Robotic waste management, sustainable chocolate derived from precision fermentation, and a cloud-computing platform to curtail methane flares: Recent Deals worth looking at
Agriculture & Food
Planet A Foods (2022) develops sustainable chocolate products using precision fermentation. Its production method that avoids deforestation and localizes ingredient sourcing results in a carbon footprint that is 80% lower than conventional cocoa production.
Planet A Foods raised $30M in Series B funding on December 5th co-led by Burda Principal Investments and Zinitus. Investors AgriFoodTech Venture Alliance, Bayern Kapital, Cherry Ventures, Omnes Capital, Tengelmann Ventures, and World Fund also participated in the round.
Funds will be deployed to scale its production capacity by around 7.5x. Currently, Planet A Foods is producing 2,000 tons of its ChoViva alternative per year. Planet A plans to increase production capacity to over 15,000 tons as it expands beyond Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, with UK and France launches planned for Q1 2025 as well as a U.S. production facility. The round will also support further R&D into an alternative for cocoa butter.
Energy & Power
Nanoramic (2010) develops ultracapacitor technologies for automotive and utility/grid-scale applications. Their proprietary carbon nanotube electrode technology has enabled performance improvement in its cells when compared with commercially available ultracapacitors.
On December 12th, Nanoramic raised $44M in funding co-led by GM Ventures and Catalus Capital with participation from Samsung Ventures and Top Material. Existing investors including Fortistar and WindSail Capital Group also participated in the round.
The investment will support commercialization of its Neocarbonix® technology across a broad range of industries and applications. Nanoramic intends to bring this transformative technology to market through its strategic partnerships with notable automotive OEMs, consumer electronics companies, and battery manufacturers.
Materials & Chemicals
Illumion (2022) provides benchtop, drop-in solutions for battery testing and development. Their technology, Charge Photometry, uses optical imaging to visualize battery materials during charging and discharging in real time.
Illumion’s December 5th round raised $2.6M in Seed funding. The round was led by Foresight Ventures and saw participation from Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Parkwalk Advisors, and Cambridge Angels. Andy Bloxam, Managing Director at Foresight’s Ventures, will join the Board as a non-executive Director through this investment.
The investment will be used to expand its team, develop advanced analytical software, and pursue new market opportunities. Illumion spun-out of Cambridge University in 2022 and continues to build on its founders’ research at the Cavendish Laboratory.
Resources & Environmental Management
Crusoe Energy Systems (2018) develops a carbon-negative and low carbon cloud computing platform powered by stranded energy such as flare gas and curtailed renewables.
Crusoe Energy Systems raised a $600M Growth Equity funding round on December 12th led by Founders Fund, with participation from Fidelity, Long Journey Ventures, Mubadala, NVIDIA, Ribbit Capital, and Valor Equity Partners.
The megadeal will be put towards fuelling the company’s expansion, including supporting data center development that will be used for customers including Oracle and Microsoft. It will also be used to develop its Crusoe cloud platform.
Transportation & Logistics
Zitara Technologies (2021) develops software that uses deep learning, and time fleet management solutions to improve lithium battery safety and longevity for enterprise customers.
On December 5th, Zitara raised a $17M Series A round led by Salesforce Ventures. Investors Emerson Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, Energy Impact Partners, and Climate Capital also participated in the round.
The funding will be used to deepen relationships and business development efforts with customers, strengthen partnerships with battery manufacturers and system integrators, and expand engineering capabilities to accelerate product development, and enhance AI and machine learning capabilities for more advanced battery optimization.
Waste and Recycling
AMP Robotics (2015) develops waste sorting AI-guided robotics, computer vision, and deep learning to transform the economics of recycling. Their robotics processes high volumes of recyclables, while preventing material contamination for resale in the circular economy.
AMP’s December 5th Growth Equity round raised $91M. The round was led by Congruent Ventures, Tao Capital Partners, Range Ventures, Wellington Management, California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), Liberty Mutual Investments, Blue Earth Capital, XN Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.
AMP will use the latest funding to accelerate the deployment of its AMP ONE™ systems, which are capable of cost-effectively sorting municipal solid waste (MSW), as demonstrated by the first-of-its-kind system AMP operates in Portsmouth, Virginia.
