News and upcoming Deals from the Greenbackers Climate Tech Ecosystem
Hello there cleantech fans! Welcome to January “Spotlight,” your monthly window into the world of Climate and Cleantech investments, from Greenbackers Investment Capital.
Every month we feature “investment ready” deals across cleantech for your review.
New for this month:
RBW EV Cars (England): RBW Electric Cars has brought together the very best in classic car craftsmanship (based on Classic MG, MGB and Ford Mustangs) and 21st century electrification drive-train technologies and supporting systems, allowing classic chassis admirers to enjoy a modern, emission-free, premium driving experience. Series A, £5m-£10m.
Modular Solar (England): Producing patented modular unit plugs into outdoor sockets, offering affordable local energy to cut carbon, lower bills, and ease grid strain. Series A, £500k.
Qualus (England): supplies polymer ‘Sferes’ which are substituted for water in the leather production process, reducing the volume of water and chemicals in the tanning processes. These ‘Sferes’ are recyclable, significantly reducing the operating costs and carbon footprint of tanneries, while maintaining premium leather quality. Series A, £5m.
Happy New Year!
As 2025 begins, the climate tech sector faces unprecedented urgency with Earth’s average temperature exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the first time in 2024.
The global climate landscape continues to evolve…and confound, as BP announces almost 8000 job cuts world-world wide, as China’s new energy law sends mixed signals while mandating significant clean energy deployment and Forbes suggests that “British energy majors may lean on oil and gas more to boost profits.”
Against this backdrop, Barclays, on one hand, has reinforced its commitment to climate innovation, targeting £500M investment in global climate tech companies by 2027 (their latest report highlights a critical “missing middle” funding gap for Series B+ companies) while on the other hand continuing support for the fossil fuel industry.
With the incoming Trump administration and given an uncertain political landscape in Canada, North America is expected to backtrack on some of its previous enthusiasm for clean energy solutions under the IRA… As a last measure, the Biden Administration has been desperately signing off key capital commitments and tax incentives to ensure support for clean initiatives.
We here at Greenbackers acknowledge it will become a lot harder for many founders to raise capital in 2025 – so we are releasing a series of press releases on the matter, the first of which can be read further below.
And with turbulance comes opportunity: EU emissions rules are creating fresh opportunities for this transition period with Tesla potentially receiving up to $1bn from traditional automakers’ credit purchases. With the International Energy Agency estimating 35% of emission reductions by 2050, we still rely on technologies not yet on the market, so the pressure to scale climate solutions has never been greater. We must not lose momentum…
…so we’re all VERY excited about our big Cleantech Investment Pitch in London on 29 January with Sustainable Ventures @ County Hall (next to the London Eye). There will be 24 high-impact, clean technologies presenting to 150+ delegates, the majority will be funds. See the preview here.
Special offer: if you are a fund reading this newsletter, then join us as our guests for free, courtesy of our sponsors London Stock Exchange and Ryan!
Here is a complimentary pass which includes lunch and drinks reception on the day. Feel free to bring a colleague. Already registered? Well, we can’t refund any paid tickets, but do feel free to invite a guest! Some excellent presentations and pitches to come.
Use this link to register with comp code ‘gogogreenbackersrh’ when registering. Hope to see you!
Updates on Greenbackers Current Cohort
🪲 FlyBox (Insect-based waste management solutions, £850k sales, £4M grants, seeking £1M, EIS Approved) Launched Honeysuckle Farm facility in Chesham, achieving key milestones in BSF breeding optimization and waste processing capabilities (more)
📜 Nafici Environmental Research (Converting agricultural waste to sustainable paper pulp, Raising £5.1-12.9M Series A, EIS pre-assurance in process) Announced collaboration with Pulpex through Innovate UK’s Net Zero Fibre Bottle Challenge IX, exploring non-wood fibre materials, demonstrating their ability to transform agricultural waste into high-quality, sustainable paper pulp for moulded fibre bottles. They have just received EIS assurance from HMRC, further strengthening their proposition. (more here)
🌊 Sundew (Biological solutions for aquatic ecosystems, Raising £4.5M Series A, EIS pre-assurance in process) Completed six-month program quadrupling production capacity through process optimization and equipment upgrades. (more here)
❄️ Camfridge (Solid-state cooling technology, Raising £2.5M+ Seed, EIS approved, soft lead commitment secured) CEO Neil Wilson discusses his technology’s potential in an exclusive Refrigeration Industry interview (more here)
🧪 Sonichem’s (Innovative Bio-Based Chemicals, Raising £2.5m EIS) Secured third place in BBIA Demeter Awards’ Collaboration Award for Bio-based Chemicals and Materials, recognizing their innovative industry partnerships (more here)
🌊 Gazelle Wind Power (Offshore wind floating platforms) Strengthened board leadership with appointments of Sameer Narula from August One, Ricardo Torgal from Indico Capital Partners, and Michael Naylor as senior independent director (more here)
🌉 Horizon Bridge (Offshore wind cable monitoring, bridging technology and insurance, Raising £2m Seed) Pursuing the details of field trials and pilot projects with a number of developers. Members of GUH sub-comittee writing the new industry standard on enhanced subsea cable monitoring. Addressing critical infrastructure security concerns in the Baltic Sea region as offshore wind targets 19.6GW by 2030, with their focus on protecting subsea cables amid growing security challenges (more here)
〰 Inyanga MEG (Turn-key tidal energy solutions for offshore renewables, Closing £5m Series B) Successfully overfunded on Crowdcube reaching 167% of target. Won another succesful bid to become one of the project partners in the Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) SHINES project, led by Fondation OPEN-C. (more here)
🧼 Squeaky Clean Energy (Clean energy marketplace platform) Launched EOS, their digital supply platform featuring integrated pricing, analytics, and transaction management for renewable energy sourcing.
🔧 NEOL Copper (Innovative lubricants to stop wear and efficiency loss in machinery, Raising £5m Series A, SEIS & EIS approved) Launched campaign highlighting fleet maintenance cost savings through their CuGlide™ technology (more here)
Want an intro to any companies you’ve read about? Let Greenbackers know, we will make it easy…for more detailed profiles, see them on our online showcase here.
Greenbackers Partner Updates
Future Events: Meet Us & Our Ventures
Don’t forget Greenbackers next big Investment Pitch event is in London in January 2025. Click here to attend as a funder or to apply as a cleantech venture raising funds…and check out our special offer above if you missed it!
We will be back again next month with more deals and a climate tech news, in the meantime feel free to reply or reach out to us on LinkedIn.
We hope to see you on January 29th! Regards from all of us,
