Good Morning
What we’re reading this week:
The Greendicator
Top Deals of the Week
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Swedish EV startup Volta Trucks raised a $260M Series C at a $490M+ valuation led by Luxor Capital (TC)
Revel, a four-year-old, New York-based company that rents out bright blue electric mopeds, has raised $126 million in Series B funding led by Blackrock. (A)
Wildtype, a startup developing lab cultured salmon cells, raised a $100M Series B from L Catterton, Cargill, Leonardo DiCaprio, and more (TC)
H2scan, a hydrogen sensor company for electrical utilities, raised a $70M round led by LetterOne (BW)
Urent, a four-year-old, Moscow, Russia-based e-scooter and bike sharing service, has raised $27.8 million in funding led by Russia’s largest telecom firm, MTS (F)
LEKO Labs, an eight-year-old, Luxembourg-based carbon negative construction company that has developed wood-based building materials as an alternative to steel and concrete, just raised $21 million in Series A funding. The outfit 2150 led the round (TC)
Living Carbon, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based startup seeking to create fast-growing trees that can rapidly soak up atmospheric carbon, has raised $15 million from Lowercarbon Capital and others (LC). (You can sign up for their waitlist to get your very own!)
Vanilla Vida, a two-year-old, Ashdod, Israel-based outfit that's focused on growing vanilla beans in climate-controlled environments to meet the world's demand naturally (versus through synthetic alternatives), has raised $11.5 million in Series A funding led by Ordway Selections, with participation from FoodSparks. (TC).
Reusable packaging startup Returnity raised a $3.1M seed round led by Brand Foundry Ventures (TC)
Green Theory
For the Culture
In creating the spectacles that no one wants to see, animal rights campaigns have drawn criticism for their grotesque nature. The former Head of Public Campaigns at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) turned toward a different form of change-making. Today, instead of streaking, he takes on a new initiative: “to make alternative proteins accessible, affordable, and delicious” at the Good Food Institute. The non-profit, GFI, lays out a useful framework for three forms of alternative protein: plant-based, fermented, and cultured. Today, all three forms are pushed in climate tech as “clean meat” that could crush food-related emissions.
Plant-based Meat
Made from non-animal sources, plant-based meat presents the most common alternative stocking the shelves in 2022. From category disrupting titans Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, to more up-and-coming darlings such as Field Roast, these substitutes for meat are dramatically less expensive by money, land, and water, and combat the nightmare of antibiotic resistance threatening our health. Even major meat corporations recognize the benefits of sparing their animal “inputs”. While the next two forms of alternative protein claim similar benefits, they come with other complications, and have yet to scale.
Fermented Protein
Precision fermentation, whether proliferating fungi or bacteria, unlocks a whole new speed to growing proteins. From Prime Roots’ meat cuts to Perfect Day’s ice cream milk, these companies use bioreactors and angle toward the “real feel” of animal products with none of the sentient suffering, and (sometimes) nutritional benefits. Though still early in innovation and—in some cases—adoption, these innovators could replace items in shopping carts directly, or slip into food manufacturing (lowering your cholesterol, for instance) without you even noticing.
Cultured Meat
Also known as “lab-grown”, cultured meat is where things start to get wacky. As GFI explains, they take “minimally invasive” cell samples from living creatures to capture a starting blueprint. Then a “growth medium” replicates this blueprint and delivers, for instance, a whole cut of fish, from this week’s highlight, Wildtype. This sounds magical: take anything from shrimp to kangaroo cells, throw some medium in the mix, and presto! Why haven’t these products taken off?
The popular decries center around the current price point (as with many technologies, conveniently, theoretically solved with scale) and regulatory hurdles. One other piece of the puzzle might be that mysterious medium. Turns out, the most popular form of growth medium is Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)…and it’s exactly what the name entails. This serum from an unborn cow hardly qualifies as plant-based, let alone vegan. Even worse, it takes a lot of serum: one lab-grown burger requires roughly 100 cow pregnancies.
Ex-PETA-led GFI buries this detail deep in talk of cultured meat, and they explain that research for alternative growth mediums is underway. Further, they tout that many companies have “publicly stated” that they will not use FBS. Conveniently, companies can say a lot without revealing much. To date, few start-ups have proven the science of their animal-free alternative, while most cultured meat companies seem to avoid the topic.
Ser-ummmm
Regardless of how anyone thinks we ought to get there, a new food paradigm gets closer every day. PETA expresses clearly, “The only truly humane foods are vegan ones,” but even the closest-operating members of their organization have abandoned the no-harm party line for the promise of cultured meat technology. Hopefully, more and more companies will share FBS-free technology, and drive down costs, bringing cleaner, more-plant-based cultivated meat to the market. While plant-based and fermentation sidestep ethical roadblocks, lab-grown meat companies present their innovations as panaceas with regrettable challenges today, and reflect a tension that resonates through many climate solutions.
The Closer
“Unlike Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is dominated by micron-size dust aerosols, and the sky during sunset takes on a bluish glow.” From: Applied Optics Vol. 53, Issue 9
"Turns out, the most popular form of growth medium is Fetal Bovine Serum (FBS)…and it’s exactly what the name entails. This serum from an unborn cow hardly qualifies as plant-based, let alone vegan. Even worse, it takes a lot of serum: one lab-grown burger requires roughly 100 cow pregnancies."
Didn't know this, but that's crazy crazy.