Temasek
Canvas Category Consultancy : Company : Private Equity
Incorporated in 1974, Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore. Supported by 12 offices globally, Temasek owns a S$403 billion (US$297 billion) portfolio as at 31 March 2022, mainly in Singapore and the rest of Asia.
Assembly Line
Fortera Secures $85M to Accelerate the Global Deployment of Low-Carbon Cement Production
To meet the growing demand to lower the cement industry’s carbon emissions, advanced materials manufacturer Fortera secured $85 million in Series C funding to scale the deployment of its low-carbon cement technology that integrates with existing infrastructure. The round included participation from previous investors Khosla Ventures and Temasek, and first-time investments from Wollemi Capital, NOVA by Saint-Gobain, Presidio Ventures, and Alumni Ventures. With operations at the company’s Redding ReCarb Plant underway, Fortera is positioned to move forward with additional plants that will produce ReAct® green cement, which has 70% less carbon dioxide (CO2) per ton than ordinary cement.
Fortera’s ReCarb process bolts onto existing cement manufacturing plants, captures the industrial CO2 emissions from traditional cement production, and converts it to mineral form to achieve a ready-to-use low-carbon cement. Since the company’s process integrates into established infrastructure, including feedstocks, capital investments, logistics, and sales networks, the path to wide-scale commercialization is shorter and more cost-effective. Fortera’s ReCarb technology operates at a significantly reduced kiln temperature and is compatible with renewable energy integration, which would further reduce emissions and enable zero CO2 cement production.
Nearfield Instruments secures €135 million in landmark deep-tech funding round
Nearfield Instruments, the developer of state-of-the art Metrology & Inspection (M&I) solutions for the semiconductor manufacturing industry, announced the successful closure of a €135 million Series-C funding round. The oversubscribed funding round is led by two new major investors, Walden Catalyst, an industry leading US venture capital firm helping the next generation of category-defining businesses in deep-tech, and Temasek, a global investor that also looks into opportunities in emerging technologies to solve complex and high impact challenges, and address market inflections. M&G Investments, a leading global asset manager, through its Catalyst strategy, is acting as a co-investor. The success of this round is further underscored by the participation of existing investors Innovation Industries, Invest-NL, and ING.
The growing complexities in advanced semiconductor manufacturing, driven by the surge in demand for higher performing and lower energy consuming chips, are addressed by Nearfield’s innovative process control solutions. These include the QUADRA 3D metrology system that provides non-destructive, high-throughput, and high-resolution metrology capabilities. Nearfield is deeply engaged with most major chip manufacturers globally, and QUADRA is fully validated and deployed in high-volume manufacturing.
Peak Energy on Track to Rapidly Scale Sodium-Ion Battery Manufacturing in the U.S. to Secure Future of Renewable Energy
Peak Energy, a U.S.-based company developing low-cost, giga-scale energy storage technology for the grid, announced it has secured its $55M Series A to launch full-scale production of its proven sodium-ion battery technology. Xora Innovation, an Early-Stage deep tech investing platform of Temasek, led the round, with significant participation from existing investor Eclipse, strategic partner TDK Ventures, and new investors Lachy Groom, Tishman Speyer, TechEnergy Ventures, Doral Energy-Tech Ventures and DETV-Scania Invest.
Sodium-ion is a stable and proven battery chemistry that offers advantages in cost, supply chain security, scale, and safety over lithium-ion, the industry’s current default battery storage choice. With the shift to sodium-ion technology underway worldwide at giga-scale, Peak Energy has emerged as the company best suited to deliver utility-scale sodium-ion storage in the U.S. The Series A financing from Xora Innovation, Eclipse, TDK Ventures, and other new strategic investors marks a pivotal inflection point in the clean energy transition and secures the future of the U.S. grid with domestically produced storage.
As Peak Energy moves fast to industrialize sodium-ion, the company is already experiencing significant demand for its battery systems. With access to meaningful new capital, Peak Energy enters the next phase of growth, launching the first full-scale production of sodium-ion storage in the U.S. The company’s sodium-ion batteries will deploy to a select group of six premier customers participating in its pilot program as early as next year. The roster includes three of the top five largest Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and electric utility companies in the country.
Antora Energy Raises $150 Million to Slash Industrial Emissions and Spur U.S. Manufacturing
Antora Energy, a leader in zero-emissions industrial heat and power, raised a $150 million Series B funding round led by Decarbonization Partners, a partnership between BlackRock and Temasek. This financing round will enable Antora to ramp production of its factory-made thermal batteries to deliver billions of dollars of zero-emissions energy to industrial customers. Emerson Collective, GS Futures, The Nature Conservancy, and a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC also participated in this round, alongside existing investors Trust Ventures, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, BHP Ventures, Overture VC, and Grok Ventures.
Antora is unlocking zero-emissions industrial energy, cheaper than fossil fuels. Antora leverages renewable electricity to heat blocks of solid carbon—a low-cost, earth-abundant, and safe storage medium that’s used extensively across industries—to glowing hot temperatures in an insulated module. The stored heat is then reliably delivered at the scale and temperatures that large industrial operations demand. Additionally, Antora’s thermal battery can output electricity at breakthrough efficiencies using Antora’s thermophotovoltaic (TPV) technology, which converts the stored heat directly into electricity without the drawbacks of a conventional heat engine.
Aira raises €145 million in Series B financing
Aira announces the completion of a €145 million Series B financing round with leading climate tech investors from Europe, the US and Asia. The financing was significantly oversubscribed and upsized from its initial €85 million target. The transaction was led by Altor, Kinnevik and Temasek. The equity funding will allow Aira to further accelerate the electrification of residential heating in Europe to enable European households to reduce their energy bills, to drive decarbonisation, and to reduce dependency on imports of natural gas.
The new capital will further spearhead Aira’s ambition to take Europe off gas. There are still 130 million fossil fuel-based boilers in use and consequently, residential heating is the third-largest source of CO2 emissions, representing 10% of Europe’s total CO2 emissions. By switching from a gas boiler to an air source heat pump with Aira’s innovative and accessible, clean energy-tech solution, consumers can reduce their household heating costs by up to 40% and CO2 emissions by 75%, rising to 100% if fossil-free energy is used as the source of power for the heat pump.
Cosmos Innovation Emerges from Stealth with $19.7 Million to Accelerate Solar Transition to Perovskite Silicon Tandem with Industry-First Self-Learning AI Fab Platform
Cosmos Innovation, an AI-first company building next-generation perovskite silicon tandem (PST) solar cell technology, today announced raising $19.7 million in total funding. The funding will support the company’s fundamentally different approach to developing perovskite silicon tandem solar cell technology. The funding coincides with Cosmos Innovation’s unveiling of Mobius, the industry’s pioneering AI recipe optimization platform. Mobius has been demonstrated across various sectors, including solar, silicon carbide, advanced data center chips and advanced packaging. This platform fuels Cosmos Innovation’s ambitious endeavor: construction of the world’s first self-learning fab in the solar and semiconductor space.
The Series A round was led by Xora Innovation, an early-stage, deep-tech investment platform of Temasek, a global investment company headquartered in Singapore. Other investors joining the round include Innovation Endeavors, which led the seed round; Two Sigma Ventures; DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis; noted MIT professor Tomaso Poggio, a founder of computational neuroscience; Richard Socher, leading natural language processing (NLP) researcher, CEO of You.com and managing partner at AIX Ventures; and Western Technology Investments, one of the leading venture debt funds in Silicon Valley.
🔋 Ascend Elements Raises $542 Million to Accelerate Production of U.S.-engineered Lithium-Ion Battery Materials
Ascend Elements, a U.S.-based manufacturer of sustainable, engineered battery materials for electric vehicles, today announced it has raised $542 million in new equity investments, including $460 million in Series D investments and $82 million of additional investments from earlier this year. Ascend Elements’ Series D round was led by Decarbonization Partners, Singapore-based investment firm Temasek, and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). Other investors include Tenaska, Alliance Resource Partners, PULSE - CMA CGM Energy Fund, BHP Ventures, Fifth Wall, Hitachi Ventures, Mirae Asset, At One Ventures, Agave Partners, Alumni Ventures and other leading global investors.
The funding will advance construction of Ascend Elements’ Apex 1 facility in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which will be North America’s first sustainable cathode precursor (pCAM) and cathode active material (CAM) manufacturing facility. CAM and pCAM are engineered materials made to precise microstructure specifications for use in electric vehicle batteries. While most of the world’s pCAM and CAM are made in China from primary (mined) metals, U.S.-based Ascend Elements is commercializing an ultra-efficient method to make sustainable pCAM and CAM from black mass, the traditional output of lithium-ion battery recycling facilities.
Caelux Announces $12M to Fund Next-Generation Solar Innovation with Perovskite Technology
Caelux, a pioneer in utilizing perovskites to make solar energy more powerful and cost-effective, enabling the next generation of solar innovation, today announced the closure of a $12M Series A3 funding round led by Temasek, a global investment company, with participation from Reliance New Energy Limited, Khosla Ventures, Mitsui Fudosan, and Fine Structure Ventures.
This round brings the company’s total amount raised for the Series A to $24 million. The funding will be allocated primarily to support the company’s factory ramp, research and development, and product launch, allowing Caelux to bring its more powerful, efficient, and affordable solar solution to market at a critical time of pressing environmental challenges. The investment follows Caelux’s advancements in perovskite technology, creating a more near-term solution than previously thought possible and allowing for imminent deployment at scale. To bring this innovation to market, the company is building a manufacturing facility in Baldwin Park, California, and ramping up to reach 100MW of perovskite-coated glass.
Verdagy secures Series B funding led by Temasek and Shell Ventures
Verdagy, a pioneer in scaling electrolyzer technologies for industrial markets, today announced the closing of a $73-million Series B funding round. Temasek and Shell Ventures co-led the Series B round, with participation from new global investors Bidra Innovation Ventures, BlueScope, Galp, Samsung Venture Investment, Toppan Ventures, Tupras Ventures, Yara Growth Ventures and Zeon Ventures.
The new funding will enable Verdagy to accelerate the launch and commercialization of its eDynamic® 20 megawatt (MW) electrolyzer module, which will serve as a fundamental unit to future systems at the 200MW scale and beyond. Following initial commercial unit deployments with existing partners, Verdagy will expand deployment of its novel eDynamic electrolyzer technology to additional customers in heavy industries such as oil and gas, ammonia, steel and e-fuels to support global industrial decarbonization.
Celestial AI, the Creator of the Photonic Fabric Optical Interconnect Technology Platform, Raises $100 Million in Series B Funding
Celestial AI, the Photonic Fabric™ company, today announced it has raised $100 million in Series B funding led by IAG Capital Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT) and Temasek’s Xora Innovation fund. Other major investors in the round include Samsung Catalyst, Smart Global Holdings (SGH), Porsche Automobil Holding SE, The Engine Fund, imec.xpand, M Ventures and Tyche Partners. Celestial AI’s Photonic Fabric technology platform delivers optical connectivity performance levels that are ten years more advanced than existing technology offerings.
After close collaboration with hyperscalers, AI compute and memory providers, Celestial AI is introducing the Photonic Fabric™, the optical interconnect for disaggregated, exascale compute and memory clusters. Photonic Fabric is unconstrained by package beachfront limitations and can deliver data to any location on the compute die, directly to the point of consumption. The bandwidth delivered by the Photonic Fabric is 25x greater and delivers more than 10X lower latency and power consumption than any optical interconnect alternative, such as Co-Packaged Optics (CPO).
🚚 Amogy Secures $139 Million Series B-1 Round of Funding, Moving the Transportation Industry Closer to Clean Energy
Amogy Inc., a pioneer of emission-free, energy-dense ammonia power solutions, today announced its $139 million Series B-1 fundraising. The round was led by SK Innovation, joined by other global investors including Temasek, Korea Zinc, Aramco Ventures, AP Ventures, MOL PLUS, Yanmar Ventures, Zeon Ventures and DCVC. This funding will enable Amogy to continue its organizational development to support commercialization, begin manufacturing of its innovative ammonia-to-power technology, and bring its first product to market in 2024.
FAIRMAT announces €34M Series A round to make it easier and more sustainable to recycle advanced materials through robotic technologies
Fairmat, the Paris-based sustainable deep tech start-up pioneering the recycling of advanced materials, announced today that it has completed its Series A funding round at a total of €34M, one of the largest Series A rounds for a deep tech startup in both France and Europe as a whole this year.
The company will use the funds to accelerate the deployment of its robotized industrial capabilities, including the ramp up of its newly inaugurated automated sorting plant, which will host over a hundred robots and be able to handle up to 3,500 metric tons of scrap per year. Additionally, the company will be expanding internationally into new markets, starting with the United States in 2023 and Spain, Germany, soon after. As part of this expansion, Fairmat will also grow its global team from 80 in 2022 to 400 people by 2025, seeking to recruit the best talent in robotics and data science.
Samsara Eco raises $54M AUD for its ‘infinite plastic recycling’ tech
Samsara Eco, an Australian startup that uses enzyme-based technology to break down plastic into its core molecules, announced today it has raised $54 million AUD (about $34.7 million USD) in Series A funding. The company is planning to build its first plastic recycling facility in Melbourne later this year, with the target of full-scale production by 2023.
Samsara’s new funding will be used for expansion, building its library of plastic-eating enzymes and funding its first commercial facility, which it says will be able to infinitely recycle 20,000 tons of plastic starting in 2024. It will also grow its engineering team and expand operations into Europe and North America.
Electra raises $85M to electrify and decarbonize iron and steelmaking with no green premium
Electra, a green iron company, has raised $85 million to produce Low-Temperature Iron (LTI) from commercial and low-grade ores using zero-carbon intermittent electricity. Electra’s process emits zero carbon dioxide emissions and carries zero green premium, meaning it will cost the same or less than existing production methods powered by fossil fuels.
Electra, founded by entrepreneurs with decades of experience developing complex electrochemical systems, has created a novel process to electrochemically refine iron ore into pure iron at 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit) using renewable electricity and then convert the iron to steel using the existing infrastructure of electricity-powered arc furnaces. By comparison, 69% of steel today is made at approximately 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,912 degrees Fahrenheit) using coal, emitting about two tons of carbon dioxide for every ton of steel produced.
JAKA Robotics raises $150M for collaborative robots
JAKA Robotics has raised $150 million in Series D funding. This follows a $50 million Series C funding round earlier in 2021. JAKA plans to use the Series D funding to further support globalization of the company and the research and development of its collaborative robot (cobot) arm.
Series C Funding Brings the UPSIDE of Meat One (Giant) Step Closer
Our $400 million Series C is the largest round of investment to date in the cultivated meat industry and will help us drive product innovation, partnerships, and the infrastructure needed to make cultivated meat at scale. With this round of funding, we will continue our industry leadership and commercialization push – including building a new commercial facility that will target making tens of millions of pounds of UPSIDE meat every year!