Cleantech Group

The April edition of Cleantech Perspectives, Cleantech Group's monthly newsletter, has landed on LinkedIn & in inboxes. Here's what you'll find inside... 🌾 How China and the EU plan to foster food security 🇧🇷 Why Brazil is counting on technology parks to catalyze innovation ✴️ The AI boom driving renewed growth in fusion (via WaterToday.ca) 🎙️ Interview: Ardent's Erica Nemser on point source carbon capture 🌆 How climate-resilient infrastructure can address urban heat islands 🚢 Bridging the market gap in maritime e-fuels 🧪 The latest in PFAS destruction tech For timely insights into sustainability-focused innovation delivered straight to your inbox each month, sign up at https://lnkd.in/gBcbKpv8 #cleantech #climatetech

Recap of top activity in Materials & Chemicals cleantech this week (April 11, 2025): 👉 Swedish Algae Factory raised $3.2M from Chalmers Ventures to scale the production of its microalgae-based solutions for solar materials and cosmetics. 👉 Living Ink Technologies raised $3M from an undisclosed investor to scale its algae-based inks, Algae Black. It also aims integrate new biomass feedstocks for its inks. 📈 TREND ALERT: algae-derived solutions are gaining momentum, especially in food packaging applications. Perhaps most popular is algae being used for livestock feed and even for water/air purification. 👉 Vimano's membranes for clean energy systems raised a $2.9M Seed funding from Ankur Capital. It will continue to develop its membranes for integration in batteries, fuel cells, and electrolyzers. 👉 Nuada raised $2.7M from the EIC - European Innovation Council to scale its Metal-Organic-Framework (MOF)-based carbon capture solution to capture at the point of emissions. 👉 LG Chem purchased 300,000 battery separator films from SK IE TECHNOLOGY. LG's JV with General Motors, Ultium Cells, will use the films as part of its production to manufacture batteries for EVs. 👉 INEOS sold off INEOS Composites for $1.84B to KPS Capital Partners. 👉 SERI Industrial Spa raised $169.6M from SACE, UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo, BNL BNP Paribas, and CDP Cassa Depositi e Prestiti. Funding will be used to expand its gigafactory production line of lithium cells and batteries in Italy. #cleantech #algae #ink #membranes #batteries #lithium #composites Cleantech Group Image credit: Vimano (L-Nagesh Kini, CTO; R-Murari Ramkumar, CEO)

🤔Is there a better way to store carbon? 🪨The leading innovation is to mineralize carbon where CO2 is stored as a solid whether underground (Greenore) or as a building material (Carbon Upcycling Technologies, and Carbon Clean). This completely eliminates the leakage issues associated with supercritical fluids. “We’ve got all these great solutions capturing carbon, typically from air or industrial emitters. But capture is only half of the problem. What do we do with all that captured carbon?” --Buff Lopez Check out my latest interview with Suzanne Forcese at WaterToday: 👉 https://lnkd.in/epWFSB3D #cleantech #carbon

Excited to share the 2025 edition of the APAC Cleantech 25 🌏 🌱 This annual list spotlights 25 standout private companies from the Asia-Pacific region that are driving innovation in resource efficiency and ecological sustainability. Selected by Cleantech Group in collaboration with an external panel of industry experts, these companies show exceptional potential to make a significant impact over the next 5 to 10 years. Supported by ADB Ventures, the APAC Cleantech 25 spans all our key verticals - Agriculture & Food, Energy & Power, Materials & Chemicals, Resources & Environmental Management, Transportation & Logistics, and Waste & Recycling - with startups represented from across the region: 🇦🇺🇨🇳🇭🇰🇮🇳🇯🇵🇲🇾🇳🇿🇸🇬🇰🇷 Congratulations to all the innovators selected! You can find out more by downloading the full list and accompanying report here: https://lnkd.in/d6MFjTED #cleantech #climatetech #asiapacific #apac #startups

I'd like to extend congratulations to all of this year's #APACCleantech25 award winners. This year's awardees are a clear indicator, in my opinion, of where APAC-based innovators are positioning for the next generation of cleantech industries. View the report for free here (https://lnkd.in/e_Bu4k7f). This report could not be coming out at a more relevant time - as global trade tensions increase, the possibility of regional technology spheres becomes more likely. Beyond that, a fractured trade environment puts process and input (energy, materials) efficiency at a premium more than ever: Despite efficiency gains across APAC, countries like China, Vietnam, and India still have significant room to improve output per worked hour. With economic tightening and China's overcapacity challenges, process efficiency has become critical. With AI accelerating improvements, we see some early examples in this year's list: - Cosmos Innovation: Using their "Mobius" AI for materials discovery and optimization in solar cell production - Ecolibrium: Delivering an AI platform that reduces waste and costs in manufacturing, mining, and data centers Beyond AI applications, there is increasing urgency to control energy at all levels: grids handling increased capacity, data centers running GPUs, and even at the chip level- we can see examples of the energy-efficient compute value chain crystallizing across APAC: - Firmus Technologies: Offers liquid-cooled data centers (both retrofits and new builds) and low-carbon hosting solutions with their Sustainable Metal Cloud service - Amperesand: Develops solid-state transformers that provide more granular power flow control across high electricity load sites, with modular and scalable designs offering additional resilience through fault isolation capabilities For years, critical materials innovation has centered on two hypotheses:  1) Demand for battery, electric motor, and power electronics materials will exceed supply in coming decades, and   2) China’s supply concentration will require other countries to increase onshore supply Addressing both challenges requires improved mining efficiency and precision, new refining techniques, and materials recovery from waste. This year’s APAC 25 showcases the full value chain: - Fleet Space Technologies: Provides satellite-based critical mineral detection - Element Zero: Offers non-aqueous electrochemical processing of ores (iron, nickel, silica) into high value materials - 3DC Inc.: Three-dimensional graphene material sponge applicable in current lithium-ion batteries and future chemistries (e.g., solid state) - POEN. Co., Ltd.: Spent and damaged battery assessment, re-manufacturing, and re-purposing - LOHUM : Battery recycling and recovery of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and graphite through a hydrometallurgical process Congrats again to all the winners and the expert panelists who helped determine the list (see comments) Cleantech Group

In recent years, Cleantech Group has tracked the rapid rise of the APAC region in the global cleantech innovation landscape. The #APACCleantech25 list highlights a new generation of innovators worth watching, but what are the emerging trends across APAC in 2025? 🌞⚡ China has reached industrial maturity in #solar and energy storage, setting the pace for APAC’s clean energy economy. 🚚 EV innovation is expanding beyond China into heavy-duty and off-road vehicles, supported by scalable battery swapping and charging networks. (Battery Smart, Kwetta)
 💥 Energy
#fusion had a breakout year, with multiple reactor types gaining traction and attracting increased investment across the region.
(Startorus Fusion, OpenStar Technologies, Kyoto Fusioneering)
 🤖 An emerging ecosystem of AI-driven cleantech companies is solving highly localized challenges while expanding beyond traditional sector boundaries.
(Cosmos Innovation, Ecolibrium) 🧊 As AI infrastructure scales, APAC innovators are developing solutions from energy-efficient chips to liquid cooling and modular power systems.
(Firmus Technologies, Amperesand)
 🪨 Amid rising trade tensions and supply risks, the region is advancing innovations in mineral detection, refining, recycling, and materials recovery.
(Fleet Space Technologies, Element Zero, 3DC, POEN. Co., Ltd. LOHUM ) See Anthony DeOrsey Jr.'s perspective for the highlights on APAC’s #cleantech rise within the global energy shift: https://hubs.li/Q03gySWV0 Want to meet the innovators featured on the list? Catch the opportunity at Cleantech Forum Asia coming up next month: https://hubs.li/Q03gz05Y0

🚀 Just Released: the 2025 #APACCleantech25! Meet the 25 most promising private companies transforming the Asia-Pacific #cleantech landscape. Now in its 6th year, the highly anticipated list introduces you to standout innovators developing breakthrough technologies and bold business models to tackle the ever-increasing climate and environmental crisis. 📥 Download the complimentary report to discover who is transforming the future of the region: https://hubs.li/Q03gwrJp0

Last week's top fundraising deals in sustainability innovation as reported by Cleantech Group (To find out more about our research & consulting services, visit i3connect.com) 🌾 Agriculture & Food Grassa | Unlocking the full potential of Grass | Biomass 🇳🇱, developer of a biorefinery process to produce animal feed and other products, raised $3.89M in Seed funding from Oost NL's Perspectieffonds Gelderland, Fransen Gerrits BV, and Brightlands Venture Partners. Funding will be used for scaling up, demonstrations to dairy farmers, and development of products for human consumption. 💡 Energy & Power: Caldera 🇬🇧, developer of an energy storage solution that enables zero-emissions heat generation, raised $12.9M from GEA Group. The funding will support the company's aims of targeting key industries that source equipment from GEA. 🧪 Materials & Chemicals: ARK Capture Solutions 🇧🇪, developer of modular equipment for point source carbon capture from flue gas streams, raised over $2.4M from Aperam, Seeder Fund, climate club, BeAngels , Lune Ventures, invest.bw, Noshaq, and Wallonie Entreprendre. Funding will be used to scale up operations and marketing. 🌲 Resources & Environmental Management: Maverick Metals 🇺🇸, developer of in-situ biological processes to extract metals from hard rock deposits at near-ambient conditions, raised $19M in Seed funding from Olive Tree Capital, Y Combinator, Hanwha Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, Nomadic Venture Partners, Soma Capital, and TechNexus Venture Collaborative. Funding will go towards technology commercialization. 🚚 Transport & Logistics: EVident Battery, Inc. 🇺🇸, developer of EV battery inspection and analytics software, raised $3.2 in Seed funding from Ibex Investors, @Nationwide Ventures, Automotive Ventures, Avesta Fund, and several angel investors. Funding will support R&D, team expansion, enhancement of manufacturing capabilities, and development of strategic partnerships. ♻️ Waste & Recycling Cyclic Materials 🇨🇦, provider of a service platform facilitating the recycling of critical metals, raised an undisclosed amount in extended Series B funding from Climate Pledge Fund. The investment will support the company's expansion into US markets. #cleantech #climatetech #startups Image: Caldera's storage boiler. Credit: Caldera

The popular trope about #fusion is that it's always 30 years away - is the needle moving? Next Tuesday, I'm excited to join my colleague Zainab G. and Andrew Holland of the Fusion Industry Association in a discussion around the most recent developments in fusion and expectations for what comes next. Register here (https://lnkd.in/eZYuHEaF). Some things we'll cover in the discussion: - There is much better clarity today on the milestones associated with fusion development, baselines are forming that allow stakeholders from various corners of the ecosystem to speak a common language. See Commonwealth Fusion Systems's "Building Trust in Fusion Energy" open letter as a great example: https://lnkd.in/egdpiS8f - An observable result of this common language is that investors are putting large enough rounds into companies to fund to the next major milestone. This is helping innovators stay on-task, avoid raising multiple smaller rounds for one milestone, and stay more capital efficient. - The financing toward fusion in '24 gets more interesting as you pick apart the numbers: half a dozen different types of fusion reactors saw investment, and across multiple continents. - This all culminates in multiple shots on goal. Novel methods aiming at faster speed-to-scale through smaller system sizes, quicker testing processes, easier maintenance, enhanced plasma stability, and the possibility of using safer fuels, all work toward an enhanced likelihood of commercialization. Looking forward to the discussion, and as always, please reach out to us with what you're seeing out there.

👉 Recap of top activity in Materials & Chemicals cleantech this week (April 4, 2025): 👉 ARK Capture Solutions raised over $2.3M Seed for its modular electric equipment for point source carbon capture from 5-10% carbon emissions streams from Aperam Ventures, Seeder Fund, Climate Club, BeAngels , Lune Ventures, invest.bw, Noshaq, and Wallonie Entreprendre. Funding will be used to scale up from 2 tons scale to a 40 tons per year pilot. 👉 Maverick Metals raised $19M Seed funding to scale its copper recovery solution, LithX. Funding from Olive Tree Capital, Y Combinator, Hanwha Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, Nomadic Venture Partners, Soma Capital, and TechNexus Venture Collaborative. 👉 Fairmat's recycled carbon fiber composites raised over $27.7M Series B from Slate Venture Capital, Bpifrance Large Venture, Cape Capital, Singular, Temasek, CNP, and Pictet Group. It's also secured a $27.1M debt facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB). 👉 Cyclic Materials' rare earth metal and critical metals recovery solutions raised an Undisclosed Amount from Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund in an extended Series B contribution. 👉 Intel Corporation and TSMC announced a joint venture to pursue chipmaking in the US on the heels of US tariffs imposed on Taiwan. Following tariffs, both Intel and TSMC's stocks have fallen. #cleantech #semiconductors #carboncapture #copper #mining #carbonfiber #recycling Cleantech Group Image credit: ARK Capture Solutions