Congruent Ventures
Assembly Line
Lydian Raises $12M for Energy-Efficient E-fuels
Lydian, a startup aiming to produce sustainable, CO2-derived fuels and chemicals, has announced $12M in new seed funding co-led by Congruent Ventures and Galvanize Climate Solutions. Participating investors included Grok Ventures, Voyager Ventures, Union Square Ventures (USV), Overture VC, and Overlap Holdings. This funding adds to $3M in previously unannounced funding in June 2022 from Congruent, USV, Voyager, and Global Founders Capital. The company plans to use the new funding to build an integrated pilot plant in 2024 which will be capable of producing over 5,000 gallons of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) per year. Lydian is already producing small quantities of e-fuel in its Cambridge-based lab.
Lydian’s proprietary, high-temperature electric reactor enables the production of the world’s lowest cost e-fuels, a category of drop-in alternatives to transportation fuels made from captured CO2 and renewable electricity. Lydian also aims to produce carbon-negative versions of many other industrial chemicals.
AMP Robotics Raises $91 Million in Series C Financing
AMP Robotics Corp. (“AMP”), a pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and infrastructure for the waste and recycling industry, has raised $91 million in corporate equity in a Series C financing, led by Congruent Ventures and Wellington Management as well as new and existing investors including Blue Earth Capital, Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (SIP), Tao Capital Partners, XN, Sequoia Capital, GV, Range Ventures, and Valor Equity Partners. This new round of funding follows a $55 million Series B financing led by XN in January 2021.
AMP will use the latest funding to scale its business operations while continuing its international expansion. Demand for robotics to retrofit existing recycling infrastructure continues to thrive; among historic demand for recycled commodities of all types, the industry needs capacity to meet the 2025 goals of consumer packaged goods companies that have committed to the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) content. The company’s core technology business has grown accordingly; the new capital will enhance manufacturing capacity to support a fleet of approximately 275 robots around the world and further AMP’s ongoing development of AI-enabled automation applications for recycling, like AMP Vortex™, the company’s latest innovation for recovery of film and flexible packaging. AMP also has three production facilities in the Denver, Atlanta, and Cleveland metropolitan areas; the funding will help drive further growth of the company’s secondary sortation business in the United States.