Week 3:

Heating Startups:

1. Gradyent

 Founded: 2019, Netherlands

Founders: 
Hervé Huisman, Robert Vrancken, Freek Smelt

Elevator Pitch:
Gradyent develops a Digital Twin for district heating networks that lets customers simulate scenarios, improve on settings and as a result reduce costs and emissions.

Problem They Solve:
Gradyent understand that as heating networks reduce temperatures and add more sustainable heat sources, they are becoming increasingly complex. These systems also often have limited central heat sources and old or even outdated control systems.

Impact:
Gradyents Digital Twin provides a virtual simulation of a physical heating network. This twin allows scenarios to be simulated and analyzed, giving operators better insight into the network’s optimal settings. The platform analyzes the customer heat demand and combines this information with the hydraulic and thermo-dynamic losses within the network. The platform setup is secure and flexible and estimated to result in 30% lower heat losses, 10% lower CO2 emissions & 20% lower capex.

Stage & Amount Raised:
Seed, €1.9M

Interested in Gradyent?
If you are interested in learning more about Gradyent, see here

  Alternative Plastic Startups:

2. Sway bioplastics

Founded: 2020, San Francisco

Founders:
Julia Marsh,  Matthew Mayes,  Leland Maschmeyer

Elevator Pitch:
Sway is developing a plastic packaging alternative made from seaweed.

Problem They Solve:
Plastic is a massively harmful product because of both its creation from fossil fuels and its incredibly long life span. Both of these reasons are motivating factors in the hunt for an alternative that is cheap and has similar properties. 

Impact:
Sway’s plastic alternative is not only a product that does minimal harm, but it helps regenerate the ecosystems petroleum-based plastic damages. Their packaging is made from seaweed, a resource that replenishes ocean ecosystems and empowers coastal communities who farm it. The end product, which is flexible and technically outperforms traditional plastic, can then be composted in your backyard after use.

Stage & Amount Raised: 
Seed, $2.5M

Interested in Sway
To learn more about their product, see here

Energy & Renewable Startups:

3. Brayfoil

Founded: 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa

Founders:
Robert Bray, Matthew Bray

Elevator Pitch:
Brayfoil has developed a patented biomimicry-inspired blade technology that changes shape like a bird’s wing.

Problem They Solve:
Brayfoil identified one major obstacle in the face of current wind power technology. This is that although current blades have optimal shape during normal loads, when they are under extreme loads they generate massive force on the turbine base and components, resulting in shorter life-spans. 

Impact: 
Brayfoil are creating morphing wing technology that can be used not only in the wind turbine industry but in any industry that uses aerofoil such as automotive, aerospace, and sailing. In the case of the wind industry, adaptive blades are able to change shape to drastically decrease storm loadings, thus increasing the device lifespan and decreasing the cost of the components and support structures.

Stage & Amount Raised:
Seed, $2M

Interested in Brayfoil?
To view their tech or learn more, see here.

Bio-Plastic & Food-Waste Startups:

4. Full Cycle Bioplastics

Founded: 2014, San Jose, California

Founders: 
Dane Anderson, Jeffrey Anderson

Elevator Pitch:
Full Cycle are turning organic waste into a compostable alternative to oil-based plastic.

Problem They Solve:
Full Cycle aim to tackle 3 key environmental issues through their solution. The first is the the growing amount of plastic waste, the second is the 1.4 billion tons of food waste generated each year, and the third is the contribution these have towards global greenhouse gas emissions.

Impact:
Full Cycle has developed a patented technology that repurposes organic waste using bacteria-powered alchemy. They use a natural process to convert mixed feedstocks that does not rely on cultivated food crops, arable land or GMO bacteria. From this process, they create PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate) biopolymers, a naturally occurring polymer that is a low-cost, low-carbon alternative to existing materials such as plastic.

Stage and Amount Raised:
Seed, $2M

Interested in Full Cycle?
To learn more about their technology or get in touch, see here

Land-use & Data Startups:

5. Overstory

Location: 2018, Amsterdam

Founders:
Indra den Bakker, Anniek Schouten, Roelof Pieters

Elevator Pitch:
Overstory are providing large-scale, real-time vegetation intelligence that can be used to prevent wildfires and power outages.

Problem They Solve:
 Power outages and wildfires are very often caused by vegetation’s interference with the electric grid, making vegetation intelligence a huge asset to electrical utilities. Furthermore, better, real-time vegetation intelligence can help us understand how to best protect wildlife and mitigate climate impacts.

Impact:
Overstory use machine learning to interpret satellite imagery and climate data to gain detailed insight into vegetation. This information helps utilities implement risk-based pruning plans that take into account their area’s unique characteristics and resources and can be easily integrated into existing tools and utility workflows. This work contributes to enabling smarter infrastructure management and safer communities that are better prepared for climate impacts.

Amount Raised:
Seed, $5.9M

Interested in Overstory?
To learn more about their technology or get in touch see here