- SPACs are the construct VCs need to fund clean techBrian Walsh Contributor Share on Twitter Brian Walsh is the head of WIND Ventures, the venture capital arm of COPEC, a leading energy company in Central and South America and the U.S. WIND Ventures provides mobility, energy and retail ... read more
- Elon Musk is donating $100M to find the best carbon capture technologyElon Musk said Thursday via a tweet that he will donate $100 million toward a prize for the best carbon capture technology. Musk, who recently surpassed Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to become the world’s richest person, didn’t provide any more details except to add in an accompanying tweet the “details will ... read more
- Forsaking funding at a $1 billion valuation, Solugen preps a new green chemical product and a big 2021Late last year, Solugen, a startup using synthetic biology to take hydrocarbons out of the chemicals industry, decided against pursuing a new round of funding that would have valued the company at over $1 billion, TechCrunch has learned. Instead, the Houston-based bio-manufacturing company raised an internal round of roughly $30 ... read more
- Samsung’s upcycling program is designed to give new life to old techIn the world of annual refresh cycles, there’s always been a big question mark around what to do with all of the old tech we too readily abandon. There are a number of options for disposing and recycling these objects that often contain rare earth and sometimes harmful material. The ... read more
- SilviaTerra wants to bring the benefits of carbon offsets to every landowner everywhereZack Parisa and Max Nova, the co-founders of the carbon offset company SilviaTerra, have spent the last decade working on a way to democratize access to revenue-generating carbon offsets. As forestry credits become a big, booming business on the back of multibillion-dollar commitments from some of the world’s biggest companies ... read more
- Coral Vita cultivates $2M seed to take its reef restoration mission globalCoral reefs all over the world are struggling to survive, with millions of people and billions of dollars in business that rely on them at risk — on top of the fundamental tragedy of losing such a crucial ecosystem. Coral Vita aims to modernize both coral restoration techniques and ... read more
- What’s behind this year’s boom in climate tech SPACs?There’s no denying that 2020 has been the year of the special purpose acquisition company. Since the beginning of the year, 219 SPACs have raised $73 billion, according to widely reported market research from Goldman Sachs. That’s a 462% jump from 2019 and more than traditional public offerings raised by ... read more
- Klima publicly launches its consumer-focused carbon offset appAndreas Pursian, Markus Gilles and Jonas Brandau, the three co-founders of Klima, an app focused on helping consumers understand and offset their carbon emissions, first found entrepreneurial success at Hyper. The mobile magazine publishing toolkit they developed was sold to Mic in 2017, but it was only the most recent ... read more
- Sequoia picks its horse in the consumer carbon offset market, leading a $2.5 million round for JoroSanchali Pal first woke up to the world’s climate crisis after watching the 2008 documentary Food Inc. The Princeton undergraduate saw the film in 2011, and it started her on the journey that would lead her to launch Joro, the Sequoia-backed startup that monitors consumer spending to offer tips on ... read more
- Residential renewable energy developer Swell is raising $450 million for distributed power projects in three statesSwell Energy, an installer and manager of residential renewable energy, energy efficiency and storage technologies, is raising $450 million to finance the construction of four virtual power plants representing a massive amount of energy storage capacity paired with solar power generation. It’s a sign of the distributed nature of renewable ... read more
- With another $2.5 million in funding, Julia Collins’ Planet FWD launches climate-friendly snack brandPlanet FWD, the climate-friendly food startup founded by Zume co-founder Julia Collins, is today launching its first product, Moonshot Snacks. The climate-friendly snack is carbon neutral, organic, kosher, plant-based, non GMO and has no sugar added. The crackers come in three flavors: sourdough sea salt rosemary garlic and tomato basil. ... read more
- SunCulture wants to turn Africa into the world’s next bread basket, one solar water pump at a timeThe world’s food supply must double by the year 2050 to meet the demands of a growing population, according to a report from the United Nations. And as pressure mounts to find new crop land to support the growth, the world’s eyes are increasingly turning to the African continent as ... read more
- Can artificial intelligence give elephants a winning edge?Adam Benzion Contributor Share on Twitter Adam Benzion is a serial entrepreneur, writer, tech investor, co-founder of Hackster.io and the CXO of Edge Impulse. Images of elephants roaming the African plains are imprinted on all of ... read more
- How four European cities are embracing micromobility to drive out carsThe coronavirus pandemic is acting as a catalyst for urban transformation across Europe as city authorities grapple with how to manage urban mobility without risking citizens’ health or inviting gridlock by letting cars flood in. Micromobility and local commerce are being seen as both short and long-term solutions for urban ... read more
- Panasonic explores a European battery deal with Norway’s largest energy and industrial companiesPanasonic, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries, has signed a preliminary agreement with the Nordic energy company Equinor and engineering and industrial company Norsk Hydro to collaborate on building a battery business in Northern Europe. The three companies said that over the coming months they’ll work ... read more