This week in NatureTech #31

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🐘 Long read (2 mins)

What NatureTech solutions are top of mind for 12 investors?

We caught up with 12 leading investors to find out which start-ups they are excited about in NatureTech in 2025.

Solutions discussed include:
💻 AI and AI Agents for Nature
🍄 Fungi
🌊 Ocean Data
💸 Conservation Asset Markets
🛰️ Remote Sensing for Nature Monitoring
💨 Picks & Shovels in the Carbon Markets
💧 Water Security

Are you excited by these solutions? Who else is investing in this space?

💬 Snippets for your lift conversations

💼 Big business:

• More than 40 housebuilders, investors, and environmental groups have celebrated the anniversary of the UK’s Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) mandate (Read more)

• TNFD launches new capacity-building platform to scale market confidence and capabilities on nature-related issues (Read more)

🏦 Finance:

• Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, unveiled its approach to engagement on natural capital (Read more)

• Fund manager, Gresham house, readies itself for a big year on biodiversity (Read more)

💻️ Tech:

• Companies who use the genetic coding of the natural world faced calls to help pay for its protection with a new fund launched at a U.N. conference in Rome. (Read more)

📖 Research:

• Deforestation in Colombia increased by 35% in 2024, with a notable rise in the Amazon, according to the Environment Minister. (Read more)

📝 Policy:

• Countries are gathering in Rome to attempt to generate $200 billion annually for global biodiversity preservation amid reduced U.S. involvement. (Read more)

• COP16: 46 national biodiversity plans published (Read more)

📝 Community asks:

• James is wanting to speak to pest control or invasive species experts in the UK and Europe to test a new concept (Contact)

• Emily Birch has just launched Wildsight - to make it more simple and fun for companies to take action on nature (Contact)

🎣 Deals

🇳🇱 Vivici raised $33.8M (Series A) for their biotech dairy protein production using precision fermentation Source

🇺🇸 Jord Bioscience raised $7M (Series B) for their custom microbial solutions for agribusinesses Source

🇨🇭 Food Brewer raised $5.5M (Seed) for their food ingredient production using plant cell cultures Source

🇺🇸 Floodbase raised $5M (Series B) for their parametric flood insurance solution Source

🇺🇸 Qualterra raised $4.5M (Series A) for their innovations in plant lifecycle and carbon capture Source

🇺🇸 Mitico raised $4.3M (Seed) for their end-to-end solution for industrial carbon capture Source

🇨🇦 Dispersa raised $4.1M (Seed) for their natural biosurfactants using proprietary green chemistry Source

🇰🇪 Sunculture raised $4M (Late VC) for their off-grid solar energy solutions for smallholder farmers Source

🇨🇭 Cellx Biosolutions raised $1.9M (Pre-Seed) for their sustainable alternatives to harmful chemical disposal methodsSource

🇪🇸 Ethichub raised $1M (Series A) for their P2P lending platform connecting investors with farming communities Source

🇺🇸 THOLA raised (Accelerator/incubator) for their compliance automation for sustainable agricultural supply chains Source

🇺🇸 Heirloom raised (Late VC) for their limestone-based CO2 removal from the atmosphere Source

🇨🇦 Skyforest raised (Acquisition) for their technology solutions to sustain forests and mitigate climate change Source

20+ Startups are raising in our network this year - Including those below - get in touch to hear more:

• Rhizocore is raising a £5m Seed round. Rhizocore collects, selects and delivers elite strains of local ectomycorrhizal fungi to tree planting operations to increase tree growth rates, tree survival and newly planted forests' resilience to drought and disease. [email protected]

• Patrick at Neoplants is raising a Series A extension round to accelerate the GTM of their B2C products in the US, and continue their bioengineering efforts to create plants that remove GHG from the atmosphere. They'd love to get in touch with series A/B Climate Investors. [email protected]

• Daniel at Gentian is raising a $3Mn Seed for their world leading habitat mapping software, powered by AI and remote sensing. [email protected] 

💭 Little Bytes

📊Read: Freshwater biodiversity in England's rivers has improved due to reductions in zinc and copper pollution from the decline of coal burning industry (Read more)

🎞️  Watch: Brazil farmer lobby asks to lift soybean ban from deforested Amazon rainforest (Read more)

💬 Research: Interactions between climate change and urbanization will shape future biodiversity impacts and offer opportunities for further research. (Read more)

📆 Events

🇳🇱 EV Charging Infrastructure Forum 28th February 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 MIT Energy Conference 3rd March 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 Breakthrough to Deployment 3rd March 2025 (Attend)

🇬🇧 Sustainability LIVE Net Zero 5th March 2025 (Attend)

🇦🇹 World Sustainable Energy Days 5th March 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 SXSW Conference 2025 7th March 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 Future Leaders Climate Summit 2024 9th March 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 International Conference on Climate, Environment and Biosciences ICCEB 10th March 2025 (Attend)

🇬🇧 Economist Impact Energy Transition Summit 10th March 2025 (Attend)

🇮🇱 CleanTech 2025 11th March 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 Climate Correction Conference 12th March 2025 (Attend)

🇫🇷 Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 13th March 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 Future Food-Tech 13th March 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 International Battery Seminar & Exhibit 17th March 2025 (Attend)

💼 Jobs

Start-up:

• Multiple roles, Planet A Foods, Germany (Apply)

• Multiple roles, Revalue Nature, UK (Apply)

• Multiple Roles, Ulysses, USA (Apply)

• Software Engineer, Cecil, Australia (Apply)

• Backend Engineer, Landbanking Group, Germany (Apply)

• Sales Development Representative, Arbonics, Remote (Apply)

• Multiple roles, Space Intelligence, Edinburgh (Apply)

• Commercial Director, Space for Good, UK (Apply)

• Back End Engineer, Credit Nature, UK (Apply)

• Director of Nature Based Solutions, Sylvera, UK (Apply)

Corporate:

• Climate, Nature and Social Risk Modelling Vice President, JP Morgan, London (Apply)

• Biodiversity Specialist, FAO, USA (Apply)

• Nature-Based Solutions, Subject Matter Expert, Ramboll, USA, (Apply)

• Biodiversity and Natural Capital Unit, Inter-American Development Bank (Apply)

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