Animal free egg-whites, solvent-based carbon capture technology, and robots that tackle wildfire mitigation: Recent Deals worth looking at:

Agriculture & Food 

Onego Bio (2022) is a developer of animal-free egg whites using precision fermentation and Trichoderma reesei fungus. Their protein, Bioalbumen, is a bioidentical egg protein with the functionality to mimic all properties of egg whites.  

On April 2nd, Onego Bio raised $40M in Series A funding from NordicNinja VC, TESI, EIT Food, Agronomics, Maki.vc, Holdix, Turret and Business Finland.  

The investment will be used to grow the start-up’s U.S. commercial team and drive partnerships with co-manufacturers. Funding will also be used to progress and finalize Onego’s own factory, a single full-scale manufacturing unit that boasts a 2-million-liter fermentation capacity that has the potential to replace an egg farm with 6 million laying hens.  

Energy & Power  

Lightshift Energy (2019) is a developer of utility-scale battery energy storage solutions. Currently, the company has over 20 battery projects under contract to date and a pipeline in excess of 4,000 MW. 

Lightshift Energy raised $100M in Series B funding from Greenbacker Capital on March 28th. The investment follows a previous strategic investment from Greenbacker in 2021 and Lightshift’s recent rebrand from Delorean Power and expansion to meet demand for integrated grid solutions. 

The funding round will be split to fulfil two main purposes. $20M of the funding will be used to scale Lightshift’s team, accelerate sales, and grow its pipeline, while $80M will be used to facilitate the construction and operations of Lightshift’s portfolio.   

Materials & Chemicals 

ION Clean Energy (2018) develops solvent-based CO2 capture technology. Its proprietary liquid absorbent process technology captures CO2 emissions from power generation and industrial point sources.  

On April 4th, ION Clean Energy raised $45M in Seed funding from Chevron New Energies (CNE) and Carbon Direct. Chevron’s investment in ION Clean Energy falls under its aim to increase investments in low carbon businesses to over $10M by 2028. 

The investment round will be put towards deploying its liquid amine carbon capture technology for hard-to-abate emissions, as well as its organizational growth. Additionally, ION also announced the appointment of Timothy Vail as the new CEO.  

Resources & Environmental Management 

Burnbot (2022) manufactures an integrated system designed for scaling fuel treatment for wildfire mitigation. Burnbot develops remote-controlled vehicles and robots that munch up and burn away invasive plants and vegetation that fuel fires if left fallow. 

Burnbot’s April 3rd Series A round raised $20M from ReGen Ventures, AmFam Institute, Toyota Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, and Convective Capital.  

This capital injection will go towards expansion, hiring, developing new machines that can traverse steeper hills and get into tighter spaces. The company aims to eventually expand operations beyond California. 

Transportation & Logistics 

TCab Technology (2021) develops evTOL aircrafts. Currently, they are developing a passenger-carrying, vectored-thrust eVTOL aircraft E20, which mainly targets the air mobility market in China, Middle East, and Southeast Asia regions.  

TCab Tech raised a $20M Series A round on March 27th from an unnamed strategic investment fund that aims to introduce air taxi applications in the Middle East.  

The investment will accelerate the development of their E20 aircraft through furthering its airworthiness certification goals to eventually achieve commercialization. The aircraft is a 5-seater with a tiltrotor configuration and is most efficient for commuting between 30-150km.  

Waste & Recycling  

900.care (2021) is a producer of refillable hygiene products. They sell small, compressed sticks of active ingredients, which when dissolved in water, allow for over 15 different hygiene products including shower gel and deodorant.   

On March 26th, Lohum raised $22.7M in Series B funding from Lombard Odier Investment Managers, Star Capital, Founders Future, and Blue Ocean Partners.  

Through this recent investment, the team at 900.care aims to be profitable by the end of 2024 and have a turnover of €100 million within three years. The round will also be used to accelerate its product development and facilitate its expansion across Europe into the UK market, building off momentum achieved from successful launches in Belgium and Switzerland.  

Enabling Technologies

Celestial AI (2020) provides Photonic Fabric technology solutions for edge computing and AI deep learning applications.  Their technology can deliver 25x greater bandwidth and memory capacity with reduced latency and power consumption BY 10x in comparison to existing alternatives.  

Celestial AI raised $175M in a growth equity investment from U.S. Innovative Technology Fund, AMD Ventures, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), Temasek Foundation Ecosperity, Xora Innovation, IAG Capital Partners, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Smart Global Holdings, Porsche Automobil Holding, Engine Ventures, M-Venture Investment Management, and Tyche Partners.  

The highly oversubscribed funding round will facilitate the execution of multiple large-scale customer collaborations focused on commercializing its Photonic Fabric technology platform.