Energy and climate deals of the week



Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
Venture capital
• Stegra, a Swedish green steel manufacturing infrastructure company, raised €1.4b led by Wallenberg Investments. IMAS, Temasek, Bolero, and SEB-Stiftelsen joined, along with existing investors Altor, Hy24, Just Climate, AIP Management, and Scania. Go deeper
• Spiro, an African EV maker and battery-swapping network, raised $55m from NewTrails Capital. Go deeper
• H2site, a Spanish industrial hydrogen production and separation company, completed a second closing of its Series B from EIC, bringing total round funding to €42m. Go deeper
• Isometric, a London-based carbon removal certification provider, raised $40m in Series A funding. AVP (fka AXA Venture Partners) led, joined by insiders Lowercarbon Capital and Plural. Go deeper
• Astral Systems, a U.K. developer of multi-state fusion tech, raised £23m. Mercia Ventures led, joined by Tees River, Daphni, and Blast Club, alongside previous investors Speedinvest and Playfair. Go deeper
• Cuprum Metals, a copper extraction company, raised $19.4m in Series A funding. Lundin Family Office led, joined by Woodline Partners and BHP Ventures. Go deeper
• VARM, a Berlin-based single-family home insulation company, raised €17.5m in Series A funding led by ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund and GET Fund. Aurum Impact, Emerge, Pale blue dot, and noa joined. Go deeper
• Eqon, a Norwegian developer of energy management and industrial heating control tech, raised $6m in seed funding. Azolla Ventures and Wilstar Innovate led, joined by Climentum Capital and Gain Venture Capital. Go deeper
• H3 Zoom, a Singaporean AI inspection and asset intelligence company for infrastructure, raised $3.6m in Series A funding. JRE Ventures led, joined by SGInnovate and M7 Holdings. Go deeper
• Seqana, a Berlin-based provider of soil health monitoring, raised €3.2m. Pymwymic led, joined by insiders HTGF and Counteract. Go deeper
• Moment Energy, a Canadian startup that turns EV batteries into grid storage, raised $3M from NorthX Climate Tech. Go deeper
• Tugboat Solutions, a Grand Forks, N.D.-based developer of consumer insurance claims analytics, raised $3m in seed funding. ResilienceVC led, joined by Sure Ventures, South Dakota First, and Gener8tor. Go deeper
• Acodyne, a Copenhagen-based developer of unmanned cargo aircraft for defense and offshore logistics, raised €2.5m in pre-seed funding. Gungnir Capital and PSV Hafnium led, joined by EIFO, SAP9 Group and GreenUP IV Invest. Go deeper
Private equity
• New Mountain Capital made a majority investment in RRC Companies, an Austin, Texas-based utility-scale renewable power generation and battery company, and gained a board seat. Go deeper
• Schneider Geospatial, an Align Capital portfolio company, acquired New England GeoSystems, a Connecticut-based geospatial software and services company. Go deeper
Public offerings
• CopperTech Metals, a copper miner being spun out of India's Vedanta Resource, set IPO terms to 23.5m shares at $16-$18. It would have a $3.4b fully diluted value, were it to price in the middle, and plans to list on the NYSE (CUX). Go deeper
• Eco Wave Power (Nasdaq: WAVE), a Swedish wave energy developer, priced a $4m registered direct offering at a 10.7% premium to market. Go deeper
• Lime, the micro-mobility company partially owned by Uber, set IPO terms to 7m shares at $24-$26. It would have a $1.8b fully diluted value, were it to price in the middle, and plans to list on the Nasdaq (LIME). It's raised over $900m in VC funding, from firms like a16z, Bain Capital Ventures, and GV. Its peak valuation was $2.4b in 2019. Go deeper
• Momenta Global, a China-based autonomous driving tech company, could file for an IPO in Hong Kong as early as this week, per Bloomberg. Backers include GM and Tencent. Go deeper
• Standard Nuclear, an Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based maker of fuel for small modular reactors, filed for a $100m IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE (STDN) and raised over $180m from firms like Decisive Point, Welara, Fundomo, Crucible Capital, and Washington Harbour. Go deeper
Liqudity
• Döhler, a German ingredients maker, acquired Nukoko, a British alt-chocolate developer backed by EIT Food, Innovate UK, Oyster Bay, The Mills Fabrica, IndieBio, SOSV, Kickstart Innovation, and Shakeup Factory. Go deeper
• Energy Fuels (TSX: EFR) agreed to acquire German magnetics company Vac from Ara Partners for $1.9b. Go deeper
• Holcim completed its acquisition of Xella, a German sustainable walling solutions company, from Lone Star. Go deeper
• Qualcomm (Nasdaq: QCOM) agreed to buy AI infrastructure startup Modular for $4B. Modular is backed by DFJ Growth, Factory, General Catalyst, Google Ventures, Greylock Partners and US Innovative Technology Fund. Go deeper
M&A
• Agility Robotics, a Salem, Ore.-based maker of humanoid robots for warehouses and factories, agreed to go public at an implied $2.5b valuation via Churchill Capital Corp. XI (Nasdaq: CCXI), a SPAC led by Michael Klein. Agility has raised around $680m from VC firms like Playground Global, DCVC, SoftBank, WP Global Partners, Kirra Capital, Palo Alto Capital, Amazon, and Gaingels. Go deeper
• BeZero Carbon, a London-based carbon ratings agency, acquired Cedar, an NYC-based developer of carbon management software. Cedar's investors include Eniac Ventures, MCJ, Obvious Ventures, Redalpine, Shine Capital and Union Square Ventures, per PitchBook. Go deeper
•IsoEnergy (NYSE American: ISOU) completed its acquisition of Toro Energy, an Australian uranium developer, in an all-share transaction valuing Toro at approximately A$75m (an 80% premium). Go deeper
• MSCI, a New York-based financial services company, acquired climate risk data startup First Street for $120m, plus earnouts. Go deeper
• Nextpower (NAS: NXT) agreed to acquire Zimmermann PV-Steel Group, a German solar mounting structure manufacturer, for up to €330m. Go deeper
• SoftBank said it will seek to invest in Tepco (Tokyo: 9501), Japan's largest utility. Go deeper
Fundraising
• Conifer closed its debut energy and critical materials fund at its $900m hard cap. Go deeper
Debt
• Terawatt Infrastructure, an SF-based EV charging startup, now has $300M in secured debt financing from banks led by RBC Capital Markets. Go deeper
It's personnel
• Nicola Kerslake joined Reservoir as general partner following its acquisition of Contain, an agriculture finance and data platform founded by Kerslake. Go deeper
• Emma McDonagh was promoted to partner at Overture Ventures, an LA-based VC firm focused on energy, AI and industry. She was previously principal. Go deeper
Nicholas Keen was promoted to president and CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars North America, effective July 1. He was GM, client and brand. [via email]
Odds & ends
• Engine No. 1 and GE Vernova launched Joulent to develop and acquire gas, solar and storage assets for AI data centers. Go deeper
• True Green Capital Management bought 20.3 MW of operating solar assets from Gresham House Renewable Energy. Go deeper