Recent Deals – 23 August 2019
Agriculture & Food: |
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Motif FoodWorks, a developer of ingredients for the next generation of plant-based and healthy foods (previously known as Motif Ingredients), raised $27.5 million from General Atlantic and CPT Capital. This funding round added to the $90 million it raised from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Louis Dreyfus Company, Fonterra, and Viking Global when the company was founded in February this year. The company is a spin-out of Ginkgo Bioworks’ platform for biological engineering, and is leveraging its parent company’s biotechnology to create novel solutions for foods that provide consumers with choices, without compromising taste or nutrition. | |
Enabling Technologies: |
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Terminus Technologies, a Beijing-based developer of Internet of Things solutions for smart cities, raised $283 million in a growth equity round from China Everbright Bank, JD.com, Wanda Group, and iFlytek. Terminus was incubated by Everbright Holdings in 2015 to build China’s largest urban-level intelligent IoT platform to provide urban management, population management and construction for governments and enterprises. Terminus will use the funds to hire talent and develop its core business. | |
Energy & Power: |
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Energy Vault, a developer of an energy storage system using stacked concrete blocks, raised a $110 million in a Series B funding round from SoftBank. The company will be demonstrating the first 35MWh storage tower in northern Italy in 2019 and has also partnered with Cemex to develop its energy storage technology to assist renewables integration across the grid. | |
Materials & Chemicals: |
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Cemvita Factory, a developer of a CO2 utilization platform to produce nutrients and pharmaceuticals for deep space exploration, industrial chemicals and polymers, raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Oxy Low Carbon Ventures. This funding will be used for commercialization of new bio-engineered pathways that use CO2 as the feedstock for sustainable production of intermediate chemicals and polymers. | |
Transportation & Logistics: |
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Proterra, a developer of zero-emission, battery-electric buses that help fleet operators eliminate fossil fuel dependency and reduce costs, has authorized the sale of shares to raise $75 million, a new round of funding that would push the electric bus maker’s valuation past $1 billion. Previously, over $500M was raised from Daimler, Tao Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), GM Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, 88 Green Ventures, Edison Energy, Obvious Ventures, Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), Generation Investment Management, Hercules Capital, and Vision Ridge Partners. The company is reportedly exploring an IPO in the next 12 months. | |
