Farmers win (for now)

Hi there,

Happy Super Bowl (if that interests you). I cannot tell you how many PR pitches I got re: Taylor Swift’s private jet this week. I can tell you that that is literally the least interesting climate story imaginable to me. The leather and polyurethane that goes into millions of footballs every year (or all that synthetic turf on football fields and American lawns) is far more interesting. 

Anywho. Here’s a roundup of what was interesting to me this week in climate and energy.

P.S., mark your calendars for Thursday, 2/22 in New York City. We’ll host a happy hour starting circa 8pm in Chinatown. More details to follow on Thursday.

In today’s email:

• One story in a sentence (and a chart)

• Climate and energy headlines from the week

• Climate tech fundraising announcements

THIS WEEK IN CLIMATE TECH & ENERGY

One story in a sentence (and a chart)

• In keeping with our topic from Thursday, here’s a great decadal chart from RMI on how battery costs keep falling while their efficiency keeps rising. Link.

11 key headlines

• The EU backed off of agricultural emissions reduction targets it had previously proposed amidst mounting and intense farmer protests across the bloc. Even with a temporary victory in hand, farmers across Europe continue to protest a wide variety of other grievances. At the same time, the EU also proposed new regulations to cut the bloc’s greenhouse gas emissions 90% by 2040. We’ll see if they can thread that needle. Link. Link. Link.

• EVs reached 94% share of new auto registrations in Norway for January. Norway has very favorable incentives for EV adoption. Elsewhere, in France, EVs hit 25% share of new auto registrations. Link. Link.

• LG Chem inked a new 10-year, $19B deal with GM to supply the auto manufacturer with domestically made cathode materials for EV batteries. Link.

• Toyota announced it will invest $1.3B at its factory complex in Georgetown, Kentucky, so it can produce more battery packs and manufacture its new electric SUV. Link.

• Twelve, based out of Berkeley, CA, launched its first commercial-scale carbon transformation unit in Moses Lake, Washington. The plant will also produce sustainable jet fuel. Link.

• Barclays, the largest lender to oil & gas companies in the U.K., announced new restrictions on the types of oil & gas projects it will finance. Conversely, while Bank of America pledged to stop backing coal projects in 2021, it’s now backsliding on that commitment. Link. Link.

• The EPA released new limits on air pollution, including soot and industrial particles, dropping acceptable limits from sources like smokestacks from 12 micrograms per cubic meter to 9. This is the first such air pollution update from the EPA in a decade. Link.

• The EPA and the DOE also announced a Notice of Intent to fund methane measurement and reductions technologies from the oil and gas sectors. Link.

• U.S. coal exports hit a 5-year high in 2023 amidst growing Asian demand. Link.

• Orsted announced it will exit several offshore wind markets as the company noted project cancellations and higher than expected CAPEX could cost it another $5B between 2024 and 2026 (in addition to large losses already posted in 2023). It will cut 800 jobs globally. Elsewhere, Ford posted losses of $4.7B on its EV division in 2023. Link. Link.

• Global temperatures breached the 1.5°C higher than preindustrial level threshold for the first time. Meanwhile, other (albeit more atypical) indicators suggest the world may already have warmed as much as 1.7°C. Link. Link.

CURATED DEALS

Larger funding rounds

⛏️ Koloma, based out of Denver, CO, raised $245M in Series B funding for its geologic (naturally occurring) hydrogen business. Khosla Ventures led. More here (paywall). (U.S., Industry)

🔌 Project 3 Mobility, based out of Zagreb, Croatia, noted it has raised $100M+ through its Series A to make self-driving EVs. TASARU Mobility Investments – part of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund – Kia and Rimac Group have invested. More here. (Croatia, Transportation)

Medium-sized funding rounds

🥩 Heura Foods, based out of Barcelona, Spain, raised ~$43.2M in Series B funding for its Mediterranean plant-based meat products. Upfield, Unovis Asset Management, European Circular Bioeconomy Fund, and others invested. More here. (Spain, Food & Agriculture)

🛵 River, based out of Bengaluru, India, raised $40M in Series B to make electric scooters. Yamaha Motor Co. led. More here. (India, Transportation)

🍎 ProducePay, based out of Los Angeles, raised $38M in Series D funding for its fresh-produce supply-chain visibility technologies targeted at reducing food waste. Syngenta Group Ventures led. More here. (U.S., Food & Agriculture)

⬇️ Avnos, based out of Los Angeles, raised $36M in Series A funding to make direct air capture technology that also produces water. NextEra Energy led. More here. (U.S., Carbon Markets)

⚛️ Thea Energy, based out of Princeton, NJ, raised $20M in Series A funding for its advancing stellarator technology for commercial fusion applications. Prelude Ventures led. More here. (U.S., Energy)

💸 Mufin Green Finance, based out of New Delhi, India, raised ~$17M in Series B funding for its EV financing platform. The State Bank of India, IREDA, AU Small Finance Bank, and others invested. More here. (India, Transportation)

☂️ Jua, based out of Zurich, Switzerland, raised $16M in seed funding to build better weather models for energy trading applications. 468 Capital and the Green Generation Fund co-led. More here. (Switzerland, Climate Data)

🏠 Kin, based out of Chicago, raised $15M for its D2C home insurance business, which includes a focus on climate impacts and risk. Activate Capital led. More here. (U.S., Finance)

⬇️ 280 Earth, based out of Dalles, Earth, raised $15M from Catalyst4, a nonprofit launched by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, to develop direct air capture technology that uses a dry sorbent for adhesion and waste heat as the system’s power source. More here. (U.S., Carbon Markets)

♻️ Greyparrot, based out of London, raised $12.8M in equity funding for its AI-driven waste and recycling intelligence and analytics solutions. Bollegraaf led. More here. (U.K., Industry)

⚡ Amperesand, based out of Singapore, raised $12.5M in seed funding to develop advanced electrical transformers with solid-state technology. Xora Innovation and Material Impact co-led. More here. (Singapore, Energy)

💸 OTO, based out of Mumbai, raised $10M in equity funding for its two-wheel EV financing platform. GMO Venture Partners led. More here. (India, Transportation)

Smaller funding rounds

⚡ Synaptec, based out of Glasgow, Scotland, raised ~$8.2M to develop distributed electrical sensing technologies for power systems. Megger Group, Proserv, and Equity Gap invested. More here. (Scotland, Energy)

🚌 CitySwift, based out of Galway, Ireland, ~$7.6M to make software for public transportation operators to manage their bus routes more efficiently. Gresham House Ventures led. More here. (Ireland, Transportation)

🏢 Myrspoven, based out of Stockholm, raised ~$5.8M in equity funding for its AI software designed to help with building energy optimization. 4impact Capital, Vantaa Energy, and AMAVI Capital led. More here. (Sweden, Built Environment)

💸 Metafin, based out of Gurugram, raised $5M in equity funding for its rooftop solar financing business. Prime Venture Partners and Varanium Capital led. More here. (India, Energy)

✈️ Cosmic Aerospace, based out of Denver, raised $4.5M in seed funding to develop all-electric passenger aircraft. Pale Blue Dot led. More here. (U.S., Transportation)

🔋 Azul Energy, based out of Miyagi, Japan, raised ~$3.2M in Series A funding to make cheaper catalysts without rare earth minerals for batteries. Spiral Capital led. More here. (Japan, Industry)

🔌 Snap-E Cabs, based out of Kolkata, India, raised $2.5M for its EV ride-hailing platform. Inflection Point Ventures led. More here. (India, Transportation)

📦 Voidless, based out of Milan, Italy, raised ~$2.4M in seed funding to make custom cardboard packaging that reduces waste. CDP Venture Capital and 360 Capital led. More here. (Italy, Materials)

👨‍💻 OTee, based out of Oslo, Norway, raised ~$1.35m for its industrial automation software. RunwayFBU and Superangel led. More here. (Norway, Industry)

🪵 Loamist, based out of Berkeley, CA, raised $1M in pre-seed funding to help companies access and track waste biomass sources with software. Third Sphere, VoLo Earth, and WovenEarth invested. More here. (U.S., Materials)

New funds

💵 Brookfield Asset Management, based out of Toronto, raised $10B for its second ‘Global Transition Fund’. More here. (Canada, Funds)

💵 Mirova, based out of London, raised ~$282M for a climate fund focused on emerging markets. More here. (U.K., Funds)

💰 Voyager Ventures, based out of San Francisco, raised $100M for a new fund to invest in climate tech startups. More here. (U.S., Funds)

Bye!

– Nick