toyota ventures

Rodatherm Energy wants to make geothermal more efficient, but will it be cheaper?

Fundraising /

Rodatherm Energy, a new geothermal startup, emerged from stealth Monday with $38 million in funding and a plan to build a pilot plan in Utah.  The startup differentiates itself by plumbing its boreholes with a closed loop, likely made of steel, that’s filled with a refrigerant. That contrasts with other enhanced geothermal companies, which tend […]

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Ecolectro stuffs hydrogen production into shipping containers to cut costs

Climate /

For all its promise as a climate friendly fuel, hydrogen hasn’t had much luck. It lost the battle over personal transportation to battery electric vehicles, and for industrial users, it remains far more expensive than natural gas. That’s in part because natural gas can flow through sprawling networks of pipelines. Hydrogen doesn’t, which means buyers

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Toyota Ventures on the hydrogen plateau and the IRA funding crutch

Fundraising /

Toyota Ventures started in 2017 to help startups figure out what the future will look like, with an eye towards ensuring Toyota as an automaker and brand would stay at the forefront of innovation.  While the firm initially targeted mobility startups, the crossover into climate tech was a natural progression. Today, Toyota Ventures has over

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Toyota Ventures’s Jim Adler says climate tech startups need to secure future buyers

Climate /

Jim Adler, founder and general partner at Toyota Ventures, is concerned that climate technology gains could fall into the “valley of death” if companies fail to drum up enough demand to survive.  And he’s not wrong to be worried.  Climate tech investments in the first half of 2024 dipped for the second consecutive year, both

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Zeno emerges from stealth to crib Tesla’s master plan for Africa and beyond

Climate /

When Elon Musk published Tesla’s first “master plan” in 2006, it seemed a bit far-fetched that batteries would end up changing the automotive industry, much less global power production and consumption. Today, as electric vehicles continue to gain market share and massive batteries displace smoke-spewing power plants from the electrical grid, that notion seems less

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