🌎 Call for climate tech investors #95CommentShareCommentShare

Happy Monday!

In the news this week, apart from last week’s big headline confirmation of new SEC climate-related disclosures, the US is pulled towards supplying the EU with natural gas to backfill reliance on Russian energy. In parallel, Manchin, activists, and lobbyists may be rekindling some of the climate-related provisions of a scaled-back BBB. Both point towards an increasing push towards clean energy policy as a security issue, which could pull forward some new green energy investment - just as China sets a new target of 200k tonnes of green hydrogen production by 2025 with serious early-2000s-solar-market-dominance vibes.

In largest deals of the week, TemperPack’s Styrofoam-alternative takes in a $140m Series D, Span’s home electric panels gets a $90m upgrade, and Kayrros’ climate modeling and analytics platform raises $44m. For the Gen Zs in the house, check out Pique’s TikTok version of CTVC’s deals!

Stay tuned on Friday for our updated list of climate investors - soon to be 200+ strong! If you haven’t already, fill out our climate fund form for consideration. And cue the pitchforks for any errors or omissions 😅

Thanks for reading!

Not a subscriber yet?

Subscribe Now

📣 Climate investors, assemble!

In the last few years, we’ve seen a breakout of climate venture-scale activity - setting a record of $40B raised in climate tech venture capital during 2021. And not surprisingly, more climate venture capital = more climate venture funds.

From the initial Running List of Climate Tech VCs we released in Nov 2020 to our revamped update in Jan 2021, we’re overdue for an update and appreciate your patience as we’ve evaluated the rapidly assembling droves of funds!

Please fill out our form to be considered (though, no need to re-submit if you’ve already applied!) - we’ll be releasing our updated list of Climate Tech VCs this Friday!

More granularity and filtering options by geography, stage, size
Additional ~60+ funds focused on investing in climate
Key categories of funds will remain:

Climate-general: Investing in climate change as the primary thesis

Climate-vertical specific: Investing in a specific vertical (e.g., agriculture, energy) within climate

Impact: Investing for impact with a focus on sustainability

Deeptech: Investing in frontier, hard science technologies to address climate

Generalist: Investing mostly in enterprise / consumer software, with some opportunistic climate investments

This year alone, we’ve evaluated ~180 new climate venture funds spanning a global, stage, and sector-wide aperture - not to mention the other key players in the climate capital stack including our databases of climate-first corporate venture capital funds and accelerators and incubators.

CTVC exists to accelerate climate innovation. Bringing capital to founders is critical towards that goal. We’ll continue to develop funding resources for founders, with our list of investors representing the first port of call for those building in climate.

Submit a climate venture fund

Deals of the Week (3/21-3/27)

🌱 TemperPack, a Richmond, VA-based maker of packaging alternatives to Styrofoam, raised $140m in Series D funding from Goldman Sachs, Grosnevor, Harbert Growth Partners, Tao Capital Partners, Revolution Growth, SJF Ventures, and Arborview Capital.

⚡ Span.IO, a San Francisco, CA-based creator of electrical panels for homes and chargers for cars, raised $90m in Series B funding from Fifth Wall Climate Tech, Wellington Management, Angeleno Group, FootPrint Coalition, Obsidian Investment Partners, A/O PropTech, and others.

🌱 Kayrros, a France-based climate analytics and modeling startup, raised $44m in funding from French Tech Souveraineté, BPifrance, the European Investment Bank (EIB), NewSpace Capital, and Opera Tech Ventures.

🚌 Beep, a Lake Nona, FL-based autonomous multi-passenger EV solutions startup, raised $25m in Series A-1 funding from ABS Capital, Intel Capital, Blue Lagoon Capital, TDF Ventures, and Hidden Creek Management.

🌱 Smarter Sorting, a Boulder, CO and Austin, TX-based consumer goods data and sustainability company, raised $25m in funding from G2 Venture Partners.

⛏️ Plotlogic, an Australia-based startup using hyperspectral imaging for more efficient mining, raised $18m in Series A funding from Innovation Endeavors, BHP Ventures, Touchdown Ventures, DCVC, Baidu Ventures, and Grids Ventures.

🚌 The Routing Company, a Seattle, WA-based on-demand routing tech startup for public transit agencies, raised $15m in funding from Galvanize Climate Solutions, The Engine, Systemiq.Earth, and Animal Capital.

⚡ SparkMeter, a Washington, DC-based grid-management firm, raised $10m in funding from Accurant International, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Clean Energy Ventures.

🐟 DELOS, an Indonesia-based aquaculture-tech company, raised $8m in Seed funding from Centauri, KB Investment Co., Alpha JWC Ventures, Number Capital, Arise, iSeed SEA, Irvan Kolonas, Alto Partners Multi-Family Office, Mahanusa Capital, and others.

🚲 Ride1Up, a San Diego, CA-based e-bike maker, raised $6.5m in Series A funding from Ecosystem Integrity Fund.

🌱 Climate X, a London-based climate risk analytics provider, raised $5.4m in Seed funding from CommerzVentures, A/O PropTech, Voyagers Climate Tech Fund, Blue Impact Ventures, Deloitte LLP, and angel investors.

♻️ Bower, a Sweden-based provider of an app that rewards users with money or coupons when they recycle everyday waste items, raised $4.7m in Seed funding from blq Invest, Almi Invest GreenTech, Verdane Foundation, Orkla Ventures and others.

🌱 Lune, a UK-based startup helping businesses integrate climate impact into their customer experiences, raised $4m in funding from Crane and angel investors.

⚡ Innovatium, a UK-based developer of commercial equipment and processes which reduce the carbon intensity of existing energy processes and enable greater renewable penetration into the energy mix, raised $1.2m in funding from Kelvin Capital and Scottish Enterprise.

⚡ Elevation, a Chandler, AZ-based fully integrated residential energy solutions company, raised an undisclosed amount in Series B funding from Bernhard Capital Management Partners.

Have a climate tech deal? Submit here

In the News

The U.S. SEC officially put forward a new set of rules that would require public companies to make “certain climate-related disclosures” in their public reports. Additionally, large corporates will soon need to disclose their Scope 3 emissions as material or part of climate targets. A usual set of characters opposed the plan – including the SEC’s lone Republican, Hester Peirce.

US and European leaders announced a joint task force to limit the EU's reliance on Russian fossil fuels and enhance its energy security. The commitment calls for the US to assist the EU particularly on liquified natural gas (LNG) needs—finding another 15B cubic meters of LNG from international partners in 2022 and ensuring an additional 50 bcm annually from the US until at least 2030. Such efforts are needed to fill energy gaps as O&G companies like French TotalEnergies prepare to stop buying Russian oil and halt further project investment in the country.

The reconciliation bill could still be resurrected according to chatter from conversations between Joe Manchin, activists, and lobbyists. The potential resumed negotiations would likely be a scaled-back version of BBB that’s narrowly focused on climate, drug prices, and deficit reduction.

China has set a new target to produce up to 200,000 tonnes/ yr of green hydrogen by 2025 — giving off major early 2000s solar market dominance vibes.

Porsche is building its own proprietary global network of EV chargers, starting in Europe – entering a race against Tesla which just opened its first European factory last week to challenge German automakers (see here for the celebratory Elon dance). Bolstering these European market plays, the UK government pledged to 10x the number of public EV chargers to 300,000 by 2030 with $2.1B in funding.

Occidental subsidiary 1PointFive sold 400k tonnes of carbon removal credits to Airbus from its planned first direct air capture facility using Carbon Engineering’s DAC solution. Shayle Kann from Energy Impact Partners addresses this carbon accounting head-scratcher:

Carbon removal accounting is gonna get complicated...
1) @CarbonEngineer (w/ Oxy/OnePointFive) builds 1Mt/yr direct air capture plant in the Permian w/ durable CO2 storage that happens to be used for enhanced oil recovery https://t.co/0exiGiehFd
— Shayle Kann (@shaylekann) March 23, 2022

In a nod towards climate adaptation, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization is launching an ambitious project to provide early warning systems for extreme weather and climate events, with a focus on least developed countries. The UN Chief said: “We must invest equally in adaptation and resilience. That includes the information that allows us to anticipate storms, heatwaves, floods and droughts.”

Pop-up

Grist releases its 2022 Grist 50 list of emerging leaders in climate (featuring CTVC’s Sophie!)

Outside Magazine envisions the perfect electric adventure vehicle.

Scientists discover microplastics in human blood for the first time.

Now you can charge up with coffee and EV charging at Starbucks.

Watch while drinking your coffee and charging your car. This new video from Bloomberg Green unpacks carbon capture with the CEOs of Climeworks, Carbo Culture, Air Co, and Dimensional Energy.

Koch (Net) Zero? Longtime oil refiner Koch Industries becomes the most diversified battery investor in the US.

Spring cleaning. Removing dust from solar panels could boost efficiency by 30% and save billions of gallons of water.

New public health research highlights Native American communities’ disproportionate exposure to air pollution.

In an artfully-written long-form essay, the NYTimes profiles contemporary artists who have attempted to grapple with our precarious climate present.

Opportunities & Events:

💡 Circular Cities Accelerator: Apply by Apr 10th to promote circularity in urban settings utilizing innovative construction methods and mobility technologies and services.

💡 LG Chem Innovation Challenge: Apply by May 1st to be included in LG Chem’s first program focused on startup collaboration and build out a proof of concept for solutions in verticals such as circular plastics, renewable hydrogen, carbon utilization, and sustainable batteries.

🗓️ Techonomy Climate: Join on Mar 29th in Mountain View, CA (or virtually) and listen to climate experts, entrepreneurs, and investors from Microsoft, the Environmental Defense Fund, Watershed, and many more discuss the intersection of tech and climate mitigation and adaptation solutions.

🗓️ MCJ Action: Join MCJ Collective in their new monthly series, “MCJ Action,” on Apr 6th as they welcome Adam McKay, writer, director, and producer of Don’t Look Up, to the spotlight to discuss climate action.

🗓️ Nature-Based Carbon Removal: Join Elemental Excelerator’s event on Apr 7th to discuss the steps that companies like Shopify, Climate Robotics, and DroneSeed are taking to scale nature-based carbon removal.