steel
Cocoon is a new startup built on the belief that greener steel production and the creation of concrete slag doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.
The company is working now with hundreds of merchants and dozens of B2B marketplaces, a 10-time increase since last year.
One of the stunning facts that’s emerged over the last few years — especially as VCs and startups have turned their attention toward the climate crisis — is that our…
Luxembourg-based Leko Labs, a construction startup that’s developing sustainable wood-based building materials as an alternative to steel and concrete and applying automation to construction methods, has closed a $21 million…
Two weeks ago, 50 founders and investors shared their insights on how the world can tackle the planetary “Code Red” with over 2,000 participants at the inaugural SOSV Climate Tech…
It’s fairly simply: Softwood grows a lot faster — in “sustainable” forests — than hardwood. The latter is often found in bio-diverse old-growth forests like, um, the Amazon. So if…
Climate in the last decade has been unprecedented in many ways, none of them good. Wildfires in California have consumed entire towns; thousands of miles away, New Yorkers inhale the…
Featured Article
The iPhone 13 Pro goes to Disneyland
This year’s iPhone review goes back to Disneyland for the first time in a couple of years for, uh, obvious reasons. I’m happy to report that the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 performed extremely well, and the limited testing I was able to do on the iPhone mini and…
Volvo Cars wants to be climate-neutral by 2040, and it has set its sights on a major vehicle component that’s notoriously difficult to decarbonize: steel. The automaker has partnered with…
The sweeping infrastructure package put forward today by President Joe Biden comes with a price tag of roughly $2 trillion (and hefty tax hikes), but gives startups and the broader…
BMW has joined the cohort of investors that are backing Boston Metal’s carbon dioxide-free production technology for steel. The Boston-based startup had targeted a $50 million raise earlier in the…
Featured Article
China launched its national carbon trading market yesterday
Yesterday, China flipped the switch on a nationwide carbon trading market, in what could be one of the most significant steps taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 — if the markets can work effectively. China is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases and its share of the…
Looking to decarbonize the metal industry, Bill Gates-backed Boston Metal raises $50 million
Steel production accounts for roughly 8% of the emissions that contribute to global climate change. It is one of the industries that sits at the foundation of the modern economy…
Rocket launch startup Skyroot is closing out 2020 with a key milestone in the development program for their Vikram-I launch vehicle: A successful test firing of a solid rocket propulsion…
It’s beginning to be a sign of the times: smaller or younger space companies getting acquired by larger entities. Today, the company being acquired is Pioneer Astronautics, which has been…
Pale Blue Dot, a newly outed European venture capital firm focused on climate tech, announced this week the first closing of its debut fund at €53 million. Targeting pre-seed and…
The town of New Providence, N.J. may seem like an unlikely home for a company that’s just inked a new deal with Big Hit Entertainment (the label behind the global…
As Harley-Davidson rounds year one on its electric debut, we’re still riding in the fog on how to evaluate the company’s EV pivot. The American symbol of gas, chrome and…
Sign up here to receive Max Q weekly in your inbox, starting December 15. There were lot of highlights in the space industry this past week (even though a rocket…
Featured Article
Heliogen’s new tech could unlock renewable energy for industrial manufacturing
Last Monday a group of millionaires and billionaires took a trip to an industrial site in Lancaster, Calif. to witness the achievement of what could represent a giant leap forward in the effort to decarbonize some of the world’s most carbon intensive industries. For Bill Gross, the founder of Idealab…
Elon Musk says Starship should reach orbit within six months – and could even fly with a crew next year
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk delivered an update about Starship, the company’s nest generation spacecraft, which is being designed for full, “rapid reusability.” Musk discussed the technology behind the design of…
How do you attract the attention of a prince? Aside from being Meghan Markle, of course. One answer came recently in the form of Prince Harry’s backing of a new…
Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised a more powerful powertrain option in future Model S and Model X vehicles, as well as the next-generation Roadster sports car, which will push acceleration…
Harley-Davidson will release its first production electric motorcycle, the LiveWire, in September. Yes, the American symbol for internal combustion, chrome and steel is going all-in on two-wheeled EVs. Founded in…
Solugen, a startup that has set itself up with no less lofty a goal than the decarbonization of a massive chunk of the petrochemical industry, may be the first legitimate…
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, the investment firm financed by billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Jack Ma that invests in companies developing technologies to decarbonize society, is investing $12.5 million…
Harley Davidson released new specs for its electric motorcycle and pulled the covers off the concept designs for its electric bicycle and scooter as the company’s push into electrifying its…
Featured Article
How to build STEM toys
On chilly Saturday mornings my father would fire up the kerosene heater and get the back of our garage warm. He’d turn on the old radio, constantly tuned to the local public radio station, and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me or Harry Shearer would come on, clearing away the static…
Featured Article
How the Apple Watch changed the world
In 2015 Switzerland was fucked. This blunt belief, grunted out by Apple’s Jony Ive and repeated by the media as a death knell for the watch industry, seemed to define a sad truth: that the Swiss watch was dead and Apple pulled the trigger. Now, three years and four Apple…
In a truly fascinating exploration into two smart speakers – the Sonos One and the Amazon Echo – BoltVC’s Ben Einstein has found some interesting differences in the way a…
