The largest this week:
🇧🇪 Volocopter, a startup out of southern Germany that has been building and testing electric VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft, has secured $170M in the initial signing of its Series E funding round. South Korean investor WP Investment led the round.
🇰🇪 Kenyan FinTech startup M-KOPA has raised $75M in a Growth Equity round to expand its financial services platform. The round was led by Generation Investment Management and Broadscale Group.
🇺🇸 Our Next Energy, a Michigan-based energy storage technology company, has closed a Series A funding round of $65M. This new funding round, which followed a $25M Series A in October 2021, was led by BMW i Ventures.
🇺🇸 The forest carbon marketplace NCX has raised $50M in a Series B to fund International Expansion and New Natural Capital Markets. The funding round was led by Energize Ventures.
🇺🇸 Finless Foods, a plant-based, cell-cultured seafood company, has raised $34M in Series B funding to launch their plant-based tuna in 2022. The funding round was led by Hanwha Solutions. Additional investors include Japanese seafood company, Dainichi Corp.
Other notable impact deals:
🇸🇪 Swedish FoodTech startup Mycorena, which makes a mycelium protein ingredient for meat alternatives, has secured $27M in Europe’s largest alt-protein Series A. Funds will be used to bring their fungi-based protein, Promyc, from a demonstration scale to a commercialized product.
🇺🇸 New York-based diamond startup Aether, creators of the world's first diamonds made from atmospheric carbon, announced the closing of an $18M Series A funding round co-led by Helena and TRIREC.
🇺🇸 Linear Labs, a Texas-based company manufacturing motors for electric vehicles, has raised $17M in Series A funding. The round was led by THRC Investments and Folsom Point Equity.
🇸🇬 Singapore startup Umami Meats has secured $2.4M in seed funding to scale its cultivated seafood business in Singapore. The round was co-led by Better Bite Ventures, an alt protein VC, and Genedant, an investor in early-stage, biomedical, and agri-food startups.
Read up on all the latest impact deals in Dealroom.co
Notable exits:
🇸🇬 Singapore-headquartered community-driven neobank IN Financial Technology (INFT) has fully acquired MyCash, an international money transfer company focused on migrant workers. The deal will enable INFT to take advantage of MyCash’s consumer remittance business.