Female-founded threatened species startup Xylo Systems is one of 8 ventures backed by Investible's new Climate Tech fund
Summary
Investible said a further eight investments have been approved in Pre-Seed to Series A companies.The first announced investments are in Kite Magnetics, a Melbourne deep tech venture building smaller and lighter electric aircraft motors; building management software proptech CIM, which announced a $10 million Series A a fortnight ago; Kiwi electric engine startup ZeroJet; sugar cane-focused agtech Digital Harvest, which announced its Seed round in June; corporate carbon finance risk screening tool Emmi; Xylo Systems; designer dress rental marketplace Rntr, and Spot Ship, a London-based SAAS company that reduces the time it takes a ship broker to charter a ship from 6 days to 2 hours. Goldstone-Henry was named the winner of the Australian Womens Weeklys Women of the Future in December last year, and also received a grant from Taronga Zoo, which has been trialling its software.Founder Camille Goldstone-Henry said we are losing a species every three to five minutes and while thousands of conservation teams and researchers working to save them, but they dont have an easy way to connect and share information and make informed decisions.Backing from Investibles Climate Tech Fund is a huge step forward in recognising that fighting the climate crisis goes beyond reducing carbon emissions, she said.Biodiversity and net zero go hand in hand. With Xylos platform, they can have an even greater ecological impact.The backing for Xylo Systems comes as the federal government today added 15 new animal and plant species to the endangered list and as part of its threatened species action plan, announced it plans to protect an additional 50 million hectares of land by the end of the decade. It will reserve 30% of land for conservation to improve biodiversity with the goal of no new extinctions.The VC also co-invested in a $1.85 million Seed round for Kite Magnetics, alongside Breakthrough Victoria, the $2 billion state government innovation fun. Kite Magnetics founder Dr Richard Parsons is a researcher from Monash University, which is developing the next generation of electric aircraft motors with patented nanocrystalline magnetic materials.Investibles co-head of climate tech Patrick Sieb said they reviewed more than 1,500 pitches, and 43% of the completed and investment committee-approved companies include a female founder, more than double the 2021 national figure of 19%.Climate fund co-head Tom Kline said hes excited by the potential of the sector.Every dollar invested in Climate Tech companies today is also going further than ever, because climate solutions can leverage advancements in computing, big data, robotics, and automation so are getting cheaper to create and scale, he said.Global decarbonisation, the next great disruption is underway, and we are fully committed to investing in a resilient, sustainable future.