Green Bite 5.28.21
The week Pope Francis got an electric popemobile
One Big Thing to Chew On
Ford launched its electric F150. This is a huge deal: the F150 is the most popular car in the US. They’ve already received 70k+ reservations and expect 40% of its sales will be EVs by 2030. Check out a review here.
Greentech Updates by Category
Transportation
Electric popemobile. Pope Francis has actually written some great environmental lit.
Virtuo, a Paris-based car sharing concept startup, raises a $96M Series C, led by Axa Ventures. They plan to reduce idle cars on the road and hit 50% fleet electrification by 2030. (TC)
WeaveGrid, a three-year-old, San Francisco-based developer of electrification software designed to connect electric vehicles to the grid and to do it in a way that makes it cheaper and safer for utilities to support their use, has raised $15 million in Series A funding. Coatue led the round, joined by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, The Westly Group and Grok Ventures. More here.
Electric aviation startup Beta Technologies closed a $368 million Series A funding round with investments from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund. The new capital is the second round of funding announced by the company this year, after the company raised $143 million in private capital in March. Beta’s valuation is now at $1.4 billion, putting it in a small circle of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) unicorns
Fisker is building an electric popemobile: "An all-electric papal transport will provide the first exhaust-free and emissions-free experience for those gathered for blessings by His Holiness," the company said in a release.
Consumer Goods
Oatly Group, a Norwegian maker of oat milk, raised roughly $1.4 billion in an IPO of 84.4 million shares (23% insider sold) priced at $17 apiece. Blackstone backs the firm.
VlyFoods, a three-year-old, Berlin, Germany-based maker of pea milk, has raised €6.1 million in funding led by Five Seasons Ventures, with participation from Global Founders Capital and Good Seed Ventures. More here.
Bowery Farms, an agtech vertical farming startup based in NYC, raised a $300 million Series C led by Fidelity (TC)
Energy & Infrastructure
Aurora Solar, an eight-year-old, San Francisco-based solar panel installation startup, has raised $250 million in Series C funding led by Coatue, with participation from earlier backers Iconiq, Energize Ventures and Fifth Wall Ventures. TechCrunch has more here.
Zap Energy, a Seattle-based fusion energy company, raised $27.5 million in Series B funding. Addition, led the round and was joined by investors including Energy Impact Partners, GA Capital and Fourth Realm, as well as existing investors Chevron Technology Ventures and LowerCarbon Capital.
TWAICE, a German battery analytics software company, raised $26 million in Series B funding. Energize Ventures led the round.
Gridware, a startup striving to save power grids from climate change, raised a $5.3M led by True Ventures and Fifty Years (TC)
Emitwise, a startup building a greenhouse gas emissions platform, raised a $3.2M seed extension led by ArcTernVentures (TC)
Finance
Ethereum closes in on long-sought fix to cut energy use over 99% (BBG)
Altruist, a three-year-old, L.A.-based digital platform for registered investment advisors, has raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from earlier backer Venrock and the financial service giant Vanguard. More here.
The “Not Business But Still Good Content” Section
Carbon offsets are a really popular way for people and businesses to feel like they’re carbon neutral while still creating lots of emissions. Do they work? One of my favorite podcasts, Planet Money, explores this question further in a recent episode. I think it’s worth a listen.