Mike Butcher
Editor At Large
The Latest from Mike Butcher
Agreena, a regenerative farming carbon market, raises $4.7M seed from Giant Ventures
Farming accounts for 24% of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, and this is largely due to the intensive, “industrial” farming methods employed in the last few decades, together with the
Lunar Ventures launches technically oriented, €40M fund, aimed at deep tech startups
Lunar Ventures, a new, technically oriented VC fund aimed at early-stage deep tech startups, is announcing the closing of its €40 million first fund. Lunar was founded in Berlin in 2019 by Dr Elad V
Company-builder VC Antler says it can back startups to Series C, but what are its terms?
Emerging out of Singapore as primarily a “company builder” in 2017, Antler made its name as a runner of a global startup generator program and investing from a very early, pre-seed stage. It tende
2150 VC hits $312M for fund to build and run cities greener, and emit vastly less CO2
Back in February new European VC 2150 launched the first $240 million close of its fund to back technologies reducing carbon emissions via the medium of cities, which pump out CO2 at a prodigious rat
Atlantic Labs spins-out FoodLabs, a €100M food tech fund addressing climate and health
In the latest sign that the tech industry is pivoting toward climate and sustainability, Atlantic Food Labs — an offshoot of the Berlin fund Atlantic Labs headed by long-time tech investor Chris
Turkish tech publisher Webrazzi acquires Tech.eu, consolidating tech news across Europe
Webrazzi, the main tech startup media title in Turkey, has acquired Tech.eu, the long-time tech startup site in Europe. The pooled entity of Webrazzi and Tech.eu will now offer combined editorial, dat
Tracking CO2 emissions for supply chains leads Normative to a €10M fund raise
Increasingly, companies are being encouraged by governments to engage in carbon accounting, but of course, only a small number of companies actually do. Even those probably count only 10% of their emi
Pandemic-driven boom in e-commerce helps Huboo’s warehousing platform close $81M
Many e-commerce businesses run their entire order fulfillment process in-house because outsourcing it can be expensive. But the COVID-19 pandemic has supercharged many small and medium-sized businesse
RepAir Carbon realised fuel cell tech could be applied to CO2 capture — now they plan to scale
Existing technologies for direct air capture technologies require a lot of heat to remove the CO2, after it’s been absorbed into filters. The process to date has been laborious and often highly
Podcastle raises $7M for its all-in-one platform for podcast production and publishing
Both Anchor and Descript have made their names as being among the most significant Podcast creation platforms of recent times, but hoving into the rear-view mirror recently has been Podcastle, an all-
Eight Roads launches its fourth fund: $450M aimed at European/Israeli scaleups
European VC Eight Roads is launching its fourth fund of $450 million for European and Israeli tech companies, aiming for another 15-20 across a broad range of consumer, software as a service, fintech
Five Seasons Ventures pulls in €180M fund to tackle human health and climate via food tech
Food tech is booming in Europe and is growing exponentially. In 2020, €3 billion went into European food tech companies (State of European Tech Report, March 2021), and the pandemic has accelerated
Al Gore puts $600M into UK Green energy-tech startup Octopus Energy Group
Former Vice President Al Gore has invested $600 million of equity into U.K. energy startup Octopus Energy Group via his Generation Investment Management vehicle, taking a stake of approximately 13% in
Climate volatility helps agtech platform Semios raise $100M round led by Morningside
One of the greatest challenges for farmers today is the increasing volatility in the climate, leading to unpredictable weather patterns, making growing conditions challenging. If farmers can’t grow
Toothfairy’s virtual dentist app raises £3M seed round led by ADA Ventures and Slingshot
Platforms for dentists are booming right now as many governments gradually make it harder to access dentistry via social care, especially in the U.K. But the most lucrative market is cosmetic dentistr
Hospitals/clinics patient platform Heydoc raises $8.3M Series A led by Smedvig Capital
Heydoc, a system for managing the medical data and admin tasks in medical practitioners, has closed an $8.3 million Series A round led by Smedvig Capital with existing investors Hambro Perks, Triple
Guardian backed-fund invests in Unlock, an NFT protocol designed for subscriptions and memberships
Monetization for the creator economy continues to be a huge issue and opportunity, but creators mostly have to lock themselves into platforms like Patreon to realize their value. A better method would
Federated Genomic data startup Lifebit raises $60M round led by Tiger Global
Genomic data is considered to be the key to unlocking so-called “precision medicine”. Some estimates suggest that by 2025, 500 million human genomes will have been sequenced, but only a fr
Heartcore Capital bets on Europe with a $200M fund for consumer tech startups
Heartcore Capital, one of the few VCs to focus on consumer technology, has raised a $200 million early-stage fund for those kinds of startups across Europe. Heartcore IV, the firm’s flagship investm