PaaS FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRI-TECH, ELECTRICITY FROM OLIVE PITS, AND ECO-ZEPPELINS

In this week's email:

• Ecozen raises $7M to build a green agri-tech stack

• UPS piloting cargo e-bikes

• Turning olive pits into electricity

• Are hydrogen-powered zeppelins the solution to eco air travel?

Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 35 seconds

FUNDING ALERT: ECOZEN RAISES INR 54 CRORE (ABOUT $7M USD) TO BUILD A SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE-TECHNOLOGY STACK

I almost glossed over this. Admittedly I didn’t quite understand Ecozen’s business model right away. I’m glad I forced myself to not be lazy and take a closer look. This Indian climate tech company is doing something really cool. They are building an agri-tech technology stack - composed of both hardware and software.

Ecozen has two core products: a solar-powered water pump and a solar-powered cold-storage room. Both products are connected to Ecozen’s software platform that helps predict and manage ongoing maintenance. The software reduces any down-times in the hardware (pump and cold-storage room) which improves profits for producers of agricultural products. They also have a mobile app-based B2B marketplace connecting suppliers and vendors of agricultural goods.

The new segment of funding - which is part of a larger series C planned at INR 200 crore (about $26M USD) - will go towards expanding their platform. The ambitious additions will include IoT devices, motor-controls, data-science capabilities, and thermal energy storage, amongst other areas.

The company is attempting to create an agricultural technology platform-as-a-service with sustainability baked-in throughout their technology. The vision is ambitious and inspiring. 

 I wonder if we can use a similar model in other markets? Can we accelerate a transition to a more sustainable agriculture production system if there are platform solutions that are easily accessible to market participants that can be quickly implemented and are immediately ROI-positive? I don’t see why not… If you know of other players in this space (or adjacent ones) that are doing something similar, let me know! I’d love to feature them here. 

UPS LAUNCHES PILOT FOR ELECTRIC-ASSISTED CARGO BIKES 

This week UPS unveiled a program that’s testing electric-assisted cargo bikes for last-mile delivery in urban areas. The pilot, which includes New York City and a few European cities, is part of the company's broader initiative to achieve Carbon Neutrality by 2050. UPS is partnering with Fernhay which manufactures sustainable last-mile delivery vehicles. The eQuad will be an addition to the company’s existing fleet of more than 1000 electric vehicles.

QUICK BURSTS

• Jobs/Funding Alert Part 2: Terra.do raises $5M seed-funding round to grow their climate technology jobs platform! The platform will be more than just a job portal; it will include educational content, host online communities, and facilitate climate-career boot camps. Their mission is to get 100M people to work in climate tech by 2030. Awesome goal!

• Turning Olive Pits into Electricity: A group from Greenovate Europe, a non-profit that runs projects focused on sustainability innovation, retrofitted a Diesel engine to run on biofuel. The two-year long project culminated in running the engine for 500 hours on a fuel made from agricultural waste products (like olive pits!)

• Eco-Zeppelins: Hybrid Air Vehicles just scored an order of 10 of its twin-zeppelins powered by helium from Spanish Airline, Air Nostrum. These things are a lot slower than airplanes but have less than a tenth of the carbon footprint per passenger. Could zeppelins, or a similar option, be a path towards reducing the massive impact of air travel on the environment?

Thanks for reading! See you next week.