This week in NatureTech #36

🔮 The NatureTech Memos goes offline

Instead of our usual analyses this week… an exciting announcement

We’re hosting an inaugural drinks event in London on the 8th May - Live from a Vertical Farm.

We’ve teamed up with events masterminds Regen City and vertical farming experts Square Mile Farms to bring our community offline for the first time

What you can expect from the evening:

• A tour of a vertical farm in the heart of London

• An evening of connection, conversation, and exploration at the intersection of nature, tech, and urban innovation. 

• And importantly …. no long talks or pitches!

Please do sign up - it would be great to see you there, but move fast as we only have a limited number of slots.

Interested in hosting a NatureTech event in your city? Get in touch!

💬 Snippets for your lift conversations

💼 Big business:

• Chile's partnership approach serves as a model for countries to work with businesses transitioning to nature-positive economies. (Read more)

  Atom Bank discusses restoring woodland at a 25-acre former coal site as part of the Bank's initiative to become 'carbon positive' by 2035. (Read more)

🏦 Finance:

• The interconnectedness of biodiversity and climate change is explored, with emphasis on updating investment beliefs to consider climate risk and systems thinking. (Read more)

• New Agriculture has launched a new nature-based strategy for institutional investors, targeting improvements to agricultural landscapes in Australia and New Zealand. (Read more)

💻️ Tech:

• An undergraduate-led citizen science initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara, uses DNA barcoding to catalog local biodiversity, promoting community scientific engagement. (Read more)

• An ESA-funded study uses satellite data to define biodiversity zones and shipping lanes, aims to protect 30% of ocean habitats with minimal impact on fishing and shipping. (Read more)

• Scientists develop methods to sample DNA from the air on a nationwide scale to track biodiversity. (Read more)

📖 Research:

• The critical role of Marine Protected Areas in global conservation strategies, emphasizing ocean conservation and climate regulation. (Read more)

• The importance of planting a diversity of tree species for forest resilience, climate mitigation, and biodiversity, based on large-scale experiments in China and Panama. (Read more)

📝 Policy:

• UK Grant schemes aim to support a range of innovative agriculture projects to reduce on-farm emissions and boost food security. (Read more)

• A new industry-funded Nature Market Accelerator will bring much needed coherence to nature markets, boosting investment into natural habitats (Read more)

📝 Community news and asks:

• BirdLife International Launches Pioneering Biodiversity Data Platform with Futures Wild & Trifork (Read more)

• Compleat Food Group partners with AgriSound to use real-time data devices for evaluating the success of biodiversity-focused landscaping efforts. (Read more)

• Phytoform is developing 'browning-resistant' potatoes and ultra-productive tomatoes, exploring lab-developed precision breeding for a more climate-resilient food system. (Read more)

• beSirius announced their Seed round and also posted a poignant piece on the death of ESG reporting, and the re-birth of on-demand sustainability data, instead of static, backward-looking reports (Read more)

  Submit community news or requests

🎣 Deals

🇺🇸 Simplifyber raised $12M Series A for their biodegradable, plant-based alternatives to traditional textiles (Source)

🇫🇷 Versant Earth raised $555.7K Pre-Seed for their AI-powered data analytics and nature reporting tools. (Source)

🇺🇸 Thrive Smart Systems raised $600K Seed for their wireless irrigation systems (Source)

🇬🇧 FOTENIX raised $2.73M Seed for develops AI-powered spectral imaging technology that helps farmers detect disease and optimize crop management. (Source)

🇮🇳 Plastics For Change raised $1.18M Early VC for their platform that connects waste pickers in coastal communities with global brands seeking recycled plastic (Source)

50+ Startups are raising >$100mn in our network this year - get in touch to hear more

💭 Little Bytes

📊Read: In New Zealand, 68% of freshwater birds are threatened with extinction or at risk of becoming threatened threatened

🎞️  Watch:  Indonesia steps up handing confiscated palm plantations to state company (Read more)

💬 Research: The volume of global aquaculture production has tripled since 2000, facing challenges like pathogen management and pollution. (Read more)

📆 Events

In just a few weeks from now, over 200 of the brightest minds in climate tech will gather in London in Mayfair on the 7th of May, uniting growth-stage climate entrepreneurs and innovators for a day of content and networking. Sign up today and use the code NTM20 to get a 20% discount on your ticket. (Attend)

🇺🇸 SF Climate Week 19th April 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 Earthx 21st April 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 US Climate Action Summit 2025 22nd April 2025 (Attend)

🇩🇪 Tech Tour Bio-based Industries 2025 Programme 23rd April 2025 (Attend)

🇫🇷 Change Now Summit 2025 24th April 2025 (Attend)

🇬🇧 Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summit 25th April 2025 (Attend)

🇳🇱 Sustainable Industrial Manufacturing 25th April 2025 (Attend)

🇰🇷 Our Ocean Conference 2025 28th April 2025 (Attend)

🇬🇧 Innovation Zero 29th April 2025 (Attend)

🇺🇸 Circularity 29th April 2025 (Attend)

🇫🇷 Sustainable Investment Forum 29th April 2025 (Attend)

🇬🇧 NatureTech Memos meet up 8th May (Attend)

💼Jobs

Start-up or Funds:

• Founders Associate, Amini, Nairobi / London / Paris (Apply)

• General Opportunities, Ulysses, San Francisco (Apply)

• Customer Success Manager, Verna, Remote (Apply)

• Head of Sales Europe, Planet A Foods, Germany (Apply)

• Backend Engineer, Landbanking Group, Germany (Apply)

• Sales Development Representative, Arbonics, Remote (Apply)

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

• The Great Bubble Barrier (Multiple Roles)

• Behold - CTO (Apply)

Corporate:

• Product Manager - Nature, Bloomberg, London (Apply)

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

  See 10+ more Nature Jobs
  Submit a job