Here’s the problem: the planet is burning, and there’s not much we can do about it. Forests are in peril not just because of the ravages of climate change, but because the industries that support them remain traditional and under-resourced. Mast Reforestation is building a tech-forward forest-as-a-service company that vastly simplifies and accelerates the process of restoring lands lost to wildfires. The company sprouted, as it were, from DroneSeed, which was pioneering new methods of analyzing forests and planting seeds as a sort of remedial precision agriculture. What they found was that alt ..read more

The real estate industry is a bit of a greenhouse gas powerhouse, responsible for 40% of all global emissions. A quarter of that comes from building materials, and Tangible has had enough. The company is building a tool for finding, managing and reporting on lower-carbon, more sustainable, building materials, and just closed a $3 million seed round to fulfill that mission. Tangible today announced it has raised $3 million in seed funding. The round was led by early-stage construction tech investor Foundamental, and Fifty Years (which led the company’s previously undisclosed pre-seed round ..read more

Historically, the Black community in the U.S. has been disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change. Relegated for decades to a vulnerable economic and social class, the community is nearly always at risk of facing the brunt of natural disasters, no matter where they occur. This issue has inspired many Black founders and investors to enter the climate space, given that the conversation of today’s current crisis is led by white people and is hence missing some key perspectives. “It’s crucial we see more Black investors and creators tackling climate change because the battle agai ..read more

Last year, Americans bought more heat pumps than gas furnaces, a striking split that’s likely to widen in the coming years as consumer awareness and climate regulations foster their uptake. Heat pumps are already widely used to cool homes across the Southeast, and they’re making inroads in the Northeast and Midwest, where consumers are warming to the concept of using one device for both heating and cooling. But despite their growing appeal, not all consumers are sold on the idea. Some find the technology unfamiliar; others find it unattractive to look at. Quilt hopes its product can tip the sc ..read more

The venture community has realized several things in recent years: Climate change isn’t going away, and there is a huge opportunity to invest in companies that promise to define entire segments of the future economy. With a few hiccups along the way, venture dollars have begun to flow with increasing volume and regularity to climate tech startups over the last few years. That capital is adding up; since the start of 2021, climate tech startups have raised $88 billion, according to PitchBook data. The sector’s potential is practically limitless: the problems presented by climate change will be ..read more

Sweden-based VC fund Pale Blue Dot bounced onto the scene in 2020 with a €53 million fund to help climate-focused startups. This fund grew again by €34 million in April 2021, and after deploying investments into 28 climate-forward companies, the investor this week announced it has officially closed its second fund. This one is valued at €93 million (approximately $101 million at today’s valuation), with the same thesis in mind: to support climate tech-oriented startups. European VC firm Pale Blue Dot plans to fund 40 ‘planet-positive’ startups Founded by general partners Joel Larsson, Hei ..read more

Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof is refreshing its entry-level lineup with a pair of new bikes available in some very springy colors. The X4 and S4, out this month, retain the frame and philosophy of VanMoof’s previous X3 and S3 e-bikes while trimming some of the complexities that made those models notably high-tech but less reliable for some riders. Gone is the Matrix display, the impressive screen on the bike’s top tube that displayed critical info like speed and battery levels. The X4 and S4 swap that display, which was well-loved though arguably excessive for this price tier, with a spartan phon ..read more

Dutch social enterprise Fairphone is best known for its mission to build ethical smartphones via a brand that promises fairer wages for supply chain workers and design choices that encourage consumers to cherish and repair the hardware rather than toss last year’s model thanks to modularity and a web shop selling replacement (and upgradeable) spare parts. Today it’s taking the leap into a new device category — applying the same principled approach to shipping the most sustainable and fair consumer electronics it can, within limits imposed by wider industry practices which set the availability ..read more

Wingcopter, a startup out of Germany that has made a name for itself in the world of delivery drones used primarily for delivery of medicine and other goods to remote areas, has picked up some more financing to expand its business. The European Investment Bank is putting €40 million (close to $44 million) into the startup, funding that it will use in two areas: further developing its hardware line; and to kick off a new business in logistics and delivery services, anchored by a fleet of its drones. The funding is being described as “quasi-equity” — and it’s a common approach taken by the EIB ..read more

Last year, climate tech seemed to be invincible while the venture capital and startup worlds were fretting about a downturn and scrambling to conserve cash. Climate tech investors and founders in 2022 may not have hit the heights of 2021 but they didn’t drop off a cliff either. In the first quarter of the year, we started to see cracks in the firewall that separates climate tech from the broader tech industry: The space saw a decline of more than a third in both the number of deals and money invested compared with a year earlier. Still, there are plenty of possible reasons why the sector’s sud ..read more