Big idea:

• CREW Carbon has raised $5.3 million in seed funding to scale its carbon capture technology that targets wastewater treatment facilities to remove carbon dioxide (CO₂) through enhanced weathering.

Why it matters:

• Approximately 10 gigatons of CO₂ must be removed annually by 2050 to meet global climate targets. 
• CREW's solution uses existing wastewater infrastructure to cost-effectively capture CO₂ by removing biogenic carbon. This approach provides valuable co-benefits for wastewater operators, making it an attractive and easily adoptable option within the industry.

Key details:

• Developed at Yale, CREW’s technology uses enhanced weathering within the earth’s water cycle to store CO₂ permanently.
• The technology focuses on biogenic CO₂ in wastewater, leveraging wastewater’s natural CO₂ concentration for scalable carbon removal.
• CREW is already operating in several plants and plans to expand operations next year, aiming for thousands of tons of CO₂ removed.
• The funding round was oversubscribed and led by Counteract, with participation from several other investors including ReGen Ventures, ANIMO, and Connecticut Innovations.

“Robust greenhouse gas removal is needed, and needed swiftly, to limit the effects of climate change and to meet our climate goals,” stated Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, CREW Co-Founder and CEO.

What's next:

• CREW plans to use the seed fund to expand the team, deploy systems at additional plants, and enhance its proprietary carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system.

Proof points:

• Strong investor interest suggests wide industry support, positioning CREW as a viable leader in scalable carbon removal.
• CREW has already achieved successful pilot projects demonstrating cost reduction and improved operational efficiency in wastewater treatment.
• The solution is seen as scalable and cost-effective, addressing climate change while addressing operational challenges in wastewater treatment plants.

Big idea:

• Crusoe Energy, a data center start-up, is raising $500 million in equity capital led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund. This new fund values the company at approximately $3 billion, more than double its valuation two years ago.

Why it matters:

• This fundraising highlights the growing investment in AI infrastructure, driven by the demand for advanced, AI-powered data centers. Tech companies continue to seek well-developed infrastructure to support machine learning and other resource-intensive applications.

Key details:

• Crusoe Energy was founded in 2018 by Chase Lochmiller, a quantitative trader, and Cully Cavness, an energy investment banker.
• Founders Fund, an early Crusoe investor, led the $500 million round, raising the company’s valuation to approximately $3 billion.
• Crusoe initially focused on harnessing oilfield waste gasses for energy-intensive computing tasks but shifted to building more permanent data center facilities in 2020.
• The recent funding round comes alongside a $3.4 billion joint venture with Blue Owl Capital and Primary Digital Infrastructure to build a new data center in Texas. This data center will be leased to Oracle.

What's next:

• The ‘Neocloud’ sector will gain traction as companies increasingly look to provide a differentiated service from traditional hyperscalers. 
• Crusoe will use the new funds to improve its facilities and expand its capacity to support AI workloads.
• Will monitor how real estate-like data infrastructure development projects are separated from the operational GPU cloud owned by Crusoe. The best Neoclouds will be the strongest cloud operators.

Proof points: 

• Over 40% of the $93 billion spent by venture capitalists in early 2024 was directed towards AI start-ups.
• CoreWeave, a leading neocloud company, has raised over $12 billion in debt and equity in the past 18 months, highlighting the growing investment trend in AI infrastructure.
• Crusoe raised $200 million in debt from Upper90 last year using Nvidia chips as collateral. This capital was used to buy thousands of Nvidia’s H100 GPUs, strengthening its AI cloud capabilities.

What’s happening:

• VanEck, a leading asset manager, has partnered with staking provider Kiln to offer staking rewards for Solana (SOL) within its European Solana fund. This initiative makes VanEck one of the first to integrate staking into a regulated fund.

Why it matters:

• This collaboration enables investors to earn staking rewards in addition to the potential price appreciation of SOL, enhancing the attractiveness of VanEck's Solana fund.
• VanEck's partnership with Kiln reflects a growing trend among asset managers to incorporate staking rewards into crypto investment products.
• As Solana’s network matures, it will become the next large financialized ecosystem, similar to Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Key details:

• VanEck's European Solana fund currently manages approximately $84 million in assets.
• While European regulators have approved staking rewards, U.S. Solana ETF applications have excluded them due to regulatory restrictions.
• VanEck will use its partnership with Kiln to streamline the staking process and provide a regulated option for investors to benefit more from their digital assets. Currently, Kiln manages over 2.5% of the Solana network.

What’s next:

• VanEck plans to fully integrate staking into its Solana ETP offerings in Europe, with the success of this product likely shaping future developments in other markets.