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☆ A Porsche-backed startup is building a massive battery recycling plant to boost Europe's EV industry
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-09 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A massive battery recycling plant is being built in Germany by Cylib, a startup looking to reduce waste from EV batteries that have reached the end of their life. Cylib says its facility will be the largest end-to-end lithium-ion battery recycling facility in Europe. Cylib said the new plant would primarily serve automotive, battery manufacturing and chemicals clients. “Cylib reaching industrial scale production will be a key driver in building a robust European battery infrastructure,” Schwich said in a press statement. “Battery recycling is pioneering the circular economy, proving that economic success is compatible with reduced environmental impact,” she added.

Persons: Cylib, Lilian Schwich, Gideon Schwich, Paul Sabarny, “, ” Schwich Organizations: Cylib, EV, Porsche, Bosch, Hydro, CNBC, European Union, World Fund, Porsche Ventures, Climate Fonds Locations: Germany, Dormagen, North Rhine, Westphalia, Europe, Norway, Hydrovolt, Chempark

☆ Early Facebook investor Accel raises $650 million fund to back European and Israeli startups
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

AccelVenture capital firm Accel said Tuesday it's raised $650 million for its eighth fund targeted at investing in European and Israeli early-stage startups, in a sign the venture capital market may be showing signs of a recovery. "The environment has dramatically changed since then," Nelis told CNBC. Climate-focused VC firm World Fund closed a 300 million euro fund in March. "We're lucky that with DeepMind here in London and with Fair [Facebook AI Research] in Paris, there's at least two big centers that have great AI expertise," Nelis told CNBC. "My expectation is Europe is going to generate some really interesting AI application companies," Nelis told CNBC.

Persons: Harry Nelis, Sonali de Rycker, Andrei Brasoveanu, Luca Bocchio, Philippe Botteri, it's, Nelis, UiPath, Russia's, Wise, Magnus Grimeland, Grimeland, there's, Victor Riparbelli, Synthesia, Riparbelli Organizations: Accel, Accel Venture, Spotify, CNBC, Skype, U.S, Nvidia Locations: Europe, Israel, Lithuania, Romania, Ukraine, New York, U.S, London, Paris, Synthesia

☆ Electrification could overwhelm energy grids. Startups are betting on AI to make sure that doesn't happen
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Today's energy grids are unable to keep up with the intense demand being heaped upon them. Globally, energy projects struggle to overcome permitting hurdles. Making smart grids a realityData was transmitted across a national energy grid for the first time in 2016. Startups selling them are hoping to alleviate pressure from physical grid infrastructure and allow operators to do more with the infrastructure they have. Victoria McIvor, an advisor to energy startups who was formerly an investor at the European climatetech firm World Fund, imagines a future where energy tariffs dictate when energy-intensive appliances run.

Persons: Rajesh Swaminathan, it's, Andrés Dancausa, Dancausa, Swaminathan, Victoria McIvor, Timothy Barat, Barat, Duncan Turner, SOSV, Turner, McIvor Organizations: Infrastructure, Service, International Energy Agency, Paris, Investors, Khosla Ventures, US Department of Energy, Fund, Octopus Energy, Continuum Industries, Software Locations: Europe, Ukraine, Portuguese, Amsterdam, California, London, VCs, Scottish

☆ Smaller climate startups face 'valley of death' as funding freezes up. This VC just raised $325 million to help
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-21 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Venture capital firm World Fund said Friday it's closed a 300 million euro ($325 million) fund to back startups tackling climate change. World Fund, a European climate technology investor incubated by the environment-conscious search engine Ecosia, said it had raised the cash despite a challenging environment for technology investing — and, in particular, climate technology investing. Investors have reeled from riskier tech-related bets after a jump in inflation and interest rates, which has surged dramatically since the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. Central banks have hiked rates to stem inflation, which has in turn soured investor sentiment toward tech. "They've been like, sorry this is too much, you can't raise 300 million plus," Višević told CNBC.

Persons: Višević, They've Organizations: World, Silicon Valley Bank, CNBC, Private Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Central, Silicon

☆ Fungi-based meat alternative startup Enough, founded by a former Quorn boss, just raised $43.5 million with this 16-slide pitch deck
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Fungi-based food startup Enough just secured $43.5 million (40 million euros) in growth funding. Glasgow-based Enough, founded in 2015, ferments fungi to create an alternative to animal-based meat known as mycoprotein. Its neutral flavor and meaty texture mean it can be used to create a range of plant-based meat, fish, and dairy products. The plant-based meat industry has stagnated in recent years with the likes of Beyond Meat reporting lower sales and Meatless Farm going into administration. For example, one in five Burger King Whoppers sold in Germany is plant–based while plant-based startup This was recently named the fastest-growing food brand in the UK.

Persons: Jim Laird, he's, Laird, Whoppers, Beef Organizations: World Fund, Burger, Unilever, British, Capital, European, CPT Capital Locations: Scottish, Quorn, Glasgow, Germany, soya, Netherlands

☆ Food tech company ENOUGH raises 40 million euros
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-20 | by ( Sudip Kar-Gupta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Other participants in the fund-raising for Britain- and Netherlands-based ENOUGH included existing investors such as AXA IM Alts (AXAF.PA) and the Olympic Investments company of the Onassis shipping family. "ENOUGH has made great strides in the past few years to launch our new factory in the Netherlands and scale up to work with customers across the UK and Europe," said CEO Jim Laird, a former chief executive of plant-based meat producer Quorn. Companies involved in producing alternative-sources of meat and protein say they are helping in the battle to protect the climate, since meat from a laboratory has less impact on the environment than traditional farming. Nevertheless, there are signs that consumers' demand for plant-based meat may be waning, with Beyond Meat cutting its annual revenue forecast earlier this month. ($1 = 0.9194 euro)Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Kirsten DonovanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Alts, Onassis, Spencer, Jim Laird, Quorn, Sudip Kar, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: World Fund, CPT Capital AXA, Investments, Unilever, Food, CPT, Foods, Britain, AXA, Alts, Olympic Investments, Companies, Thomson Locations: BRUSSELS, Netherlands, Europe

☆ This winning fund puts a spin on emerging markets investing with bets from Nvidia to Chinese spirits
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-28 | by ( Yun Li | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Artisan Developing World Fund (ARTYX) is crushing the market this year by tilting the traditional investing principles in emerging markets. "These are companies that are based in developed markets but economically tied to emerging markets," Kaufman said in an interview. By domicile, Artisan Developing World Fund has just 57% of its portfolio in emerging markets. However, the emerging markets exposure should rise to 70% when looking at the economic exposure by revenue, Kaufman said. Other than those passport companies, the fund also invests in a slew of companies domiciled in emerging markets.

☆ Saturna Capital's 3 stock funds are all out-earning their competitors while sticking to Islamic investing rules. Its managers told us how the combination works.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Saturna follows Islamic rules, which also prohibit speculation and profiting from interest. The firm's Amana Income fund is the fourth-best US large company stock fund over the 12 months that ended March 31, according to Kiplinger. The firm's Developing World Fund has out-returned 92% of competing funds over the last five years. Scott Klimo is the chief investment officer and co-manages three stock funds for Saturna Capital. Buying an unprofitable or high-priced growth stock and hoping it goes on a rocket ride is not.

☆ Prescient bets by the likes of Shaquille O'Neal and Serena Williams have triggered an explosion in tech investing among Europe's sports stars
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

European sports stars are following US counterparts, such as Shaquille O'Neal, in betting on tech. O'Neal, who also made early bets on Google and Lyft, has shown how sports stars can become successful venture capitalists once their playing careers end. He's not alone in the US, with the football star Tom Brady and the basketball stars LeBron James and Steph Curry all actively investing in tech. The tennis legend Serena Williams went a step further and set up her own fund, Serena Ventures. Shaquille O'Neal has proven to be a shrewd tech investor with early bets on Ring, Google, and Lyft.

☆ VC firms create $60 billion-plus climate tech alliance with backing from the UN
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A group of venture capital firms including Tiger Global and Union Square Ventures on Tuesday set up an alliance aimed at making private tech investing more climate-friendly. Called the Venture Climate Alliance (VCA), the coalition of more than 20 climate tech and generalist funds seeks to get the VC industry to increase its commitments to climate tech, a branch of technology devoted to finding solutions to the climate crisis. Generalist VC firms will need to make routine assessments of their carbon footprint, align their early-stage startup bets with net-zero goals. It is not the first initiative to bring climate's role in startup investing to the forefront. The alliance will fall under the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), a group formed during the COP26 climate conference.

☆ Corporations desperate to avoid poor quality carbon credits and are starting up their own climate funds to offset emissions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The voluntary carbon market has a problem with bad quality carbon credits. "Headline after headline is published exposing these offsets for poor quality," Michelle You, CEO and cofounder of carbon removal platform Supercritical told Insider. The London Stock Exchange has also done this for investors - instead of getting dividends, they get carbon credits. He expects bespoke funds will phase out when the quality of carbon credits is better assured. Frontier Fund has brought widespread attention to the carbon removal space and sends critical demand signals to early carbon removal companies, Supercritical's You said.

☆ The $322 billion impact investment market is grappling with a fundamental question: How does it measure how much good it has achieved?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Global impact funds now have over $322 billion in assets under management, PitchBook data shows. Matteo Cera, cofounder at Hogaru, Maria Oliva Farriol of Oryx Impact, and moderator Marta del Castillo, CEO of Social Next. Tasmin Lockwood/InsiderSocial impact measurement is all about the baseline, said Maria Oliva Farriol, impact and ESG manager at Oryx Impact. Oryx Impact is a Barcelona-based fund of funds focused on economic development, climate change, and equality in Africa. To avoid this, Oryx Impact is taking advantage of technology to digitize its impact measurement and management strategy.

☆ This startup is taking on Tesla with its integrated solar roof tiles. SunRoof used this 9-slide pitch deck to raise $14.6 million from investors.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Tasmin Lockwood | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Solar panel startup SunRoof just raised 13.5 million euros (around $14.6 million) in fresh funds. The Swedish company, founded in 2013, is taking on Tesla's Solar Roof energy system. We got an exclusive look at the 9-slide pitch deck SunRoof used to raise the extension round. A startup taking on Tesla's Solar Roof has just raised a 13.5 million euros (around $14.6 million) extension round to fuel its growth. Swedish company SunRoof provides integrated solar roof tiles to offer homeowners as a slick alternative to mounted solar panels, which it claims are also more efficient and environmentally friendly than those of its competitors.

☆ China is rolling back much of its Covid controls. That could spell a buying opportunity for these stocks
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

A reopening in the world's second-largest economy could spell a buying opportunity for investors as China unwinds much of its Covid restrictions. Investors have taken the recent developments as a signal to start snapping up China equities. What's more, they say that Chinese equities are cheap on a historical basis, and cheap compared to their emerging market peers. This month, Morgan Stanley said that Chinese equities have a "steep climb" after their underperformance during the pandemic. Yum China is the fourth-largest position in the Thornburg Developing World Fund (THDAX) , which has a roughly 29% allocation to China.

☆ Peter Thiel's VC fund backs TreeCard, a fintech that plants trees when you spend
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

TreeCard offers users a spending and money management platform tied to a debit card made from wood. TreeCardTreeCard, a climate-conscious digital money app, raised $23 million from investors in a new financing round. Though based in the U.K., TreeCard chose the U.S. as its launch market. The TreeCard app includes a game that lets users visualize how many trees their activity has helped produce. TreeCard offers clients up to 3% of annualized interest on their deposits, a feature it offers through third-party vendors.

☆ Patagonia's charitable change will inspire founders. We spoke to 8 VCs about how startups can create their own climate change legacy.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-16 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | Tasmin Lockwood | Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard said he was giving away his $3 billion company to fight climate change. Insider spoke to 8 VCs about how hard it is for founders to follow suit and what they can do instead. "Instead of 'going public', you could say we're 'going purpose'," Chouinard wrote. Insider spoke to eight investors to find out why venture capital-backed startups would struggle to replicate Patagonia's model and what they could do instead. This means founders need to be active at an early stage in deciding what to do with their business.

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