Katapult, the Oslo-based global investment firm with a penchant for fostering early-stage, high-impact, climate-focused tech startups, is doubling down on its ocean and climate investments. From 2,500 applications, it picked 23 startups from 13 countries across five continents, illustrating what most of us have known for a hot minute: The global drive to combat climate change and bolster our oceans knows no borders.
But the inclusivity doesn’t stop at geography. As part of its broader initiative to champion gender diversity in the impact investment arena, Katapult is putting its money where its intentions are, with nearly 40% of the chosen startups being led by women.
The selected startups now embark on the investor’s accelerator program, which aims to nurture the startups further:
“In the Katapult 2023 accelerator program, our selected 23 startups will be meticulously equipped with practical skills and vital knowledge to enhance their impact in the Ocean and Climate technology sectors. We’re offering a structured blend of educational video modules and interactive workshops, ensuring each company not only gains essential skills but also access to a valuable network of mentors and potential investors. Our objective is straightforward: to elevate these companies by sharpening their strategy, management, and investor readiness, positioning them robustly for future success,” says Program Director Marcus Hølland Eikeland.
The diversity of problem spaces is staggering, ranging from developing mycelium-based meat production to integrating solar energy into the energy matrix and producing organic metal-like pigments, reducing microplastic from the environment and more.
The VC has a separate arm that focuses even more specifically on climate solutions aimed at the ocean.
“In our latest investment series, Katapult Ocean is honored to back 12 companies, delineating the future of the maritime and ocean technology sector. With innovations ranging from marine transport decarbonization to sustainable seaweed-based plastics and marine asset monitoring, these companies are strategically addressing vital challenges in ocean sustainability and climate resilience,” comments Jonas Skattum Svegaarden, CEO of Katapult Ocean. “We keenly anticipate collaborating with them as they profoundly impact our marine ecosystems and pave the way toward a more sustainable future for our oceans.”
A spokesperson for Katapult tells me that “Katapult Climate and Ocean have invested approximately €4-5 million in the 23 companies,” which works out to an average of around $230,000 invested per startup. The investor says that, in total, Katapult Ocean has made 25 investments in the last 12 months with €10 million invested. Katapult Climate has made 24 investments in the last 12 months with over €2 million invested.
Here is the current cohort:
Climate startups
Adamo Foods is a plant-based meat producer using precision fermentation. It offers sustainable steak and meat alternatives made from fungal mycelium.
Cirkula provides a digital platform that allows restaurants and stores to reduce their food waste — a marketplace for surplus food.
Gridio offers solutions for smart EV charging, combining energy price, energy emissions, energy storage, vehicle and battery information and more, via a consumer-facing app.
HERlab is a high-throughput AI and synthetic biology platform for screening, developing and optimizing novel non-conventional yeast hosts that would be more efficient and more scalable than currently available hosts.
Metalchemy is an operator of a nanotechnology manufacturer developing biodegradable and recyclable food packaging infused with silver nanoparticles to increase food shelf life and packaging solutions in other industries.
Over Easy Solar is building vertical bi-facil solar panels designed for flat and green rooftops that are easy to install, maintenance free and have a high energy yield.
Phoenix Carbon has developed a composite recycling solvolysis process that maintains product parity with virgin materials to unlock value from waste, reducing CO2 emissions and offering cost-effective quality alternatives to different industries.
Planboo is a carbon removal company that connects agriculture landowners with the technology to extract carbon from the atmosphere via pyrolysis (creating biochar), sharing the revenue of certified carbon removal credits with the landowners.
Solfium is a marketplace platform connecting customers to rooftop solar installers via an end-to-end app, aimed at being used from installing quotation to operation and maintenance. They work with large corporations to reduce their Scope 2 & 3 emissions by facilitating clean energy adoption.
Sparxell is developing innovative bio-inspired photonics technology that solves the pigment industry’s sustainability problems and regulatory problems by harnessing the capability to reproduce the intense color and shimmering effects displayed in nature using plant-based material.
The Tyre Collective is spearheading the capture and monitoring of tyre wear (microplastics) to accelerate the shift toward true zero-emission mobility. For that, they have developed a unique “catalytic converter for tyre wear,” leveraging electrostatic technology.
Ocean
Pascal Technologies is accelerating the transition to greener means of maritime propulsion through air lubrication technology that drastically improves the energy efficiency and range of electric, and other alternative fuel motors.
Hullbot is revolutionizing marine hull cleaning with its cost-effective, eco-friendly, fully autonomous underwater drones which can remove biofouling before it becomes an issue for the environment or the vessel’s fuel efficiency.
Mocean Energy is leading the charge for ocean wave energy adoption with its durable, scalable wave energy converter, designed to be deployed as a supplement for offshore energy projects, as well as serve as a standalone energy resource for island communities and other remote customers.
Triton Anchor provides efficient, environmentally friendly, versatile anchoring solutions to significantly lower the cost and installation time of floating wind and other offshore renewable energy, enabling greater, more rapid adoption for such projects in the process.
Syrenna is an ocean data company using cutting-edge subsea robotic solutions and AI to drastically improve ocean data collection, unlocking blue carbon markets and natural capital monitoring to enable greater restoration and conservation finance in the future.
Coral Vita has pioneered a profitable farming model to grow diverse and resilient coral in order to restore the world’s invaluable reef systems under threat from climate change and eutrophication.
Sway is a California-based clean tech startup scaling next-generation packaging made from bioplastics derived from seaweed, designed to be fully compatible with existing plastic manufacturing machinery.
WSense is enabling Internet of Underwater Things (ioUt) with “Subsea Wifi,” bringing the rapidly growing world of offshore infrastructure and other ocean assets online, and improving the versatility of such assets in the process.
Gigablue is on a mission to combat global warming through pioneering enhanced technology to improve the efficiency and viability of ocean fertilization as a means of carbon dioxide removal, addressing climate change at its roots for a sustainable future.
Vycarb is developing modular autonomous systems for precisely measuring and sequestering carbon dioxide in water via alkalinity enhancement, assisting customers to perform better MRV of their water-based systems, facilitating carbon credit generation in the process.
Newfish, by unlocking the power for microalgae to serve as a primary source of protein with its proprietary fermentation technology, is building a better way to provide people with great natural nutrition that doesn’t cost our earth and oceans.
ICODOS is de-fossilizing maritime shipping and other industries via its proprietary, scalable, low-cost and time-efficient e-methanol production which utilizes a hybrid, one-step process for carbon dioxide capture and methane synthesis.
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