Issue #45: 3D Printing / Water SaaS / Immersive Retail & SaaS
Your contribution + Featuring Metafold 3D, OpenHydro, TO THE MARKET, and Semiautomatic Semiotics
ClimateRaise is a newsletter for our network that showcases early-stage climate startups led by women, non-binary and gender non-conforming founders, and connects them with climate ecosystem partners. Startups featured are actively raising. The newsletter is short and to the point. We want to provide you with useful information, not flood your inbox with yet another lengthy publication.
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Featured Companies
Metafold 3D
#️⃣Software, 3D Printing, Industry
Metafold is a software company that supports mass adoption of 3D printing by eliminating digital bottlenecks that restrict scale. The company’s solution reduces input materials by over 80%, shortens print times, and optimizes designs for additive manufacturing, making 3D printing feasible in areas it previously wasn’t. There are massive tailwinds behind 3D printing as an efficient manufacturing methodology that decreases material and transportation cost while increasing innovation and supply chain resilience.
Since beginning testing earlier in 2022, the company has converted one of the top three sportswear corporations in the world to a recurring contract. Their customers in the biopharmaceutical and industrial mixing spaces were able to slash their design times by 99% and to manufacture process improvement technologies that were previously impossible. Their sales pipeline grew by 279% from August to October 2022, and they were one of 15 selected ventures to participate in Creative Destruction Lab Seattle Manufacturing Stream.
Co-Founder & CEO: Elissa Ross
Co-Founder & CTO: Daniel Hambleton
HQ: Toronto, Canada
Current funding stage: Seed
Company Asks: They are looking for manufacturers in clean tech who would like to leverage 3D printing to enable process improvements in their products or production. Carbon capture devices, heat exchangers and reactors are of particular interest.
Open Hydro
#️⃣Water, SaaS
Over 1 billion tonnes of emissions come from large bodies of water, of which there are > 58000 globally. Yet, companies rarely try to measure and address them because calculation methods are complex due to aspects like geography of a reservoir or water treatment center, climate, species and type of installations. Open Hydro is building a platform to measure and help mitigate emissions from hydropower installations.
The team secured two letters of intent to be the first users from large hydropower operators in South America. Two of Europe’s largest utility operators agreed to join their consortium for an EU grant application to co-build features further down on their roadmap. Carbon 13 has supported the company with their program and first round of funding.
Co-Founder & CEO: Cristina Diez
Co-Founder & CPO: Maria Ubierna
HQ: London, UK
Current funding stage: Pre-Seed
Company Asks: They are looking for introductions to water utilities companies.
Semiautomatic Semiotics
#️⃣Retail, Apparel, Immersive Technology
Stores are projected to account for 71% of all transactions through 2024. Semioautomatic Semiotics develops consumer facing in-store content that runs on headset-free virtual reality systems for physical retail showrooms. By creating a new category of customizable, digital inventory, their immersive 3D content aims to reduce Scope 1 emissions reduction (through curbing enterprise mobility) of an estimated 40.1 megatons of GHGs produced nationally by medium- & heavy- duty trucks (U.S. EPA, 2019).
The company was selected as a semi-finalist at the 2018 Photonics West Start-up Challenge. Last fall, they were selected for the SVB x Floodgate Fund 8-week workshop series.
Co-Founder & CEO: Zenah Khawaja
Co-Founder & COO: Mike M. Moore
HQ: Chicago, USA
Current funding stage: Pre-Seed
TO THE MARKET
#️⃣Retail, Supply Chain, Apparel
TO THE MARKET (B Corp, Women-Owned) is a software platform enabling transparency in the supply chain, allowing brands, retailers and corporations to de-risk their suppliers, digitize their work flows, and quantify the impact of the goods they procure. The company provides clients with metrics such as fair wages created, as well as kilowatt-hour of energy, liters of water, and kgCO2 avoided, and the ability to offset their carbon emissions.
They are working with Fortune 1000-sized clients, which include TJ Maxx, Nordstrom Rack, FabFitFun, Walgreens, Kohl’s, and Staples. The company, a Certified Women-Owned (WBENC) and Certified B Corporation, has been recognized in the top 20% of Inc. 5,000 Fastest Growing Companies for 2022. TO THE MARKET’s founder and CEO was named on Fortune Magazine’s Top 25 25 World’s Greatest Leaders.
Founder & CEO: Jane Mosbacher Morris
HQ: Lexington, KY
Current funding stage: Series A
Company Asks: The team would love to connect with multi-brand retailers and Fortune 1000 corporations who are looking to shift their existing procurement budgets to source products that align with ESG and CSR Initiatives. Interested parties can reach out to sales@tothemarket.com.
Community highlights
Connect with Brown Girl Green
Brown Girl Green is a Filipina American environmentalist who interviews environmental leaders and advocates about workplace and member diversity and inclusion.
Her podcast and media series is dedicated toward changing the image of what it means to be an "environmentalist" in the 21st century.
Connect with her on her Instagram to chat or to be interviewed on the show.
Check out Green Jobs Board on Instagram and LinkedIn. Green Jobs Board is a platform that provides a single source for environmental job seekers to discover and educate themselves on employment opportunities with companies that prioritize sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion in their work. Submit a job here.
Out in climate? See you on Thursday!
Check out LACI’s Out In Climate event on Thursday, January 19th, at LACI’s HQ (if you’re planning to go, drop me a note and I’ll see you there!) Register here.
That’s all, happy new year and thanks for reading!
~Charlotte
ClimateRaise resources
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