Funding to foodtech and agtech (agrifoodtech) startups reached $29.6 billion in 2022, down 44% year-over-year (YoY), according to a new report from food, agriculture, and climate-tech venture capital firm AgFunder, in collaboration with global ecosystem partner Temasek.

Atlassian cofounder and renewables advocate Mike Cannon-Brookes has backed a new fund to finance grid-scale battery projects via his family fund, Grok Ventures.

It’s been a spicy week for raises this week with a whopping $178 million being split across six startups, with the largest sitting at $105 million on its own.

Decarbonisation startup Loam, which uses microbes to sequester carbon in farm soils, has raised $105 million in a Series B.

These days climate investing is hot — if you will pardon the awful pun — but the days of just raising a fund and calling it “climate focused” are well and truly over.

Mushroom protein player Fable has roped in celebrity backers in its push to dive deeper into the US, UK and Asian markets, with Australian media personality Osher Gunsberg investing in the company’s latest funding round.

Global investment in the low-carbon energy transition totaled $1.1 trillion in 2022 – a new record and a huge acceleration from the year before – as the energy crisis and policy action drove faster deployment of clean energy technologies.

2022 was a significant year for clean tech investment growth on the platform with clean energy growth outperforming all other sectors with 40% more investors moving into the space in 2022 than the year before.

Climate change crusader and outspoken cattle industry critic Bill Gates has thrown his support behind an Australian start-up that has developed technology to slash methane emissions from beef and dairy industries.

The founders of Envato and neobank Up have backed Brisbane-based fintech Bloom Impact Investing, as the investing app surpassed $1.6 million in funds under management and 200 customers.

A University of Sydney Professor developing cutting edge solar technology has received $2.78 million in research funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to commercial the idea in a partnership with Sydney startup SunDrive.

As we look back at 2022, it’s not all doom and gloom when it comes to climate action. Progress has been made on a number of fronts, with the growth in renewable energy leading the charge - in the EU, solar power soared by almost 50 per cent this year.

Some people are calling 2022 the year the party ended. Others are calling it the hangover, or even the new normal. What we can all agree on is that 2022 was a year of reckoning for the venture capital (VC) industry.

Carbon management startup Avarni has raised $3 million in venture funding, less than 12 months after launching.

Prince William and The Earthshot Prize revealed the 2022 Earthshot Prize winners – an accomplished group of entrepreneurs and innovators spearheading ground-breaking solutions to repair and regenerate the planet. Each winner was awarded a £1 million prize at the second-annual Earthshot Prize awards ceremony

Climate action frameworks have yet to support climate-smart startups. That needs to change.

Climate tech funding represented more than a quarter of venture capital investment in 2022 so far, and has been in the upper half of the 20-30% range since the start of 2018, according to PwC’s new State of Climate Tech 2022 report.

The IKEA Foundation, a strategic philanthropy funded by IKEA owner INGKA Foundation, announced today plans to deploy €600 million in climate funding by 2025. Key areas of deployment identified by the foundation include stimulating a shift to alternative and plant-based proteins, and reducing methane emissions in agriculture.

Country Road will invest $1.5 million in grant funding into projects driving climate solutions in the Australian fashion industry over the next three years in what it claims is a first for a local retailer.