Good Morning
Deal szn is back in full swing after a holiday lull. We’re back to a dozen+ raises a week. Don’t miss checking out the Eph-founded Green Project Technologies raise.
Headline roundup:
Biden’s administration does a lot - short of successfully passing a Green New Deal… - to support climate change initiatives:
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
![MycoWorks MycoWorks](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F1dc609a9-9c82-4fb6-b3d1-00174ea03834_730x409.jpeg)
The solid-state battery startup Factorial Energy this morning announced it had raised $200 million in a Series D funding round led by auto giants Mercedes and Stellantis. (AN)
MycoWorks, a nine-year-old, Emeryville, Ca.-based developer of fungi-based biomaterials that can be used a leather alternative, raised $125 million in Series C funding. Prime Movers Lab led the round (TC)
Ather Energy, a nine-year-old, Bangalore, India-based maker of electric scooters, has raised $56.7 million in funding from the Indian two-wheeler vehicle maker Hero Motocorp (R )
Parallel Systems, a two-year-old, L.A.-based startup that was founded by three former SpaceX engineers who want to make self-powered electric freight train cars, has raised $50 million in Series A funding led by Anthos Capital (CNBC)
Fermata Energy, a 12-year-old, Charlottesville, Va.-based maker of vehicle-to-grid bidirectional chargers that turn electric vehicles into energy storage assets, just raised $40 million in funding, including from funds managed by Carlyle and Verizon Ventures. (TC)
Boston-based Colossus, a software and service provider that helps solar companies expand their customer base, raised $36 million in Series A funding led by BuildGroup.
Submer, a Spain-based startup with cooling tech designed to significantly cut energy consumption at data centers, raises $34M led by Planet First Partners
Ubiquitous Energy, an 11-year-old, Redwood City, Ca.-based company that makes solar cells and windows for commercial buildings, raised $30 million in Series B funding from investors (BW)
London-based Vertical Future, a vertical farming startup, announced a nearly $29 million Series A round from backers including Pula Investments
Electra, a startup developing hybrid-electric regional and urban planes that require only a very short takeoff and landing distance — think building roofs, soccer fields and parking lots, they say – raised an undisclosed-amount Series A led by Lockheed Martin’s VC fund (PRN)
EVage, an eight-year-old, Chandigarh, India-based maker of commercial electric vehicle trucks that are already being used by a range of e-commerce companies, just raised $28 million in seed funding led by RedBlue Capital. (TC)
Plant-based omega-3 protein products producer Qualitas Health received a $8M investment from GP Capital Partners (PRN)
Botanical Solution, a startup focused on the sustainable production of agricultural & pharmaceutical materials, raised a $6.1M Series A led by Otter Capital (BW)
HeyCharge, a nearly two-year-old, Munich, Germany-based startup that's retrofitting apartment buildings across Europe so they can feature electric vehicle charging stations, has raised $4.7 million in seed funding led by BMW I Ventures. (TC)
Aigen, a company developing a scalable, solar-powered robotics platform for agriculture and soil regeneration, today announced a $4M seed round led by NEA (PRN)
Green Project Technologies, an Eph-founded(!), NYC-based SaaS-based ESG accounting platform serving private markets and supply chains, closes over $1.8mm in Seed Funding led by Blue Collective (PRN)
Plant-based hair extensions startup Rebundle, which uses banana fiber as a core material, raised a $1.4M pre-seed round led by M25 (TC)
Green Theory
Shaping Change
Last week we talked about the high rates of climate despair and the need to harness that feeling for change. As aptly explained in-context by Katharine Hayhoe in Saving Us (and in this interview, for a perspective beyond climate), despair pulls up to a dead-end, whereas hope holds the seeds for positive change.
There’s no opting out of the powerful changes facing the world–colorfully captured for Californians by Elizabeth Weil. We can, however, in Octavia Butler’s words, “Alter the speed, or the direction of change...vary the scope of change,” even in the face of chaos. From personal to societal, imagination defines the limits of what we deem possible. Envisioning the future on an international scale, Peter Newell breaks down the political economy of climate change. Broadening and sharpening our imaginations rewards creativity, curiosity, and joy–the inspiration for change can come from anywhere.
At the same time, when it comes to heavily funded, unproven technology, we must be careful to separate hype from promise. Energy Vault–a firm we covered that pitched a 6-arm crane to stack concrete blocks and store energy–recently pivoted dramatically. Critiques of the initial design make a lot of sense in retrospect, and stand as a reminder to question these solutions and go deeper.
Closer to home, whether you’re reading futuristic fiction, or leveraging the power of small numbers of people in local politics, every act makes a difference. Just dreaming of a composting program for your building in Nebraska may take more determination than the ease of tossing food scraps in SF these days, but it’s still essential to the cause. Rather than throw up our hands and ensure the “inevitable,” we can try to influence at the margin with our words and choices. If it has no effect on the greater world, striving for a more just, habitable future surely shapes us. As Butler’s central words on change explain: “All that you touch, you change. All that you change, changes you.”
The Closer
Worth a scroll-through