The Latest from Harri Weber
Irrigreen’s precision sprinklers prevent water waste and wet legs
Investors just pumped millions into Irrigreen, a startup vying to quench America’s thirsty lawns with “approximately 50% less water.” Seed investor Ulu led the $15 million funding ro
Startup says the seaweed blobbing toward Florida has a silver lining
A brown macroalgae native to the Atlantic’s Sargasso Sea is increasingly a menace to coastal ecosystems and communities across the Gulf of Mexico, ever since mats of the normally beneficial seaw
Rawr? Green Li-ion recharges with $20.5M to scale its recycling tech
Green Li-ion says its battery recycling machines are the “size of a small house,” so it’s no wonder the Singapore-based startup needed to top up on funds. It’d only raised abou
Elemental aims to pump $43M into climate startups with ‘deep community impact’
Elemental Excelerator, a nonprofit investor in climate-tech startups including BlocPower and ChargerHelp, says it’s “doubling down” in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank‘s coll
Tesla has a home battery to sell you, with or without solar
Tesla is opening up Powerwall home battery sales, nearly two years after limiting them because its supply was “too low.” Tesla announced its backup battery tech long ago, in 2015, explicit
Microsoft bets on algae to mitigate its growing carbon footprint
Like all of its peers in the tech industry, Microsoft has a carbon pollution problem. The software giant’s emissions are on the rise, in spite of a pledge from the company to be carbon negative
Climate tech startups team up to decarbonize Arizona concrete plant
Local governments in the southwestern U.S. are putting up $150,000 to back what they say is a pioneering effort to “turn air into concrete at scale.” The funds will help cover the cost of
Honda’s aging hydrogen fuel cells get new life in data center
Honda bailed on the Clarity — its only hydrogen-powered car in the U.S. — but the automaker hasn’t quit on fuel cells. That’s the message Honda sent with a peculiar announcement today:
Everything Elon Musk and execs shared (and skipped) at Tesla Investor Day
The big, giant message Tesla CEO Elon Musk and other execs tried to impart during its four-hour Tesla Investor Day was how the company would be the driver of a global shift away from fossil fuels and
Startup inks $65M deal to help Air Force make ‘sustainable’ jet fuel on bases
Air Company, a startup that turns carbon dioxide into perfume, vodka, hand sanitizer and aviation fuel, is now on the U.S. Defense Department’s payroll, so to speak. The JetBlue and Toyota-backe
Arcimoto promises new 3-wheeled EVs will steer better as it ramps up 2023 deliveries
Arcimoto, maker of doorless three-wheelers, says it is about ready to bang out some new electric vehicles. That’s quite a turnaround from January, when the EV startup halted production and warne
Pass the grass: How Plantd aims to decarbonize new buildings
No matter how you slice it, buildings are serious climate change drivers. Every component of the so-called built environment — from off-site materials production and construction to electricity and
The Arcimoto Fun Utility Vehicle is a blast (that might not last)
“That doesn’t look safe.” The statement would follow me for days. Every time I mentioned I was test driving Arcimoto’s Fun Utility Vehicle — an open-air, all-electric three-wheeler — a fri
BoxPower wants to cut emissions, wildfire risk by taking power off the main grid
After sparking California’s second-largest wildfire ever, and dozens more in recent years, it’s no secret that Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) — one of the nation’s largest uti
Recycleye grabs $17M, calling plastic crisis a ‘tremendous business opportunity’
Highlighting the plastic industry’s infamous track record on recycling, London-based Recycleye says it raised $17 million in new funding led by “deep tech” investor DCVC. The startup
Plant-based Rebellyous is raising millions to ‘rethink the nugget’
Rebellyous, a startup that’s striving to build “a better chicken,” has raised at least $20 million in fresh funding, TechCrunch has learned. Based in Seattle, the venture-backed comp
‘Keep Lex filthy’: Users react to queer dating app’s new direction
Lex, the hookup and social app that launched in 2019 with a nod to lesbian personal ads from the ’80s, is changing. Only, precisely how much will change is still an open question. Sure, the venture-
Mark Cuban’s bidet brand buys shower startup that wooed Tim Cook
The folks behind Nebia — the techy shower-head startup backed by Apple CEO Tim Cook and a host of other big names — have sold to Mark Cuban’s Brondell, which makes bidets, air purifiers and
Tesla’s energy storage arm caps 2022 with ‘highest level’ of deployments ever
The growth keeps coming for Tesla’s energy storage business. On Wednesday, the automaker said its home and utility-scale battery deployments reached 6.5 gigawatt hours (GWh) during its fiscal 20
GM, please build the baby EV pickup of my dreams
In an industry obsessed with making everything huge (at least here in the U.S.), you may not’ve expected GM to show interest in an electric baby pickup, but here we are. GM is considering a pick