Getting salty

Hi there,

Will keep it short today as it’s a long weekend here for all the U.S.-based W2 warriors. What’d you get up to this weekend?

We threw my friend’s dog a banger of a birthday party. Read on for all the climate tech and energy updates of late, including the first large sodium-ion energy storage project globally.

In today’s email:

• One story in a chart and a sentence

• Climate tech and energy headlines from the week

• Climate tech fundraising announcements

• Meme of the week

THIS WEEK IN CLIMATE TECH & ENERGY

One story in a sentence (and a chart)

• Humans have put more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (by mass) than we’ve put on Earth by building things (despite how heavy concrete and steel are) and than there is living biomass on Earth. Link (via Zeke Hausfather).

13 headlines

• China Southern Power Grid turned on a 10 MWh sodium-ion battery storage station in Nanning, southwestern China this week, marking the first such station globally. Link.

• LFP batteries are reportedly as cheap as $47/kWh in China now. For reference, they’re about twice that in the U.S., which helps put recent moves like the Biden Admin’s tariffs in context. Link. Link.

• Vital Meat, a French startup that makes cultivated chicken, applied for regulatory approval in the U.K. Only a handful of companies globally have received approval to sell cultivated meat. Link.

• Adding to its embarrassment of riches, the U.S. keeps unveiling new, significant lithium deposits. This time, public researchers in Pennsylvania found that wastewater from fracking could contain massive amounts of lithium deposits. Link.

• California greenlit $6.1B in funding for new transmission lines, including interconnections to generation sources in other states. Link.

• Oakland is the first city in the country with a 100% electric school bus fleet that’s also capable of V2G. Link.

• ADNOC, based out of the United Arab Emirates, is acquiring an 11.7% stake in a U.S.-based LNG project owned by NextDecade, signaling continued robust global demand for LNG. ADNOC also made an investment in a LNG deal in Mozambique, as well. Link. Link.

• In another backward policy move akin to banning cultivated meat, Florida is in the process of repealing renewable-energy goals it had previously set. Link.

• Humans are starting to come down with H5N1 bird flu; a broader breakout could prove highly disruptive to animal agriculture. Link.

• Intense heatwaves in India and Pakistan have hospitalized hundreds so far this year. Link.

• Recent floods in Porto Alegre, Brazil, displaced more than half a million people and could entail billions of dollars in damages. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds

♻️ Circtec, based out of London, raised ~$163.5M in equity funding for its tire recycling facilities that use pyrolysis technology. Novo Holdings and A.P. Moller Holding led. The company also raised ~$24.5M and in grant funding from the Dutch government. More here. (U.K., Materials)

👕 Syre, based out of Stockholm, Sweden, raised $100M in Series A funding for its textile and polyester recycling business. TPG Rise Climate led. More here. (Sweden, Materials)

Medium-sized funding rounds

⬇️ 280 Earth, based out of Mountain View, CA, raised $50M in Series B funding to build direct air capture plants. 280 noted it will use funds to do R&D at its first operational 500-ton removal facility in Oregon. Builders VC, Alphabet, and others invested. That plant is already built and operating. More here. (U.S., Carbon Removal)

♨️ XGS Energy, based out of Palo Alto, raised $20M in extended Series A funding to develop geothermal energy technologies for deeper extraction of heat geothermal resources. Valo Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures co-leds. More here. (U.S., Energy)

🌞 Reactive, based out of Oxford, U.K., raised $31.4M in Series D funding to provide real-time data on grid dynamics and performance to utilities. M&G led. More here. (U.K., Energy)

⚡ Verse, based out of San Francisco, raised $20.5M in Series A funding to help businesses procure and manage cleaner electricity. GV led. More here. (U.S., Energy)

🍄 Enifer, based out of Espoo, Finland, raised ~$16.2M in Series B for its mycelium-based protein that it develops using waste food and pulp. Taaleri led. The company also received a €12m grant from Business Finland and secured ~$9.7M in debt financing from the Finnish Climate Fund and Finnvera. More here. (Finland, Food & Agriculture)

🚚 Harbinger, based out of Los Angeles, raised $13M in extended Series A funding from the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund to make electric trucks and powertrains for medium-duty commercial vehicles. More here. (U.S., Transportation)

🔋 Ore Energy, based out of Amsterdam, raised $10.8M in seed funding to make large-scale and long-duration iron-air batteries. Positron Ventures led. More here. (Netherlands, Energy)

💧 Ketos, based out of Milpitas, CA, raised $10M in growth equity funding for its water quality monitoring systems that provide real-time data and analytics options. Tenfore Holdings led. More here. (U.S., Water)

Smaller funding rounds

📦 Fiberwood, based out of Järvenpää, Finland, raised ~$8.3M in growth funding for its more sustainable packaging materials. Metsä Spring, Stephen Industries, and others invested. More here. (Finland, Materials)

💧 Subeca, based out of Richardson, TX, raised $6M in Series A funding for its water metering technology. Suez led. More here. (U.S., Water)

🧪 Cellugy, based out of Søborg, Denmark, raised ~$5.3M in seed funding for its fermentation-based cellulose material designed to replace fossil fuel-based materials in cosmetics. ICIG Ventures and Unconventional Ventures led. More here. (Denmark, Materials)

☂️ 7Analytics, based out of Bergen, Norway, raised $4.3M in seed funding to help insurers manage and assess flood risk. Scale Capital led. More here. (Norway, Insurance)

📊 Companion.energy, based out of Ghent, Belgium, raised $2.3M in equity funding to help industrial companies manage their energy use and buy carbon-free electricity. Übermorgen Ventures, Cavalry Ventures, Entourage, and others invested. More here. (Belgium, Energy)

🔋 South 8, based out of San Diego, raised an undisclosed amount from Porsche Ventures for its gaseous electrolytes designed to improve lithium-ion battery safety. More here. (U.S., Energy / Transportation)

Other funding rounds

💵 Origis Energy, based out of Miami, FL, raised a $300M corporate credit facility from KKR to build solar and storage projects. More here. (U.S., Energy)

New funds

💰 Alcazar Energy, based out of Luxembourg, raised $490M for its second infrastructure investment fund focused on utility-scale renewable projects in emerging markets. More here. (Luxembourg, Energy)

💰 ETF Partners, based out of London, raised ~$307.8M for its fourth fund and will invest in software-focused climate tech companies. More here. (U.K., Funds)

💸 Zero Carbon Capital, based out of London, raised a new fund with ~$25.4M to invest in early-stage (pre-seed and seed stage) European climate tech companies. More here. (U.K., Funds)

MEME OF THE WEEK

Byeee,

– Nick