🐼 Private Giants of Climate Mobility: 6 Startups Ready for the IPO Thaw
Vol 110
This newsletter aims to separate the signal from the noise for investment in all things sustainable transportation: Electrification, mode shift, active and public transit, and mobility aggregation, across both people and goods movement.
🌱STARTUP WATCH: Sustainable mobility startups (pre-seed or seed) to keep an eye on
Barefoote Metals (Connecticut, USA): Transforming mine waste into a resource by combining enhanced weathering with phytomining
E-Force Marine (Florida, USA): Electric boats and electric powertrains for retrofit
Gelectric (Netherlands): IoT to improve energy efficiency in maritime applications
Nascent Materials (New Jersey, USA): US-made cathodes for batteries
Nema Systems (California, USA): AI agents to accelerate robotics hardware design (e.g., autonomous vehicles)
OBH (France): On-board helmet for shared micromobility
Range Truck (Washington, USA): Zero-emission commercial truck dealer group
Rune Aero (Georgia, USA): Autonomous hybrid-electric aircraft purpose-built for regional cargo operations
💰FUNDING: Capital raises from startups previously featured in Startup Watch
Superlocal (Vol 85) was acquired by Foursquare; this is the 16th exit in the database
Tether (Vol 90) raised a $1.5M pre-Seed round from Draper B1, Kfund, Enzo Ventures, and others
AndrenaM (Vol 91) raised a $10M Seed round from First Round Capital and others
What do Uruguay, El Salvador, Tunisia, Qatar, Estonia, and the Philippines have in common? Subscribers to this newsletter!
📰QUICK HITS: Notable news from the last two weeks
👩🏽⚖️Government, Policies & Cities
🗽New York City’s mayoral primary turned out to be a battle of subway riders and car owners. Those in subway-dense parts of town generally voted Mamdani while those in neighborhoods with more car ownership went for Cuomo.
👣 In Washington, D.C., city council is evaluating whether to charge different DMV registration fees based on car weight. Many DMVs do this for commercial vehicles, but not passenger cars.
🚞 In the Bay Area, Caltrain has now logged a 50% increase in ridership thanks to electrification. The rapid acceleration from standstill for electric makes Caltrain a much faster operator.
🇮🇪 Ireland’s Department of Transport has published a new policy mandating shared mobility hubs in every local authority. Interesting move.
🇬🇧 In the UK, the H2 high-speed rail program is delayed, again. If there’s one thing Anglophone countries no longer do well, it’s rail.
🇺🇸 In the US, a federal district judge ordered the Trump Administration to release $5B in EV charging infrastructure funds. The judge ordered the release of the NEVI funds, but only to the states that brought the lawsuit.
📭 The Big Beautiful Bill continues to make its long journey through Congress. For now, the Senate Parliamentarian has decided that the language to force the auction of USPS electric trucks must be dropped from the bill.
🔬Markets & Research
🐰 Motion sickness in EVs can be triggered by higher levels of regenerative braking. Luckily, the level of regenerative braking can usually be modified by the driver.
🇧🇪 In Belgium, the CO2 of company cars has dropped by one-third in just two years. Belgium’s tax policy on company cars prompted employers to shift towards EVs.
🐢 In Bologna, the new 30 km/h only has a 60% compliance rate. But the benefits include more fluid traffic for all.
🇬🇧 The UK is still on track to reach net zero by 2050. The adoption of electric cars is having a measurable and rapidly growing effect on emissions, while progress in aviation is hard to find.
🇮🇹 How does Italy get high-speed rail installed for so much less than the US? Among many other learnings: less reliance on the private sector, including for engineering work.
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🏭 Corporates & Later Stage
🐙 Octopus Energy and BYD have launched the UK’s first vehicle-to-grid (V2G) bundle program. V2G needs to be seamless to scale, so execution will be key to this partnership.
🦾 Tesla’s robotaxi launch in Austin has captured the interest of federal regulators. And not in a good way…
🦿Waymo continues its robotaxi ascent, launching in Atlanta. Next up is preparing to launch in NYC.
🥷 At the same time, Waymo is finding that disgruntled locals in Santa Monica are pulling out all the stops to interrupt the noisy nighttime charging process. Robotaxi charging depots may be the new urban warehouse for last-mile delivery: everyone wants the benefit of them nearby, so long as the infrastructure is in another neighborhood.
🏭 Amazon-owned Zoox has opened its first production facility dedicated to building robotaxis in Hayward, California. Waymo has the head start in robotaxis, but Zoox’s ace may end up being integration with Amazon’s goods delivery empire.
🐴 Uber is working with its ousted founder Travis Kalanick to put together a takeover bid for autonomous vehicle company Pony AI. Uber’s recent plan has been to be a network provider to multiple robotaxi companies; whether this means a change of strategy is unclear.
🔌 Uber drivers now car more about charging than they do about EV cost. Uber EV drivers have grown by 60% of the last year and only 1/3 of them have access to home charging.
🔋 Ford is moving forward with its US battery plant, even with regulatory uncertainty. This is sorely needed good news for the North American EV market.
📦 Honda will start manufacturing e-quad cycles for goods delivery. They’ll provide competition for startups like Fernhay.
🤖 DHL has started deploying robots for warehouse jobs unloading trucks. They’ll start showing up for last-mile delivery relatively soon.
🚊 Fuel cell company Ballard will provide hydrogen powertrains to Sierra Northern trains in California. For more on hydrogen’s limits, see the Deep Dive in Vol 67.
🐣 Startups & Early Stage
🚚 Sunswap (Startup Watch Vol 10) has deployed its first solar-powered refrigerated trucks with Tesco. Embedded solar is a certainty, even if its timing is debatable.
♻️ Moment Energy (Startup Watch Vol 48) reached full-scale manufacturing for its battery repurposing facility in Canada Battri (Startup Watch Vol 63) has launched its battery recycling facility in France. Excellent to see more North American and European supply chain capability.
🔋Phoenix Tailings (Startup Watch Vol 48) told Bloomberg that it’s aiming to IPO within the next 3 years. Gotta respect the determination.
🚁 Beta Technologies landed the first passenger-carrying eVTOL (air taxi) at JFK. Whether this is a niche application or a mass market product is still up in the air.
What do the US DOT, US DOE, US EPA, NYC DOT, NREL, and the California Air Resources Board have in common? Subscribers to this newsletter!
The Private Giants of Climate Mobility: 6 Startups Past Series C That Haven't Gone Public (Yet)
While the media often obsesses over the next Rivian IPO, a quieter cohort of startups is building the future of climate mobility. These companies have cleared the Series C bar, raised significant capital, and proven their tech works in the real world. But they haven’t hit the public markets or been acquired…yet.
Each of these companies is likely weighing whether they have a strong enough case for an IPO (once the IPO window unfreezes) or whether an exit to a strategic is the best path forward. Here are six companies reshaping the sector from behind the scenes:
1. Candela (Sweden)
What they do: Build electric hydrofoil ferries and boats with ultra-efficient energy use, using their patented C-Foil system.
Why it matters: Maritime transport is a massive emissions source, and most electrification efforts have ignored it. Candela’s P-12 ferry can cut energy use by 80% while slashing travel times across waterways. See the Deep Dive in Vol 25 for more.
Series C: $40M raised in 2024
Customers: City of Stockholm, NEOM (Saudi Arabia), U.S. lakefront operators
2. Liquid Wind (Sweden)
What they do: Produce green e-methanol for the shipping industry using captured CO2 and renewable electricity.
Why it matters: Over 90% of global trade travels by ship. Green fuels like e-methanol may offer a scalable way to decarbonize without replacing entire fleets.
Series C: $47M in 2024
Customers/Partners: Siemens Energy, Alfa Laval
3. ZeroAvia (UK/USA)
What they do: Develop hydrogen-electric powertrains for small to mid-size regional aircraft.
Why it matters: Aviation emissions are among the hardest to abate. ZeroAvia’s engines aim to decarbonize short-haul flights, a key slice of the global aviation pie. For more, see the Deep Dive in Vol 50.
Series C: $116M Series C in 2024
Customers/Partners: American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Shell
4. Ample (USA)
What they do: Battery swapping infrastructure for EVs.
Why it matters: Charging remains one of EV adoption’s biggest friction points. Whether battery swap scales may vary tremendously by application (e.g., heavy-duty trucks vs individually-owned passenger cars).
Series C: $160M in 2021
Customers: Stellantis, Mitsubishi Fuso, last-mile delivery partners
5. Lime (USA)
What they do: Operates the world’s largest shared e-scooter and e-bike network, spanning 30+ countries.
Why it matters: Micromobility is key to replacing short car trips and reducing urban congestion/emissions. Lime is one of the few operators to reach profitability. For more, see the Deep Dive in Vol 43.
Series D: Over $300M raised; valuation >$1B
Traction: Claims positive EBITDA since 2022; IPO expected but delayed
6. FINN (Germany)
What they do: Electric vehicle subscription service with flexible terms and direct delivery.
Why it matters: EV ownership barriers remain high. FINN’s model lowers the commitment to enable electrification at scale.
Series C: $110M in 2024 followed by a $1B debt facility in early 2025
Traction: ARR €160M+
These companies may not have rung the NASDAQ bell (yet), but they're shaping the future of transport more than many public firms.
Who else in this space are you keeping an eye on for a potential IPO or M&A? Feel free to add a comment below.