Exclusive: Manufacturing startup Evove nets £5.7 million

Evove, a U.K.-based manufacturing startup that makes 3D-printed membranes for water processing, raised £5.7 million (roughly $6.8 million) in Series A funding, the company exclusively tells Axios.

Why it matters: Companies working on the clean energy transition — parts of which rely on energy-hungry water processes — will need to rethink water use to mitigate climate-negative impacts.

Details: At One Ventures led the all-equity round and will get a board seat in the deal. Evove CEO Chris Wyres declined to disclose the round's valuation.

How it works: Evove makes membranes — large structures used to filter water — using 3D printers.

• The membranes can be printed remotely on-site at lithium extraction facilities, desalination plants or clean-hydrogen production facilities.
• Evove's software designs membranes for each use — taking lithium out of water in extraction, for example — instead of the one-size-fits-all membrane model in use at most facilities.
• The specialized design limits how many times the water is filtered, saving energy and limiting the amount of water needed for any given process.

What they're saying: "There is no green without blue," Wyres tells Axios.

• "Addressing climate change requires us to deal with water more efficiently. In the state of California, generating and moving water around is 25% of the state's energy bill and there's been little done to address it," Wyres says.

The bottom line: For green technology to grow as quickly as experts say it needs to, manufacturing groups will also need to figure out how to efficiently use water.