by 2027 to compete with Chinese EVs. Link.

• The Biden Admin rolled out ~$900M in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for school districts nationwide to transition to electric school buses. Link.

• Huawei Technologies announced it will build an EV fast-charging network in China with BYD and ten other Chinese EV manufacturers. BYD also released a new hybrid powertrain that purportedly offers up to 1,200+ miles of range on one charge + gas tank. Link. Link. 

• RWE, a German energy company, plans to build Australia's first 8-hour lithium-ion energy storage project. RWE will buy Megapack batteries from Tesla for its 50 MW, 400 MWh project. Link.

• Indonesia is experimenting with cloud seeding to boost rainfall for its agriculture sector. For more on cloud seeding, you can catch up on a U.S.-based company trying to do the same in the second link here, which is from our podcast. Link. Link.

• The Japanese government continues to debate whether to restart its Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant, which is the world's largest nuclear plant. The plant was first shut down after the Fukushima meltdown in 2011. Link.

• This week, the Biden Administration released new guidelines intended to steer more capital towards 'higher 'integrity credits in the voluntary carbon market. Meanwhile, the DOE also announced the finalists for its first government carbon removal purchase program. Link. Link. Link.

The bad

• Fulcrum Bioenergy, which had raised close to $1B to turn trash into SAF, is going under after struggling to scale its production process. Link.

• VinFast, the Vietnamese EV manufacturer, may delay its $4B manufacturing plant in North Carolina further. Link.

• Carbon Green Investments noted it removed its Kariba forestry project in Zimbabwe from Verra's carbon credit registry this week, hinting at more turmoil in nature-based carbon offsets. Link.

• Climate Nexus, an influential climate communications firm that worked hard to hold the oil and gas industry accountable and advocate for policy in Washington, is shutting down. Link.

• India is facing record heat so far in 2024, and it's only May. Delhi saw its highest-ever temperature at 49.9° C (121.8° F) this week. Then, later in the week, temperatures soared as high as 127° F. 30 people died in Uttar Pradesh over the weekend. Link. Link. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds

🧊 Frore Systems, based out of San Jose, CA, raised $80M in Series C funding for its solid-state chips that provide active device cooling to computing operations. Fidelity led. More here. (U.S., Industry)

Medium-sized funding rounds

💸 Doconomy, based out of Stockholm, Sweden, raised ~$36.9M in Series B funding for its financial technologies that make it easier to understand the environmental impact of transactions as well as more climate-aligned savings and investment tools. UBS Next and CommerzVentures led. More here. (Sweden, Finance)

🌬️ One Energy, based out of Findlay, OH, raised $35M in Series A funding from undisclosed investors for its wind energy development business. More here. (U.S., Energy)

🌱 Iyris, based out of the UAE, raised $16M in Series A funding for its heat-blocking technology designed to boost crop yields. Ecosystem Integrity Fund led. More here. (UAE, Food & Agriculture)

🛵 Zypp Electric, based out of Haryana, India, raised $15M in Series C funding to expand its EV rental service into Southeast Asia. ENEOS led. More here. (India, Transportation)

☂️ WindBorne Systems, based out of Palo Alto, CA, raised $15M in equity funding for its smart weather balloon technology. Khosla Ventures led. More here (paywall). (U.S., Data Applications) 

🔋 Relectrify, based out of West Melbourne, Australia, raised ~$11.3M in equity funding to develop inverter-free battery cells, extending battery packs’ lifespan by up to 30%. At One Ventures led. More here (paywall). (Australia, Energy / Transportation)

Smaller funding rounds

🌱 AgroUrbana, based out of Chile, raised $6M in equity funding for its vertical farming business. ALB led. More here. (Chile, Food & Agriculture)

🔌 Turno, based out of Bangalore, India, raised an additional $6M in Series A funding for its EV dealership and financing business. Quona Capital, Stellaris Venture Partners, and B Capital led. More here. (India, Transportation)

🌞 Cloover, based out of Berlin, raised $5.5M in seed funding and ~$108M in debt funding for its solar software and financing software. Lowercarbon Capital led. More here. (Germany, Energy)

🏗️ Vizcab, based out of Lyon, France, raised ~$4.9M in Series A funding for its software targeted at reducing construction emissions. Kompas VC led. More here. (France, Built Environment)

⚡ Delta Green, based out of Prague, Czechia, raised ~$2.4M in equity funding for its virtual power plant software. Tilia Impact Ventures led. More here. (Czechia, Energy)

💸 Plural Energy, based out of San Francisco, CA, raised $2.3M in pre-seed funding to build a blockchain-based marketplace for investors to fund renewable energy projects. Necessary Ventures and Compound led. More here. (U.S., Energy)

🛰️ Seqana, based out of Berlin, raised ~$2.3M in seed funding for its SaaS platform that integrates satellite imagery and data to measure and monitor the impact of soil carbon projects. High-Tech Gründerfonds and Counteract led. More here. (Germany, MRV)

⚡Eneryield, based out of Gothenburg, Sweden, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from ABB and Chalmers Ventures to make software to predict and prevent power outages. More here. (Sweden, Energy) 

🧪 Nextmol, based out of Barcelona, raised an undisclosed amount of equity funding for its software focused on sustainable chemicals. ACT Venture Partners led. More here. (Spain, Industry)

🌱 Vive Crop Protection, based out of Toronto, raised an undisclosed amount of extended Series C funding for its precision pesticides. More here. (Canada, Food & Agriculture)

Other funding rounds

🔋 Verkor, based out of Grenoble, France, raised ~$1.4B in debt financing to build a battery gigafactory in northern France. More here. (France, Manufacturing)

💸 Zenobe, based out of London, U.K., raised ~$520M in debt financing for its fleet electrification and battery storage business. More here. (U.K., Energy / Transportation)

🌬️Clean Energy Terminals, based out of Valencia, CA, raised $50M in an initial equity commitment from Homecoming Capital to build offshore wind terminals. More here. (U.S., Industry)

New funds

💵 Energy Capital Partners, based out of Summit, NJ, closed on a new $4.4B fund to invest in energy assets. More here. (U.S., Energy)

💰 Clean Energy Ventures, based out of Boston, raised $305M for its second fund with which it will invest in startups developing hardware for decarbonization and the energy transition. More here. (U.S., Energy)

Have a nice week ahead,

– Nick