🌿 Issue #54: bio-identical collagen, composting for apartments, biochar from olive biowaste

Second community meet-up in the books!

and

May 30, 2023

Welcome back!

ClimateRaise showcases early-stage climate startups led by all women and non-binary founders, and connects them with investors and climate ecosystem partners through warm introductions.

how it works:

🔎 We find vetted, actively raising women-led climate startups.

📝 Our biweekly newsletter then highlights a diverse selection of those startups.

🔗 We introduce investors, ecosystem partners and fellow founders to the featured founders.

📩 Submit companies, opportunities and resources (or say hi!) for the newsletter here.

Is ClimateRaise useful to you?

News

It was amazing to meet up with the climate community in Boston last for the second-ever ClimateRaise community meetup! If you’d like to attend a future meetup in your city, let us know here.

Featured companies

*Featured companies are actively raising.

Jellatech

#️⃣ Biotech, Proteins, Collagen

Jellatech is an early stage biotechnology company developing a sustainable, scalable and reliable platform to produce complex proteins. By using cellular agriculture, Jellatech is able to create bio-identical proteins to supply various industries such as food & beverages, materials, biomedical, personal care and more, without relying on destructive animal agriculture. With the success of their first protein collagen, the company is now ready to scale up and take the early steps towards commercialization.

The company validated their technology and have successfully made 100% bio-identical collagen (human & bovine) without any animal input. They achieve a record high yield and protein purity (>95%) and have 4 patents filed, including US20220281956A1 and US20220112267A1.

Co-Founder & CEO: Stephanie Michelsen
HQ: Raleigh, NC
Current funding stage: Seed

Introduce me to Jellatech

Demi

#️⃣ composting, apartments

Demi is developing compost solutions for the 40M Americans living in apartments. From sleek bins to smart collection stations to a mobile app, they are cultivating an engaging culture for composting and executing a nationwide strategy by partnering with residential and commercial buildings.

Demi has received awards from the Obama Foundation, the Institute of Real Estate Management, and C200 for its work. Since the team came together in June 2022, they have developed two paid proof-of-concepts and launched their mobile app to the App Store & Google Play Store. Demi just signed their first contract with a nationally-managed residential high-rise building in downtown Chicago, and are targeting to land 4 more across 15 buildings. They were selected to participate in the Fall 2022 Gold House Ventures Accelerator, supporting AAPI founders and more recently, to participate in gener8tor's Sustainability Accelerator.

Co-Founder & CEO: Lily Wang
Co-Founder & CTO: Andrew Lee
HQ: Chicago, Illinois
Current funding stage: Pre-seed

Asks: Demi is also looking for introductions to property managers, owners, or developers who might be interested in piloting Demi for their building, as well as someone to support with digital marketing strategy & content creation.

Introduce me to Demi

Amata Green

#️⃣ agriculture, biochar, carbon sequestration

Amata Green is building a biochar production facility in southern Spain working with local olive oil mills. In the olive oil industry, only 22% of the olive is used during the production of olive oil and waste is sent off for further processing and eventually burned. Amata Green will receive the olive mill waste, giving the mills an alternate solution for their waste. Amata Green will then turn that waste into biochar through pyrolysis, sell the carbon credits and return the biochar to farms for placement in the soil.

Amata Green has contracts with several mills to receive their waste biomass. On the offtake side, Amata Green has several buyers for the biochar and also is currently listed on PURO.earth for the carbon credits. The team has successfully completed the AirMiner's Launchpad and were also semi-finalists in Indigo Ag's "Terraton Challenge." The project fulfills 9 SDGs. The project has been in the planning phase for 3 years, and is now ready to launch, pending funding.

Co-Founder & CEO: Sandi Martín
Co-Founder: Mihaela Strungariu
HQ: Granada, Spain
Current funding stage: Seed

Introduce me to Amata Green

ICYMI - They are still raising

Energy storage systems, Vessyl, led by Zahra Hargens Iliff
Institutional investment platform, Physis Investment, led by Stefania Di Bartolomeo
Community trading and engagement platform, Lucky Sweater, led by Carley Lake and Tanya Dastyar

Request an introduction to the companies by filling this form.

Resources for founders

📅 ClimateRaise Events

Pitch Feedback for Founders - get feedback on your pitch and fundraising strategy with Zoe Perret, Principal at Initialized Capital. Many of you have been sharing the need for broader support in your fundraising journey. In the spirit of deepening our support to founders, you now have the opportunity to connect personally with investors and experts for a 30 minute one-on-one slot.

The first office hours will be held with Zoe Perret, Principal at Initialized Capital. Zoe invests in seed-stage climate companies and leads the follow-on fundraising efforts for Initialized’s portfolio companies. She has deep experience in fundraising, complex operations, growth and strategic planning – previously at BlackRock and in the non-profit space. She is excited to work with ClimateRaise founders in support of their fundraising efforts and pitch practice.

If you are exploring an upcoming raise and would like to set up a time with Zoe to get feedback on your pitch and fundraising strategy - please fill in this quick form. Spots are limited, and we will be in touch if we’re able to pencil you in.

🫶 Networks

The Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator is now actively recruiting for two programs. Since founding, 375 LACI startups have raised a billion dollars in funding and created over 2,600 jobs. LACI is committed to creating a cleantech community that uplifts women, people of color, LGBTQ+, and other underrepresented founders and strongly encourages applications from startups who share our mission to build an inclusive, green economy in Southern California. Innovators is a one-year, light-touch, cleantech program for prototype development, mentorship, and networking. Applications due June 9, 2023. Incubation is a two-year cleantech program to drive impact, market & investment readiness, and pilots. Applications due June 23, 2023. Cleantech companies are invited to apply here. Information sessions are Thursday, June 1, 11am - 12pm and Thursday, June 8, 3pm - 4pm PT.

🤑Funding

Climate Justice for Migrants and Communities of Color: This is a four-month accelerator, in partnership with the WES Mariam Assefa Fund, that is focused on supporting startups helping migrants and communities of color mitigate and adapt to climate-related changes. A pool of $200K will be split evenly among the cohort and the top two peer-selected companies will receive an additional $100K each. Deadline has been extended to June 1st; apply here.

Dream Climate Tech Launchpad: This is a four-month, milestone-based fellowship program supporting 8-10 Black and LatinX-led startups building solutions in the climate tech space. A pool of $30K will be split evenly among the cohort and the top two peer-selected companies will receive an additional $10K each. Apply by June 12th here.

🔍 Opportunities

Techstars is hosting a 3-part Fundraising Webinar Series throughout June, designed to give startups the knowledge and tools they need to successfully raise capital for an early stage startup. Register here.