We take a closer look at some of Europe’s emerging climate-tech start-ups trying to make the Earth a little more green.
With the climate crisis getting worse by the day and governments across the world racing to curb it with a host of promises and policies, there are plenty of tech tools being developed that could help.
In Europe, which has set strict environmental goals, climate-tech start-ups are innovating at an accelerated pace to enable us to reduce our impact on the world around us.
Here, we look at 11 European start-ups attracting interest from investors and finding new ways to help businesses and governments fight the climate crisis with technology.
Altruistiq
London-based Altruistiq is a SaaS platform that is helping large and complex enterprises to automate sustainability data measurement, management and exchange. It aims to help companies with accurate data reporting, supply chain integration and, ultimately, carbon emissions reduction.
The climate-tech start-up raised £15m in a July seed funding round led by Molten Ventures and backed by Norrsken, Greg Jackson, Mudassir Sheikha, Ian Cheshire, Nicolaj Resstruf and Siraj Khaliq, among others.
Anaphite
Riding on a wave of interest in EVs globally, this Bristol-based start-up is developing new technologies to improve the performance of EV batteries. By incorporating graphene into the core battery electrode materials that store energy, Anaphite aims to prolong battery life, improve charging speed, reduce emissions and lower production costs.
Last week, the start-up announced that it raised £4.1m in a seed round to help EV manufacturers overcome key commercial barriers.
Blue World Technologies
Recently backed by Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Blue World Technologies is on a mission to industrialise methanol fuel cell technology through R&D and large-scale production. Methanol fuel cells act as an alternative to fossil fuel-based combustion engines.
Based in Aalborg, Denmark, this start-up has raised €37m in its Series B round.
Clean Food Group
It is no secret that palm oil, ubiquitous in many packaged food items today, is contributing to deforestation. UK-based Clean Food Group is on a mission to curb its production by developing a more sustainable alternative using yeast. The technology behind its lab-grown cellular-based alternative was developed at the University of Bath over a period of eight years.
Last month, the food-tech announced it raised €1.96m in a seed round led by Agronomics to bring its tech to the market.
Datia
Datia is a Swedish fintech that aims to help investors transition to sustainable finance. It has developed a platform that performs sustainability calculations for hundreds of data points, such as carbon footprint, gender pay gap and energy usage on companies and funds. Working with asset managers, wealth advisers and platforms, it measures the impact of portfolios, regulatory reporting and screening.
Launched in 2020, the platform has bagged some big Swedish clients including Spiltan Fonder, Alcur Fonder and Atlant Fonder – bringing assets under management to more than $100bn. It raised $3.4m in a seed funding round in June led by Nauta Capital.
Dryad
Wildfires are one of the most destructive outcomes of the climate crisis and early detection is key to preventing substantial damage. German start-up Dryad aims to solve this problem with its solar-powered environmental sensor technology. Over two years, the climate-tech start-up developed an end-to-end wildfire detection and forest monitoring system called Silvanet, which uses low-cost sensors and a cloud analytics platform.
Last week, the company announced that it had raised €10.5m in a Series A funding round led by eCapital and backed by Toba Capital, Semtech and Salesforce co-CEO Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures.
Talam Biotech
An IT Carlow spin-out, Talam Biotech was previously known as MicroGen Biotech. It develops microbiome technology that can block the uptake of heavy metals by crops growing on contaminated land. Talam achieves this by working directly on the soil to break down pollutants and support the growth of good bacteria to restore sites to fertile land.
The Business Post reported in May that the start-up was in the process of raising €4.8m in a new round that would brings its total funding to date to more than €12m. Established in 2012, it raised €3.47m in a May 2020 funding round.
Normative
Normative is another Swedish climate-tech start-up. It has developed a carbon accounting engine to provide companies with accurate data on their supply chains to measure and reduce emissions. Powered by its emissions database, the company aims to set a new standard in scientific accuracy for emissions accounting. It has partnerships with several climate crisis organisations, including the UN.
The company announced a raise of €31m in a Series B funding round in July to expand its service.
QLM Technology
This Cardiff-headquartered photonics start-up is on a mission to accurately quantify greenhouse gas emissions using a new type of lidar camera based on quantum technology. Its gas imager enables customers to monitor, detect and accurately locate and quantify greenhouse gas emission sources for rapid repair.
QLM announced last month that it raised £12m in a Series A funding round led by Schlumberger, a US energy and oilfield services company.
Thorizon
Amsterdam-based Thorizon is a start-up working towards developing a new generation of nuclear power plants. Led by founder Lucas Pool, it is advancing a molten salt reactor that will use long-lived waste in combination with the abundant metal thorium as fuel. A spin-off of the Dutch Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, Thorizon claims that the reactor is capable of making an important contribution to virtually inexhaustible and CO2-free energy supply.
Thorizon recently raised €12.5m in funding led by Positron Ventures and Impuls Zeeland to further develop its reactors and perform essential tests.
Viotas
Formerly known as Electricity Exchange, Viotas is a smart grid technology company that enables more renewable energy to be used on the grid. Founded in 2013 by Paddy Finn and Duncan O’Toole and now a joint venture with Bord na Móna, its technology allows clients to get paid for participating in demand response services, supporting national power grids in times of need.
The Irish company opened its first international office in Melbourne in 2020 and announced new jobs in Limerick.
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