20 companies tackling climate change
2022-01-12
Confido
8 minutes
For our first top 20 of 2022, we’re taking a deep dive into the businesses working to turn the tide on climate change.
The EU has identified the top three causes of climate change as fossil fuels and carbon emissions, deforestation, and livestock farming. There are numerous sources for fossil fuels but the most significant are electricity and other energy types, transportation, and land use for food. These are also sources of carbon emissions, but one source that is a massive contributor but not commonly recognized is plastic pollution. Plastic is broken down by sunlight just enough to release greenhouse gases and does so for its entire lifetime in the environment like rivers, lakes, and oceans.
This year’s forecast suggests that 2022 will be one of the Earth’s hottest years. Around the world, we are seeing the impact of global warming and climate change in unprecedented heat, weather patterns like hurricanes and wildfires, and continued and worsening droughts. But we haven’t given up yet and these 20 companies are working to fight against climate change and to create a greener world for future generations.
Deforestation and carbon footprints
CO2 emissions is one of the top contributors to climate change and is only exaggerated by the loss of the planet’s natural CO2 absorbers, trees. In order to counteract the negative impacts of carbon emissions we need to not only reduce our carbon footprint, but support the restoration of Earth’s forests to absorb what CO2 we still produce and we can do so thanks to companies like these.
About: Ecologi calculates companies’ collective carbon footprint and enables them to offset it through planting trees. That funding directly impacts atmospheric CO2 levels. As of their last Equity Crowdfunding round in Nov 2021, Ecologi has raised a total of £6m in funding over 2 rounds.
Location: Andover, UK
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: £6m
About: Dendra's mission is to enable scalable restoration of the natural world using automation and intelligence. They provide integrated analytics and planting solutions for large-scale ecosystem restoration. As of their last Series A round in Sept 2020, Dendra has raised a total of $21.3m in funding over 7 rounds.
Location: Oxford, UK
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
Funding: $12.5m
About: Tred tracks your carbon footprint, helps you reduce your impact, and gives you a simple way to offset the rest. And every time you spend, you will help plant trees: their profits fund reforestation projects, not fossil fuels. As of their last Seed round in July 2021, Tred has raised a total of £1.2m in funding over 2 rounds.
Location: Yorkshire, UK
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
Funding: £1.2m
About: Heirloom aims to remove 1 billion tons of carbon dioxide using the world's most cost-effective Direct Air Capture solution, a mineralization process known as enhanced weathering.
Location: San Francisco, CA
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: Pre-Seed (N/A)
About: Climate Policy Radar uses technology to map and analyse policy data and climate solution pathways around the world in order to support policymaking and investments. Their goal is to provide data in order to help transition the world into being low carbon and resilient.
Location: London, UK
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: (N/A)
Water pollution
Plastic is a problem for a number of reasons, but in regards to climate change plastic in the ocean is increasing the amount of fossil fuels and CO2 released into the atmosphere. The conditions of water (oceans, rivers, lakes, etc) exacerbate the methane and ethylene produced from plastic that breaks down in the sun. Not to mention the damage it does to wildlife. These companies are cleaning up the plastic to improve all our chances.
About: The Ocean Cleanup develops technologies to extract, prevent, and intercept plastic pollutions. Using the ocean currents The Ocean Cleanup installs screens to channel floating plastic to a collection point where it is extracted and stored before being recycled into products. As of their last Grant round in May 2017, The Ocean Clean Up has raised a total of $35.4m in funding over 3 rounds.
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Company size: 51 – 100 employees
Funding: $35.4m
About: Oceanworks® is the largest global marketplace for sustainable materials specialising in hard to access ocean and averted plastic and a constantly expanding portfolio. Their platform is built to drive recycled plastic offtake and reduce demand for new virgin plastic.
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: N/A
About: CleanHub facilitates the collection and safe processing of ocean-bound plastic in high leakage locations, before it can cause damage. They work with businesses (including Confido!) to help reduce their environmental impact. As of their last Seed round in May 2021, CleanHub has raised a total of €4m in funding over 1 round.
Location: Berlin, Germany
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
Funding: €4m
About: ByFusion saw that plastic was becoming the greatest environmental threat and decided to become part of the solution by converting all types of plastic waste into a high-performing, advanced building material called ByBlock®. These blocks allow communities to make use of their plastic waste. As of their last Seed round in April 2021, ByFusion has raised a total of $1.5m in funding over 1 round.
Location: Gardena, CA
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: $1.5m
Fossil Fuels and utilities
If you combine the CO2 emissions of energy, electricity, and transportation they make up almost 50% of the world’s CO2 emissions. Creating cleaner energy and transportation can make a massive impact in the fight against climate change, and these companies are working on ways to make sure we have a cleaner and brighter future.
About: Northvolt supports clean energy through R&D, industrialization, and recycling. They develop sustainable lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles that are
environment-friendly, manufactured with minimal carbon footprint, and with recycling technology without compromising with important eco-systems, enabling the auto industry to replace fossil fuels with electricity in an efficient manner. As of their last Venture – Series Unknown round in June 2021, Northvolt has raised a total of $6b in funding over 9 rounds.
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Company size: 1001 – 5000 employees
Funding: $6b
About: Ripple Energy wants everyone to be able to own their own source of clean, low-cost energy. They are working to energy ownership affordable and accessible for everyone. As of their last Equity Crowdfunding round in Nov 2020, Ripple Energy has raised a total of £1.45m in funding over 2 rounds.
Location: London, UK
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
Funding: £1.45m
About: Ovo Energy is an independent energy technology company and supplier. They set out to make energy cheaper, greener, and simpler. As of their last Corporate round in Feb 2019, OVO Energy has raised a total of $323.6m in funding over 3 rounds.
Location: Bristol, UK
Company size: 1001 – 5000 employees
Funding: $323.6m
About: Greyparrot’s goal is a digitized waste system using their AI-based waste recognition software. Their software monitors and sorts waste in order to capture and reuse it in the most effective way so the planet can be kept clean for generations to come. As of their last Seed round in Nov 2020, Greyparrot has raised a total of $4.8m in funding over 3 rounds.
Location: London, UK
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: $4.8m
About: Sunswap is working to replace diesel Transport Refrigeration Units (TRUs) with their zero-emission ones. They currently have a working prototype and are collaborating with major UK supermarkets on product development. As of their last Equity Crowdfunding round in Dec 2020, SunSwap has raised a total of £512k in funding over 1 round.
Location: Southwark, UK
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: £512k
Individual Consumption
Livestock farming (including dairy production) and land use for food growth contributes almost a quarter of all CO2 fossil fuel emissions. Consumers play a huge role in the fight against climate change because what we choose to buy as an individual has an impact, and what we do with our purchases can lend a hand in the fight against climate change and these companies are focusing on giving us options; pre-, during, and post-purchase.
About: TerraCycle takes otherwise unrecyclable waste and turns it into various consumer products. They have partnered with different brands to reduce products ending in a landfill by helping their customers recycle. As of their last Equity Crowdfunding round in Jan 2020, TerraCycle has raised a total of $6m in funding over 4 rounds.
Location: Trenton, NJ
Company size: 501 – 1000 employees
Funding: $6m
About: Better Dairy is building a better future for food, starting with dairy but with animals out of the equation. As of their last Seed round in Dec 2020, Better Dairy has raised a total of £1.7m in funding over 2 rounds.
Location: London, UK
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: £1.7m
About: OLIO is a free location-based app that helps communities save unwanted food from ending up in the bin. Users can take photos of food they aren’t going to use so their neighbours can instead. As of their last Series B round in Sep 2021, OLIO has raised a total of $53.1m in funding over 5 rounds.
Location: London, UK
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
Funding: $53.1m
About: allplants delivers hand-prepared vegan meals to your doorstep in 100% recyclable, partly compostable, and mostly reusable packaging. They are working to create delicious meals to inspire more plant-based meals so that people and the planet can thrive. As of their last Series B round in Oct 2021, allplants has raised a total of £52.8m in funding over 5 rounds.
Location: London, UK
Company size: 11 – 50 employees
Funding: £52.8m
About: Solar Foods aims to redefine food production by creating nutrient-rich protein out of air and electricity. This will be environmentally revolutionary as it will make production no longer reliant on agriculture, weather, or climate, and the protein will be cost-competitive. Solar Foods hopes to open their first factory and begin production in 2023. As of their last Debt Financing round in April 2021, Solar Foods has raised a total of $42m in funding over 5 rounds.
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: $42m
About: Giki offers a free tool for individuals to help them understand, track and reduce their Carbon Footprint and also offers companies the tools to run employee sustainability programmes using the Giki tool. Get started with Giki Zero, your step by step guide to a lighter carbon footprint, here.
Location: London, UK
Company size: 1 – 10 employees
Funding: N/A
We want to do everything we can to help support these fantastic businesses and the work they’re doing to fight climate change.
If you belong to a tech for good startup and want to have a chat about how we could scale your Product or Tech teams, do get in touch at contact@confidotalent.com.
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