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BFD Expert Voices - Climate Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Tenet, a fintech startup that offers EV-specific loans, raised $18 million in seed funding, the company exclusively tells Megan.

Why it matters: The New York-based startup wants to help offset the "green premium" many consumers associate with EVs and home electrification. 

What's happening: Human Capital and Giant Ventures led the all-equity round, with participation from Breyer Capital, Global Founders Capital and Firstminute Capital. Angel investors Michael Tannenbaum, Gokul Rajaram and Michael Ovitz also participated.

No investors are joining the board as part of the round, says CEO Alex Liegl, who declined to disclose valuation.

The round was raised in two parts, with the first closing in September and the second tranche coming in May.

How it works: Tenet works with undisclosed credit unions, green banks and asset managers with ESG directives to provide consumer auto loans. 

It calculates EV depreciation based on a 12-year life span of the vehicle compared to a six-year life span of traditional combustion engine vehicles.

Tenet loans backload payments closer to the end of the EV's life span to decrease monthly payments in the years that overlap with a traditional vehicle.

Tenet offers direct consumer loans through its website or through its network of affiliated dealerships and payment processors. 

It wants to work with OEMs in the future, Liegl says, since many existing loans offered by OEMs are through outside banking partnerships.

1 big thing: EV financing startup raises $18M

Illustration of an electrical plug and cord forming the shape of a dollar sign.

Intersect Power, a cleantech power plant developer, raised $750 million in growth equity funding.

Why it's the BFD: CEO Sheldon Kimber tells Megan that, structurally, he sees Intersect as more closely resembling a traditional oil and gas company than a clean energy company.

In addition to building, developing and selling the raw materials (i.e., solar and wind power), Intersect wants to own refining the raw materials to develop other sources of energy, such as hydrogen-based alternative fuels or industrial heat.

Details: TPG Rise Climate led the round, and was joined by insiders Climate Adaptive Infrastructure and Trilantic Energy Partners North America.

Kimber declined to disclose the round's valuation, and said the company has no plans to go public anytime soon. 

The bottom line: Nine-figure growth equity rounds are still happening outside of the software industry, despite the market pullback.

2. The BFD: Intersect gets $750M growth financing

Illustration of a construction hat on Earth.

Eclipse Foods, an Oakland-based startup that makes plant-based dairy foods, raised $40 million in new equity and debt funding, the company tells Megan.

Why it matters: Alt protein startups still keep churning along.

Details: Sozo Ventures led the round, which values Eclipse in the "hundreds of millions" of dollars, CEO Aylon Steinhart says.

Existing investor Forerunner Ventures also participated, alongside Initialized Capital, Gaingels and KBW Ventures. The company was originally backed by Y Combinator.

3. Plant-based dairy Eclipse Foods raises $40M

Illustration of ice cream cone with a $100 bill sticking out of the side.

Circulor, a British startup that maps supply chains for greener production, raised $25 million in Series B funding led by The Westly Group, Alan reports.

Why it matters: Most companies don't have the slightest clue where their raw materials come from, as we discussed last week with the ESG Book deal.

What they're saying: "Most companies think they know their supply chain. I would say they don’t get half of it right." — Ellen Carey, Circulor's VP for global policy and public affairs, to Axios.

4. Circulor nets $25M for supply-chain tracking

Illustration of a barcode on a tag with a laser beam in the shape of a question mark

Electrify America raises $450m from Siemens and VW: The EV charging giant announced a $100 million investment from Siemens Financial Services at a $2.45 billion valuation.

Volkswagen Group, the charging startup's parent company, agreed to invest another $350 million, per CNBC.

Hand over the keys and no one gets hurt: Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F) plans to stop allowing its EV customers to buy its vehicles once their leases are up.

The new policy, reported by Automotive News, apparently is aimed at promoting EV battery recycling. 

Gonna need a bigger shovel: Climeworks announced the groundbreaking of its Mammoth direct air capture plant in Iceland.

As you might guess from the name, it's the company's biggest, aiming for "multi-megaton capacity by 2030," and "gigaton capacity by 2050," Climeworks says. 

That's a 10x jump from the company's existing DAC plant.

Adventureland: Rivian has deployed three of its "adventure" fast-charging stations for drivers headed to places like Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite National Park and Death Valley National Park, per TechCrunch.

Gym, tan, eminent domain: New Jersey's first offshore wind project, Ocean Wind, is facing a showdown before the state's Board of Public Utilities.

The project developers, Ørsted and PSEG, are seeking to build a transmission line beneath the Ocean City beach and roads. The city is opposing the effort. 

The planned 100 turbines, to be built 15 miles off the coast, would supply enough electricity for 500,000 homes. Politico New Jersey has the rundown.

20,000 leagues under the CCS: The infrastructure bill signed by President Biden last year included a provision calling on federal regulators to create "a framework for companies to lease offshore areas and pump CO2 into the ocean floor," Huff Post reports.

The provision was included in the $12 billion earmarked for CCS technologies. 

How do you like them e-bikes?: Massachusetts residents support a state rebate for battery-powered bicycles, our friends at Axios Boston report.

The survey results, from MassInc Polling Group, come as Massachusetts lawmakers consider incentives for e-bikes.

It's a gas, gas, gas: Moving hydrogen is difficult and expensive. A Spanish startup, H2Site, says it's got two answers — and it's raised €12.5m (~$13.2m) from Breakthrough energy Ventures, Engie and Equinor.

The company's proposed approaches: better blending with natural gas, and becoming a cracker for ammonia and methanol, per Bloomberg.

Finally, an EV charging network in...Northwest Arkansas: State policymakers are considering a plan to build an interstate charging station roughly every 50 miles, per our Axios Local colleagues.

The plan would harness Arkansas' $54 million share of the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure plan, established in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

5. 🌡️ Temperature check

Illustration of an earth in a roast pan with a meat thermometer.

• Energy Dome, a developer of utility-scale long-duration energy storage, closed an $11m bridge funding round led by the Evolution Fund of CDP Venture Capital. Existing investor Barclays also participated. http://axios.link/7adY

• OGCI Climate Investments announced an investment in KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis, which is developing the first carbon-capture project in Pennsylvania. http://axios.link/Cugp

• Ara Partners acquired Petainer, a U.K.-based producer of more sustainable beverage packaging. http://axios.link/iy60

• Deepki, an ESG data intelligence provider, acquired U.K.-based rival Fabriq. http://axios.link/rff9

• SSE (LSE: SSE) and Equinor (Oslo: EQNR) agreed to buy three U.K. electricity plans from Triton Power Co., with plans to develop “low carbon” projects. http://axios.link/ttLC 

• Alkegen, a specialty materials supplier, acquired a majority stake in Luyang Energy-Saving Materials, a Shenzhen-listed producer of specialty materials. http://axios.link/V0S0

• Ameren Missouri announced an agreement with EDF Renewables North America to acquire the 200 MWac/270 MWdc Huck Finn Solar Project in Missouri. http://axios.link/14va 

• Ceres, a fuel cell provider, announced an agreement with Shell to deliver a megawatt-scale solid oxide electrolyzer demonstrator next year to a Shell R&D facility in Bangalore. http://axios.link/swuQ

• Wilbur-Ellis announced an agreement with Guardian Agriculture, a developer of autonomous "crop protection" aircraft systems, to deploy Guardian's unmanned eVTOLs. http://axios.link/rhof

• Nextracker and Pittsburgh-based steel fabricator BCI Steel reopened the Bethlehem Steel factory. The site will produce solar tracking equipment for large-scale solar plants. http://axios.link/N6l7

6. Hot deals

• Tiger Infrastructure Partners named Andrew Harris as managing director, head of investor relations and ESG. He joins from North Sky Capital. http://axios.link/F6he

• Ameren (NYSE: AEE) named Leonard Singh as the next chairman and president of Ameren Illinois. He was previously SVP for Consolidated Edison Co. of New York. http://axios.link/BdDI

• Nature Energy, a Danish biomethane and renewable energy company, has appointed Alexis Glick as CEO of its North America business. Glick was previously CEO of GenYouth. http://axios.link/T7LQ

• Solidia Technologies, a supplier of decarbonized building materials, named Kathleen Walton as CFO. She previously was CFO of NitroCrete. http://axios.link/rZUS

Reading the tea leaves: The press release notes she is an expert in "mergers and acquisitions." 👀

• NovaCharge, an EV charging hardware and software integrator, named Praveen Mandal as CTO. Mandal was previously CTO of Volta Charging. http://axios.link/Zukc

• Catherine Little and Annie Cook joined Bracewell as partners in the law firm's energy regulatory practice in Washington, D.C., with a focus on pipeline safety. http://axios.link/SrKr

• Schneider Electric is launching a new U.S. team focused on federal contracts for energy management and industrial automation. It'll be led by senior vice president Jay Owen. http://axios.link/0hjf

7. It's personnel

It's deals-palooza Tuesday here at Climate Deals, so let's jump right in.

🍅 Megan's weekend farmers market haul was a major success so she's been working through some favorite summer recipes. Last night was spaghetti squash with summer marinara sauce, recipe courtesy of Chrissy Teigen. 

🍽️ Another upside to having family visit: leftovers. Linguine with baby clams for lunch, grilled steak(!) with a side of roasted potatoes and grilled corn for dinner, three-layer cheesecake for dessert. Alan will be working out today. 

Thanks for reading Climate Deals! Please share with your friends, family and lactose intolerant acquaintances.

June 28, 2022

1 big thing: EV financing startup raises $18M