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Good Morning! Welcome to our 88+ new readers. Three time saving resources for you this week. 1) How Claude’s new feature can help you build app mock-ups in < hour 2) An interview with one of the most exciting start-ups and funds in Datacenters & Natural Capital 3) 50+ new deals, events and links
Enjoy,
Ollie
📡 WEEKLY RESOURCE
I tested Claude’s new Design feature to build an app that gamifies energy saving for the whole family… In 30 minutes. Im blown away.
25 mins
Time to implement
Hours!
Time saved p/w
Easy
Difficulty
Every good pitch could benefit from a mockup. Most of us walk in with wireframes on a napkin, vague hand-waving, and nothing the client can actually click through.
The people who consistently win the work do one thing differently. They turn up with something tangible - a working prototype the client can react to.
Until now, that took a designer, a week, and a budget most of us don't have on a pursuit. This demo does it in 30 minutes, with one tool.
I step through how to become a top 1% user in Claude Design and built a) a fully interactive mock-up b) A pitch deck c) an animated explainer video. It’s scarily good. Check it out via the link below.
🧭 DEEP DIVE
Aarden: Solving the land-intelligence gap
TL;DR
Landowners are at a disadvantage in a growing wave of Datacenter transactions. Aarden is solving that.
The Challenge
AI is driving a huge surge in data center demand. By 2030, we'll need to build roughly 2,000+ new data centers globally-enough computing power to train millions of AI models.
Grid connection is the critical bottleneck for getting DC and Renewables projects built. Grid connection queues now stretch 5-7 years in many regions. Projects fall through because developers can't secure power capacity in time.
This makes "powered land"- property near substations with available electricity-the new gold rush. Developers will pay premium prices for sites that dramatically increase the chances their data centers actually get realized.
Landowners today are at a massive disadvantage. When data center / solar / carbon credit companies approach landowners about buying property, most owners have no idea what their land is actually worth. Meanwhile, developers have teams and sophisticated software helping them find the best sites = An information asymmetry problem.
The big question: How do landowners figure out what their land is really worth-and capture fair value when developers come calling?
The Proposed Solution
Aarden are tackling this problem head on.
Their software analyses all of a landowners potential options: It analyses data on hundreds of variables (Electricity, Water, Soil health, Forestry) across all of a landowners estate.
It uses this data to determine the value and returns on the land for different use cases across data centers, solar, wind, carbon credits, conservation, and traditional uses like timber.
We sat down with Danan Margason, founder of Aarden, and one of his investors Kevin Webb, from Superorganism, following their recent $4Mn Seed. Check it out below.
🛗 FOR YOUR LIFT CONVERSATIONS
🛗 Links
Energy & Minerals
🔋 China added 66 GW of energy storage in 2025, proving batteries can replace gas and coal at scale: The country's non-pumped storage capacity hit 144.7 GW by year-end, with average duration of 2.85 hours. This is the clearest proof that renewables plus batteries are already taking over roles once assigned to fossil baseload. Link
⚛️ Ontario submits first Small Modular Reactor operating license in an OECD country as nuclear for data centres accelerates: Ontario Power Generation's filing marks a regulatory milestone. Meanwhile, Meta signed an agreement with TerraPower for up to eight nuclear plants to power AI data centres - tech giants are moving from renewable PPAs to direct nuclear offtake for credible 24/7 clean power. Link
🔋 Rivian to use second-life EV batteries for stationary storage at its own factory:The system can be scaled beyond 10 MWh using repurposed battery packs from Rivian vehicles. This is a proof-of-concept for circular battery economics - and potentially a new revenue stream if Rivian becomes adept enough at second-life systems to offer them as a product to other industrial users. Link
Land
🌾 Nestlé partners with Soil Capital to scale regenerative agriculture across European supply chains: The partnership aims to transition farmers to regen practices with financial incentives tied to soil health outcomes. Link
💰 Patagonia commits $1.55 million to transition an entire California county to regenerative agriculture: Holdfast Collective (Patagonia's nonprofit shareholder) is backing Rodale Institute's Regenerate Ventura project, which aims to convert all farmland in Ventura County to regen practices. Link
Water
🚢 EU's Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation mandates shore power by 2030 but falls short on full decarbonisation: The regulation requires ports to provide shoreside electricity to specific vessels by 2030 and sufficient alternative fuel bunkering infrastructure across European waters. However, the electrification mandate only targets a portion of ships, and the fuel mandate still mentions fossil gas infrastructure. Link
⚡ Electric ferries prove batteries work for maritime transport when matched to the job: The ferry battery orderbook now includes enough vessels in the water, hardware on order, and infrastructure in planning to show this is a serious industrial transition - not a fringe experiment. Link
💰 Deals & Fundraises
🚗 Slate, a United States-based Affordable electric pickup trucks, raised $650m in Series C funding from TWG Global, General Catalyst, Jeff Bezos family office, Slauson & Co..
⚡ Blue Energy, a Grid-scale nuclear reactors built in shipyards, raised$380m in Series C funding from undisclosed.
🏠 AXCS Capital (affiliate), a Los Angeles, CA-based Commercial real estate clean energy financing via C-PACE, raised $300m in Debt funding from Ares Management.
🧱 Pensana, a United Kingdom-based Rare earth mining and integrated mine-to-magnet supply chain, raised $230m in Series C funding from undisclosed.
🚗 Autonomous pod startup, a United States-based Autonomous mobility pods, raised$170m in Series C funding from Khosla Ventures.
⚡ Rivan, a United Kingdom-based Synthetic fuels developer for transport decarbonisation, raised $34m in Series A funding from IQ Capital, Fundomo, Plural.
🍄 Sennos, a Durham, NC-based Sensing and automation for fermentation and fluid-processing industries, raised $20m in Series A funding from TomEnterprise, Jan Ståhlberg.
🌾 Wikifarmer, a Greece-based AI-powered agricultural trading platform for farmers, raised $7.7m in Series A funding from undisclosed.
💧 Bubble Robotics, Building autonomous robotic systems for ocean operations and monitoring, raised $5m in Seed funding from Episode 1 Ventures, Asterion Ventures, Norrsken Evolve.
🧱 Ascension, a United Kingdom-based Geothermal critical mineral recovery technology and processing, raised $1.9m in Debt funding from Innovate UK (£670k grant), UKI2S (£1m).
🍄 Planetary, a Switzerland-based Industrial fermentation company for sustainable production, raised €17m equity + €6.3m debt in Series A funding from Radikal Capital, Oetker Ventures, Royal Cosun, Arc Investors, Green Generation Fund, AgriFoodTec.
♻️ Clean Food Group, a United Kingdom-based Yeast-derived oils and fats from food waste, raised £4.5m in Seed funding from undisclosed.
⚡ Exergy3, a Germany-based Thermal energy storage turning renewable power into industrial heat, raised undisclosed in Seed funding from Axeleo Capital, Bayern Kapital, Kibo Invest.
⚡ First Light Fusion, a Oxford, UK-based Inertial fusion energy technology developer, raised £25m in Series B funding from undisclosed.
Project Finance / Debt
🏭 Cora Gold, a Mali-based Gold mining project development, raised $120m in PF Debt funding from undisclosed.
☀️ HAU Energy, a Egypt-based 200 MW solar project with battery storage in Benban, raised $65m in PF Debt funding from EBRD.
Exits
🔋 Envision AESC, a Japan-based EV battery manufacturing and energy storage systems, went public by GIC (existing backer) at an implied valuation of $2b.
🚗 Monarch Tractor, a Livermore, CA-based Autonomous electric tractors for agriculture, acquired by Caterpillar.
🧱 USA Rare Earth, a Oklahoma, USA-based Acquiring Brazil rare earth producer Serra Verde for supply chain security, acquired by USA Rare Earth at an implied valuation of $2.8b.
Funds
Lime Rock New Energy, a United States-based Clean energy private equity buyout fund, closed $640m for its fund with support from undisclosed LPs.
Daphni Climate Fund, a Paris, France-based Climate tech fund backing scientist-entrepreneurs, closed €250m for its fund
📅 Events
🇨🇳 Hong Kong International Printing & Packaging Fair 2026: Four-day trade fair featuring printing and packaging suppliers, highlighting sustainable packaging innovations (eco-inks, recycled substrates) for consumer and industrial goods. (April 27-30)
🇺🇸 International Conference on Renewable Energy Sources and Technologies (ICSEST 2026): Showcases research on renewable energy generation, storage, and integration technologies. (April 27-28)
🇪🇸 Madrid Energy Conference 2026: The Madrid Energy Conference website confirms these details. (April 27-29)
🇺🇸 American Supply Chain Summit 2026: Industry forum (by The Economist or Ethical Corp) specifically addressing supply-chain decarbonization and responsibility. (April 27-28)
🇺🇸 International Conference on Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Alternative Energy Systems (ICEEREAES): Conference Index confirms: “ICEEREAES 2025 … April 10–12, 2025, Nicosia, Cyprus.”. (April 27-28)
🇺🇸 Climate Informatics 2026: An interdisciplinary workshop series (first started in 2011) bridging data science and climate science. (April 27-30)
🇩🇪 9th International Conference on Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change 2026: Conference on environmental sustainability, climate change mitigation, renewable energy, and green policy frameworks. (April 27-28)
🇺🇸 CoMotion MIAMI 2026: A global urban mobility summit focusing on designing the future of sustainable cities (CoMotion MIAMI: Home). (April 28-29)
🇬🇧 Innovation Zero Congress 2026: Congress focused on net-zero innovations in energy, transport, and industrial sectors, showcasing cutting-edge low-carbon technologies. (April 28-29)
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📩 Written by Ollie. Feel free to send us deals, announcements, or anything else using the link below or via LinkedIn.
