Zero Carbon Capital

🏭 We're super-excited to announce our #investment in Exergy3 Limited, a #spinout from The University of Edinburgh, building modular, high-temperature #ThermalStorage to drive the #electrification of #IndustrialHeat. 🔥 Energy use in industry makes up nearly a quarter 👀 of our annual greenhouse gas emissions. Most of that energy is used to provide heat to the processes we use to make chemicals, food, materials and more to support our modern lives and almost all of that heat (especially at temperatures exceeding 200°C) is delivered by burning natural gas on site. Burning natural gas produces carbon dioxide - hence the emissions challenge. ⚡️ #Electrification of this heat using clean renewable generation can massively reduce these emissions, potentially even to zero. That's where Markus Rondé, Adam Robinson and the team come in. Their innovative, modular thermal batteries store heat at up to 1200°C and can be charged quickly when clean, cheap, renewable energy is available. They can store that heat with very low losses until it's needed, when electricity is expensive and dirty. 💰 We were joined in this round by Old College Capital and Scottish Enterprise and the funds will help Exergy3 accelerate the development of their pilot project with Annandale Distillery in #Scotland. We can't wait to see the impact that this team can have on industrial emissions from Scotland to the rest of the world! Read more on our blog: https://lnkd.in/eZiS_GTK Read the Exergy3 blog post: https://lnkd.in/evMT6-6A

🔦 Spotlight on…. NetZeroNitrogen 🌱 Back in December 2022, we led the pre-seed investment round in NetZeroNitrogen alongside our friends at Revent. We’d been looking for a solution to fix the >1Gt CO2e/year problem created by synthetic nitrogen fertilisers - emissions from the production of ammonia with grey hydrogen using the Haber-Bosch process, and field emissions of N2O after application. When we met NZN, we were impressed with their idea - a biological alternative which fixes nitrogen directly from the air, neatly solving both sources of emissions. We also loved the team: CEO Justin, bringing the skills to create a high-performing team, and CSO Gary, bringing the understanding of plant biology. 👨🔬 Fast forward eighteen months, and NZN have now proven that their idea actually works - in field trials they have demonstrated that their biological treatment can replace at least 25% of fertiliser, and crop yield is increased by up to 30%. This adds up to significant potential for increased farmer revenues alongside reduced GHG emissions. NZN has also been busy developing the go-to-market plan - Justin has been meeting with rice farmers to hear their requirements, understanding the regulatory environment and identifying potential distribution partners. 🙋♀️ If you’d like to find out more, Justin is going to be at The Drop next week - get in touch with him to meet up.    More about why we invested in NZN: https://lnkd.in/eiyv4kyW Excellent article about the N2O problem in agriculture: https://lnkd.in/esdSmg6A Photos include: - Test site in the Philippines - Justin with a rice farmer inspecting his fields as part of an interview - Justin visiting embassies to get support for NZN's deployment in SE Asia - The NZN team on a fun day - Justin on tour with his trusty ZCC coffee flask

🚀 An exciting month ahead for the ZCC team! Come meet us at one of the upcoming climate events in Europe and the US: 🇬🇧 Carbon Unbound Europe - September 11-12 📍 London, UK Our Principal Sarah will be a jury member at this carbon dioxide removal (CDR) focused event! 🇸🇪 SuperClimate - September 16 📍 Malmö, Sweden Our Managing Partner Pippa will be mingling with LPs and other GPs - make sure to meet her and learn more about what we do at ZCC! 🇸🇪 The Drop - September 17 📍 Malmo, Sweden Pippa, our Research & Analysis Lead Chloe and our Associate Max will be attending various ripples and side events! Chloe is also hosting a ripple on grid technologies herself! Sign up here: https://lu.ma/ico0j2fy. 🇬🇧 THE HEAT - September 20 📍 Oxfordshire, UK Sarah and Chloe will be diving into all things climate tech at this exciting climate tech festival! 🇺🇸 Climate Week NYC - September 22-29 📍 New York, US Pippa is heading to the Big Apple for what will undoubtedly be a week packed with thrilling events and content! We are looking forward to connecting with you at these events! Carbon Unbound | Super Climate | The Drop | 🔥THE HEAT | #climateweekNYC #venturecapital #climate #tech #hardware

The Drop is back! 🔥 And it's time to talk #grid! ⚡ Join our very own Research & Analysis Lead Chloe and Marc Bouchet from TDK Ventures in Malmö to discuss what challenges startups face in deploying critical grid technologies and to hear from founders themselves about how they tackle these. The Ripple is already fully subscribed but there will be extra headsets! Sign up to the waitlist here: https://lu.ma/ico0j2fy Pippa and Max will also be at the Drop and are looking forward to meeting you! Zero Carbon Capital | TDK Ventures | The Drop

 Waste #water and #wet waste as untapped resources for #decarbonisation From sewage to industrial effluents, these waste streams contain valuable materials that could contribute to decarbonisation by 🚽 minimising emissions from existing waste streams ♻️ displacing emissions in other sectors by extracting the components in waste streams e.g. biogenic carbon ZCC's Chloe been looking into this sector in our latest deep dive, exploring the tradeoffs involved in deciding which potential product is most valuable, looking at the different emerging technologies and highlighting the innovators working on them. ✍️ Read it here: https://lnkd.in/eiJvn9KA

It’s a wrap! We’ve had a busy Q2 at all the various climate tech events, and were lucky enough to get a few chances to contribute to panel conversations. Hopefully our paths crossed with you at one of these events! We also announced our new investments in Aed Energy pre-seed round, and in Cambridge Electric Cement’s seed round. Our Research and Analytics team published new blog posts spilling the tea on TEA, and what we need to modernise the grid. We also shared our thoughts about spinouts, carbon management and why we only invest in hard tech. 🔥 Aed Energy https://lnkd.in/e2CMs6fW 🏭 Cambridge Electric Cement https://lnkd.in/ejryghMP ☕️ TEA https://lnkd.in/eFwxRJRh ⚡️ Grid https://lnkd.in/eiCgeJzH 🎓 Spinouts https://lnkd.in/eQaFbMwP ⚛️ Hard tech https://lnkd.in/ecEzK5ZU 🌬 Carbon management https://lnkd.in/d9FXYwQQ We’ve got lots of plans for the summer - and a few announcements coming soon 👀 - but we’d love to hear from you if you are working on something new. 🍁 And, looking forward to seeing you all again in September. Our favourite “Back to School” event is The Drop in Malmo on 17th September - get in touch with Pippa, Max or Chloe if you would like to meet up. Watch out for applications to Chloe’s Ripple about the Grid, co-hosted with TDK Ventures' Marc Bouchet. ZCC will also be co-hosting a Super Climate party. 🏖 Hope you all have a great summer! Photos below: ✈️ Sarah at the Innovate UK Sustainable Aviation Fuel Initiative talking about how early-stage start-ups can raise money. 💸 Pippa at the Cambridge Judge Business School at the Cambridge University Energy Network Summit sharing thoughts about investing in innovation with engineering and management students. 💶 Pippa onstage at Energy Tech Summit in Bilbao exploring opportunities of catalytic capital, government-backed financing and blended finance. 🧱 Max at the EIT RawMaterials Summit in Brussels talking about decarbonising critical materials. 🌍 Pippa in London at Climate First Leadership Summit, talking about driving innovation amidst global challenges. 🍕 Max helping to kick off the new Carbon13 Berlin cohort sharing what investors are expecting from founders at ClimateTech & Pizza. 🧬 Sarah moderating the bioindustry panel at the Cleantech Scandinavia conference in Helsinki. 🚦 Pippa onstage with Undaunted: Tackling climate change with innovation during London Climate Action Week talking about signals, trends & levers in the climate innovation ecosystem. (and a bonus photo of our team dinner 😋)

We're proud to be part of the Project Frame mission to develop methodologies for forward-looking impact assessment so that we can all drive capital towards the most impactful technologies (and funds making those investments). It was great to be able to convene with the other working group members during London Climate Action Week and to plan for the year ahead. Read our Investor Profile and how it aligns with the Project Frame methodology here: https://lnkd.in/eVuHPrH4

🌆 We are very excited to announce our investment into Cambridge Electric Cement, a University of Cambridge spinout who are decarbonising cement by recycling concrete. Concrete is the most widely used material on earth after water, and is responsible for up to 8% of global CO2 emissions. Concrete itself is made up of around 10-15% cement, water, and aggregate (sand, gravel, crushed stone). The cement and water mix to harden and bind the aggregate together. It is the production of Portland cement that is responsible for the majority of the emissions. The source of emissions are two-fold. Portland cement is made up of lime (CaO), which itself is made by heating limestone (CaCO3) to >1450°C in a limestone kiln and for every tonne of lime produced, 0.8 tonnes of CO2 are released. The high temperatures required for this calcination are provided by natural gas – which itself releases CO2 when burned. Cambridge Electric Cement’s breakthrough allows them to dramatically reduce both of the sources of emissions. Their technology - first published in Nature - exploits the high temperature of electric arc furnaces used in steel recycling to reactivate recycled cement. Using recycled cement decarbonises the calcination emissions, whilst using renewable power for the furnace decarbonises the emissions for heat. And in replacing the flux typically used in EAFs (also emissions-intensive to produce as it is usually lime) they are reducing the emissions of steel production at the same time. CEC builds upon the Innovate UK-funded £6.5m 'Cement 2 Zero' industrial demonstrator project, with a consortium including industrial partners AtkinsRéalis, Balfour Beatty plc, CELSA GROUP, Day Group Ltd, Tarmac, and the Materials Processing Institute where the technology has been proven in a 7-tonne EAF. CEC are a spin-out from the University of Cambridge, led by an exceptional founding team of Bill Yost, Poppy Brewer and academic founders Cyrille Dunant, Prof. Julian Allwood and Dr Philippa Horton. This £2.25m investment round, led by ZCC, will enable CEC to industrialise production of its sustainable cement at Celsa Steel UK’s EAF facility in Cardiff, deliver a real-world construction demonstrator, and advance offtake agreements with partners and customers. Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, Legal & General, Parkwalk Advisors, Delph25 and Almanac Ventures are also participating in the round. Following the round, ZCC's Pippa will join CEC as an Investor Director. This is our second investment in the cement space, following our investment into Biozeroc's preseed round in 2022. Biozeroc are using limestone-producing bacteria to replace cement completely. More about why we invested: https://lnkd.in/ejryghMP Press release from CEC: https://lnkd.in/ecnkHeEz Photo: BBC

What makes a great TEA? (The answer isn't milk or sugar😋) Our chemists Chloe and Max took a look at the most important 'ingredients' that early-stage founders should be aware of when working on their techno-economic analysis (TEA). Check out our blog article below for: ✅ a comprehensive TEA #checklist to make sure you have everything covered 💡 DOs and DON'Ts when it comes to setting up your TEA model 💰 guidelines on #electricity, #hydrogen and #carbondioxide prices 📚 plenty of valuable resources to familiarise yourself with the topic As always, we would love to hear your feedback! https://lnkd.in/eFwxRJRh #TEA #tech #economics #entrepreneur #climate #climatetech #decarbonisation #venturecapital #investing

Amazing news from our Fund 1 portfolio company Echion Technologies today as they announce their £29m Series B round led by US battery-specialist Volta Energy Technologies, who are making their first investment into a Europe-headquartered company. They are joining existing investors BGF and Cambridge Enterprise. We're so proud of the progress Echion has made over the last few years with their XNO niobium-based anode technology, which safely enables higher-power longer-cycle life battery applications. They are exploring applications at the frontier of decarbonising heavy industry with the support of their manufacturing partnership with CBMM. This round will help them to continue to scale-up to meet demand from customers in North America and the Asia-Pacific region. Very few companies reach Series B, especially in the current funding climate. Congrats to Jean, Alex, Ceri, Benjamin and Sarah, and all at Echion on this huge achievement. https://lnkd.in/e-Jdudqn