ArcTern Ventures leads, joined by Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Northvolt, and existing investors

Liminal, a battery manufacturing intelligence company, today announced a $17.5 million Series A2 funding round, led by climate tech fund ArcTern Ventures, joined by new investors Northvolt and Ecosystem Integrity Fund, and with continued support from Chrysalix Venture Capital, Good Growth Capital, University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners, Volta Energy Technologies, Impact Science Ventures, and Helios Climate Ventures. Liminal will use this funding to scale its EchoStat® inspection systems into factory-integrated solutions for global battery manufacturers, tapping into the rapidly growing demand for safe, reliable, and more affordable EV batteries.

“Our mission is to catalyze a clean energy future in which EVs are the default option for everyone,” said Liminal CEO and Co-Founder, Andrew Hsieh. “Our products help battery manufacturers hit their aggressive production volume and cost targets, while ensuring their cells meet stringent EV safety and performance requirements. As we deploy our first factory-integrated solutions, we are excited to be joined by top tier climate investors and one of the most promising global battery manufacturers. This syndicate demonstrates significant and accelerating progress towards our goal of facilitating a clean energy future.”

ArcTern Partner and U.S. Department of Energy C3E award winner Mira Inbar will join Liminal’s Board of Directors. Inbar spent about two decades building clean energy businesses before joining ArcTern. She has direct experience scaling a battery manufacturing company while at Dow Kokam, Dow Chemical’s joint venture for battery cell manufacturing.

“Most battery innovation to date has focused on material science,” Inbar said. “However, the industry needs a larger focus on process and manufacturing innovations to ensure both affordability and safety. Liminal is the only company that we see effectively bridging that critical gap.”

In 2022, Liminal launched its automated EchoStat platform — the only in-line, high-speed ultrasound inspection solution engineered specifically for EV-grade batteries. The platform provides battery cell manufacturers and auto OEMs with previously unavailable insights allowing them to commercialize and reduce time to market.

“Northvolt’s intention is to accelerate the transition to a sustainable and electrified society. Ensuring high-quality cells through cost-competitive technology innovation is what this investment is about. Northvolt’s participation in this round will contribute to the scale-up and industrialization of Liminal’s solutions by combining the unique skill sets of the two companies,” said Paolo Cerruti, co-founder and chief operating officer at Northvolt, a leading European supplier of sustainable, high-quality battery cells and systems. “After successfully evaluating Liminal’s solutions at Northvolt Ett, our first high-volume manufacturing facility, we have expanded our relationship to become investors in order to accelerate the company’s future innovations.”

The funding will also support product industrialization and manufacturing, significant team growth, and international expansion. The company currently has open positions across its commercial, engineering, operations, and administrative teams. More information about careers with Liminal can be found at Liminal Careers.

About Liminal: Liminal is a battery manufacturing intelligence provider that combines ultrasound technology with machine learning to deliver advanced insights that empower manufacturers. By improving the performance and safety of batteries and decreasing their lifetime costs, Liminal’s solutions address the climate crisis and for increased scalability for battery manufacturers to create a world where EVs are accessible to all drivers. Liminal was founded in 2015 by top technologists from Princeton University, who were part of the Cyclotron Road entrepreneurial fellowship program (now part of Activate). Visit liminalinsights.com for more information.

About ArcTern Ventures: ArcTern Ventures is a venture capital firm obsessed with helping solve the climate crisis and rethinking sustainability. ArcTern, based in Toronto with offices in Oslo and San Francisco, invests globally in breakthrough technology companies solving climate change and sustainability – we call it #earthtech. The fund was founded on the premise that accelerating the transition to a carbon-neutral economy will disrupt all industries and present an unprecedented opportunity for outsized financial returns. Solving our planet’s biggest problems will lead to big rewards—for companies, their investors, and of course, Mother Earth.

Source: BusinessWire

The lowly breaker panel has been around for a century without getting much love, and along comes Span. The company is making a compelling bid for better, smarter electrical panels, and just got a $90 million top-up to continue its evolution. The company is solving the challenges of electrification and micro-grid balancing, ensuring that the smart homes of the future have better visibility in the how, what and why of power consumption.

Span raised $10 million a couple of years ago, integrated with Alexa and launched a smarter EV charger earlier this year to go with the smart panels.

“I was very fortunate to join Tesla in the very early days of defining what Tesla Energy subsequently became. So I was one of the early leaders in the Energy Group. People are probably most familiar with the Powerwall battery, but I was the leader of the product team there that designed, developed and deployed residential products, commercial industry products, as well as utility-scale products both on the hardware and software side. During my time, they were also responsible for products like the solar roof and deployment of solar, the glass roof part, if you will,” Arch Rao, CEO and founder of SPAN told me in an interview earlier this year. “One of the things that I got to see firsthand while deploying home batteries and solar systems and electric vehicle charging systems around the world, is that there is a fundamental problem tied to infrastructure. It is going to be a deterrent to the adoption of distributed clean energy, especially if you believe that electrification is a meaningful part of the Fossil Free journey that we want to be on. If we want to supplant [fossil-fuel focused appliances] with superior electric appliances, it’s going to require a massive upgrade to the infrastructure starting with the home electrical panel.”

“We started with reinventing the electrical panel, as it is the core component to any scalable path to electrification of homes, but the consumer experience demands more,” says Rao. “We’re excited to deploy this new capital to expand our product offerings that simplify the decarbonization of homes, and to continue developing the unparalleled approach to home energy management that Span is uniquely positioned to deliver.”

Span’s Series B funding round was led by Fifth Wall Climate Tech and Wellington Management. Other investors include Angeleno Group, FootPrint Coalition, Obsidian Investment Partners and A/O PropTech. The company explains it will use the new funding to continue developing the Span Home suite of energy products and solutions to drive commercial growth and accelerate the electrification of homes.

Source: www.techcrunch.com

Carbon America, the first vertically integrated carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) super developer, announced today two agreements with Sterling Ethanol, LLC and Yuma Ethanol, LLC to develop CCS projects at two Colorado ethanol production facilities that will capture and store 95 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions per year from the fermentation process. Carbon America will finance, build, own and operate the CCS systems at the ethanol plants in Sterling and Yuma, Colorado, and ensure secure geologic sequestration nearly one mile underground in northeastern Colorado. The projects are the first two commercial CCS projects in the state of Colorado.

The emissions reduction from the CCS projects will help Colorado reach its climate goal, to reduce statewide emissions by 50 percent by 2030, and 90 percent by 2050 from 2005 levels. The projects will enable Sterling Ethanol, LLC and Yuma Ethanol, LLC to reduce the carbon intensity of ethanol production, and increase their competitiveness in the market.

“Carbon capture and storage is a critical tool to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and we are thrilled to work with Sterling Ethanol, LLC and Yuma Ethanol, LLC to permanently sequester carbon dioxide underground,” said Carbon America CEO Brent Lewis. “Projects like these will help the ethanol industry decarbonize and contribute to global emissions reductions needed to reach net-zero by 2050.”

Carbon America plans to install carbon capture equipment at both ethanol plants that will extract CO₂ from the ethanol production process and transfer the gas via new carbon dioxide pipelines to an underground geologic sequestration site, where the CO₂ will be permanently stored. The sequestration site is rigorously designed to comply with Federal Class VI and California Air Resource Board Low Carbon Fuel Standard permanency requirements, and Carbon America is working closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and multiple Colorado regulatory agencies to ensure the project meets all environmental regulations. Carbon America expects the projects to be fully operational in 2024.

“We look forward to working with Carbon America to reduce emissions at our Sterling and Yuma ethanol facilities and produce some of the lowest-carbon ethanol available on the market,” said Sterling Ethanol, LLC and Yuma Ethanol, LLC President & General Manager, Dave Kramer. “Carbon capture and storage will allow us to continue supporting our rural communities and their farming and cattle operations and their economic development, while significantly reducing our environmental impact.”

Please send comments and questions about the projects to Carbon America at https://www.carbonamerica.com/contact-us.

About Carbon America
Carbon America is a vertically integrated super developer of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects with a mission to accelerate deployment for wide-scale climate change mitigation. For more information, visit www.carbonamerica.com/.

About Sterling Ethanol, LLC and Yuma Ethanol, LLC
Sterling Ethanol, LLC and Yuma Ethanol, LLC are owned by local investors that include farmers, ranchers and business people that primarily reside in Northeast Colorado. We produce low carbon-intensity ethanol for mixing with gasoline from locally grown corn and supply nutritious distiller’s grains to local animal feed operations. For more information visit www.sterlingethanol.com.

Source: Business Wire

“When you improve fish welfare, you solve many bigger problems as well.”

Aquabyte, which uses computer vision and AI to give fish farms unprecedented insight into the health, growth, and sustainability of their fish, today announced the completion of its Series B financing of $25 million. The round was led by SoftBank Ventures Asia and will be used to continue Aquabyte’s mission of transforming aquaculture to meet the world’s demand for sustainable protein.

Why is farmed fish a solution to sustainable protein?

• Global overfishing has caused both freshwater and ocean fish populations to plummet to unsustainable levels.
• By 2050, it is estimated there will be a 50% protein gap worldwide. Farmed fish is the most sustainable and efficient protein source to fill that gap.
• Accordingly, fish farming is the fastest growing sector of food production in the world, accounting for over half of fish consumed today and over a quarter trillion dollars of annual production globally.

Aquabyte has built international, cross-disciplinary teams working at the intersection of fish welfare, AI, and groundbreaking engineering, using best practices drawn from world-renowned salmon farms in Norway.

“Before Aquabyte, it was virtually impossible for fish farms to monitor the health of their underwater fish. Our engineering team solved that problem with a smart underwater camera that can accurately detect lice, monitor other welfare indicators, and identify and weigh individual fish without removing them from the water,” said Bryton Shang, Aquabyte Founder and CEO.

“Our fish welfare biologists work with our AI teams to transform those images and underwater signals into real-time data. We also partner with farms to give them insights they’ve never had before, which helps them make better decisions. Farms can take immediate action to improve the health and growth of their fish with less waste and fewer treatments,” Shang added.

Sherman Li, Partner at SoftBank Ventures Asia, noted that Aquabyte’s approach, team, and results played a key role in its investment. “By combining machine learning and computer vision with fish welfare insights, Aquabyte is leading a transformation in the aquaculture and food industry. We are proud to support their journey as their achievements align with our mission of helping build a sustainable future, globally.”

The Nature Conservancy (through its Office of Investments) and Westerly Winds also joined the round as new investors, along with an international celebrity who prefers not to be named.

Karim Abdel-Ghaffar Plaza, Managing Partner at Westerly Winds, a venture capital group founded by former BlackRock execs, said, “We firmly believe embracing technology is the solution for a more sustainable future. Aquabyte in our opinion is a clear leader, enabling the path towards a healthier aquaculture industry needed to feed the growing world population. We’re tremendously excited to be backing the team and business in the years to come.”

Original investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Costanoa Ventures, ArcTern Ventures, Struck Capital, and Alliance Venture participated in the round, pointing to Aquabyte’s achievements since its Series A funding in 2019:

• Hundreds of systems worldwide monitoring salmon and trout
• Established offices in USA, Norway, and Chile
• Processed over 300 million unique fish images, delivering lice counts, growth, weight, and other welfare indicators, without handling or harming the fish
• First to receive approval by dispensation for automatic sea lice counting by the Norwegian Food Safety Authorities

“Since our first seed investment in Aquabyte, we’ve known they had the vision to transform an industry and do aquafarming more sustainably,” said Greg Sands, Founder and Managing Partner of Costanoa Ventures. “Their growth since then is proof their vision provides real value to an entire industry and is helping transform it.”

“Mass market appeal and the potential for positive global impact make for very exciting investment opportunities—Aquabyte has both,” said Greg Papadopoulos, Venture Partner at NEA. “Aquaculture is a $240B growing market and Aquabyte’s solution not only utilizes AI and ML technology to increase fish farming efficiency, the company is also playing a key role in increasing sustainability and minimizing waste for fish farms across the globe. We’re thrilled to continue partnering with the Aquabyte team to through this next phase of growth.”

With this Series B round of funding, Aquabyte has raised a total of $46 million since its founding in 2017. Aquabyte will use this financing to scale its business, monitoring more species in more countries, to help fish farms sustainably and efficiently feed the world.

Aquabyte is proud of its role in helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in aquaculture, reducing waste and improving efficiency and profitability.

“It turns out that when you improve fish welfare and sustainability, you solve problems in efficiency and production as well,” Shang said.

About Aquabyte

Aquabyte was built at the intersection of fish welfare, computer vision/AI, and engineering, to improve fish farming efficiency and sustainability. Its international team of machine learning experts, entrepreneurs, and aquaculture biologists are focused on delivering solutions with a real-world impact. With offices in San Francisco, New York, Chile, and Norway, Aquabyte partners with fish farms to transform aquaculture and meet the world’s growing demand for sustainable protein. Read more

Source: Aquabyte

Prague-based climate tech startup Woltair has raised €16.3m in a Series A led by ArcTern Ventures, a Canadian VC firm. It’s built a digital platform to connect consumers who want to install sustainable energy solutions, such as heat pumps and solar panels, with installation and maintenance technicians. 

This is yet another big financial boost for a startup betting on the ongoing shift on the European energy markets, as Europe frantically looks for new energy sources that could replace Russian gas and become a panacea for skyrocketing power prices. 

What does Woltair do? 

Woltair’s platform connects installation and maintenance businesses with consumers who want to install sustainable energy solutions, such as a heat pump or a solar panel. 

It usually isn’t an easy purchase: consumers rarely know what’s right for their house and where to find a team to install it. On the other side of the chain, engineers have problems sourcing parts and with the admin of dealing with customers. The whole process can take a huge amount of time and research; in Poland, consumers often have to wait for six months to get a heat pump installed. 

Woltair offers a tool that analyses the size and profile of a consumer’s home and recommends the best technological solution, together with details of achievable savings and available government subsidies. After determining the right product, the platform connects the buyer with a technician, handling the order process and tracking the installation online. 

The startup was launched in 2018 by three people who’ve been working in the sector for years — Daniel Helcl, Karel Náprstek and Jiří Švéda — and who all learnt the hard way how difficult and time consuming it is to make such installation projects possible. Since then Woltair has served over 3,000 customers.

What’s the market like? 

Europe is desperately looking for ways to get rid of fossil fuels, find alternatives to Russian gas and handle skyrocketing power prices — and solutions like solar panels and heat pumps are at the heart of dealing with these problems.

Policymakers have set targets to double down on new energy sources: the EU, for example, wants to make rooftop solar panels compulsory for all new public buildings by 2026 and all new residential houses by 2029, as well as double the rate of deployment of heat pumps. 

Investors are also excited by renewable energy projects — just this month solar-panel startup SunRoof and solar-powered car startup Lightyear have also raised sizeable funding rounds.

Who’s investing in Woltair?

New investors:

• ArcTern Ventures, Canadian sustainability fund 
• Westly Group, US VC firm
• Aternus, Czech investment group

Existing investors:

• Kaya, Czech VC
• Inven, Czech VC
• Movens Capital, Polish VC

What’s next?

Woltair wants to put in place an embedded finance offer so its customers can more easily afford a new installation. It will also create a tool to help customers better understand and track their energy use, and further develop an app for the installation service providers. 

It also wants to establish operations in Italy and Germany by the end of 2022, having begun operations in the Czech Republic and expanded into Poland earlier this year. 

Sifted take 

While there are lots of startups improving the tech behind new energy solutions and renewable power sources, there aren’t that many bringing those solutions closer to the consumer. Woltair seems to be operating in a much-needed niche — and the timing of its European expansion couldn’t be better. 

“Whilst we are currently in a boom period, we see this as the beginning of a permanent trend rather than a fad,” says Jan Hanuš, Woltair’s CEO. “Fossil fuels will become more expensive, scarce and heavily taxed; government subsidies for retrofitting will likely increase; and consumers will continue to want to retrofit their homes to protect against high energy bills.”

Zosia Wanat is Sifted’s central and eastern Europe reporter, based in Warsaw. She tweets from @zosiawanat

Source: www.sifted.eu

Today, Parity Inc., the leading proptech solution optimizing HVAC operations in mid-rise and high-rise apartment buildings and hotels, is pleased to announce the closing of $8M CAD in financing, strengthening its position as a leader in heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) optimization for multi-tenant buildings.

With the financial support of Wyse, RET Ventures and other investors, Parity is well-positioned to significantly scale its Canadian operations and expand the reach of its SaaS HVAC control technology throughout the United States. Parity’s new investors join existing shareholders including ArcTern Ventures. 

“This significant partnership with, and investment by, Wyse and RET Ventures will position us strategically for continued growth in both Canada and the United States,” says Brad Pilgrim, CEO, Parity.

“The overlapping values of our three organizations and our collective partners (all focused on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) leadership) speak to the tremendous opportunities and alignment ahead. We look forward to leveraging these partnerships and investments to help building managers and asset owners implement the necessary technology to minimize wasted energy in buildings and build a greener, more sustainable future.”

Parity’s technology platform is designed to transform the operations and energy management of mid-rise and high-rise apartment buildings and hotels with a capital-light, non-intrusive model that can be integrated into any property’s existing operating system. Once connected, Parity optimizes HVAC equipment performance and minimizes energy waste, decreasing capital investment costs and offering building management teams opportunities to take tangible steps towards their ESG goals and targets.

“Wyse is continually searching for ways to provide our clients with access to high-quality green technology to meet and exceed their sustainability agendas – and this investment is a direct reflection of that commitment,” said Peter Mills, CEO, Wyse Meter Solutions. “We are excited about a future that brings together sustainability leaders to help customers across the country reduce utility consumption, save money, and lead greener lives.”

The Parity platform was founded in 2016, initially targeting developments in the Canadian multifamily market. After growing to 150 assets nationwide in Canada, Parity entered the U.S. market in 2020 launching with over two dozen New York-based apartment buildings in partnership with key industry leaders.

Parity-enabled buildings consistently reduce their annual carbon emissions by 30 to 50 percent and have supported the reduction of more than 5,500 metric tons of CO2 emissions to date.

“As the broader business community starts to wrestle with climate risk, the built environment has clearly emerged as low-hanging fruit”, says Tom Rand, Co-Founder of ArcTern Ventures. “There aren’t a lot of areas where carbon reduction is so obviously profitable. By automating the engineering that unlocks those savings, Parity further accelerates the sector’s early lead in carbon reduction.”

Relying on the effectiveness of its technology and the efficiency of its service model, Parity is able to guarantee cost savings. If the projected cost savings are not achieved, Parity will make up the difference for property owners.

“Multifamily operators are increasingly considering and proactively managing the environmental footprint of their assets,” said Christopher Yip, Partner at RET Ventures. “Parity’s platform supports these initiatives by utilizing a software control system that can make remote decisions on behalf of a building, optimizing the largest single load — the central HVAC system. This not only leads to a significant reduction in energy waste, but also a meaningful return on investment for the customer. With property owners across the country clamoring for a solution like Parity’s, we are excited to help accelerate the company’s continued growth in the U.S. market.”

About Parity Inc.

Established in 2016, Parity Inc. helps make urban buildings sustainable by eliminating energy waste in multi-tenant buildings. The company’s algorithm driven Energy Management Platform autonomously optimizes HVAC equipment performance and guarantees energy savings while maintaining maximum comfort for building residents.

Trusted by asset managers, property managers, condo boards and mechanical partners, Parity’s real-time diagnostics and monthly reporting keep stakeholders always in the loop with full transparency.

About Wyse Meter Solutions

Based in Concord, Ontario, Wyse is a leading expert in utility information, providing innovative submetering and sustainability solutions for the multi-residential, condominium and commercial markets in Canada.  Wyse’s range of high-quality services enables building owners, developers and managers to take charge of their utility expense by delivering environmentally sustainable and equitable suite submetering. Wyse is unique in its ability to provide energy consumption transparency and accountability to its customers. The company has achieved exceptional growth with many of Canada’s largest real estate companies. Wyse is backed by Onex through ONCAP, its mid-market investment fund. Onex is a publicly traded company that invests and manages $46 billion in capital with global operations.

For more information, please visit www.wysemeter.com.

About RET Ventures

A leading real estate technology investment firm, RET Ventures is the first industry-backed, early-stage venture fund strategically focused on building cutting-edge “rent tech” — technology for multifamily and single-family rental real estate. RET invests out of core venture funds and a Housing Impact Fund, backing companies that address a range of pain points for real estate operators.

Through its deep expertise and connections, RET provides solutions to issues ranging from housing affordability and sustainability to risk management and operational efficiency.

The firm’s Strategic Investors include some of the largest REITs and private real estate owner-operators and managers, who control approximately 2.4 million rental units worth $600 billion.

For more information, please visit www.ret.vc

Source: Parity Inc.

Xeal, an electric vehicle charging start-up, has bagged $40 million in funding as it prepares to expand in the US.

New York-based Xeal links up with real estate firms and property developers to install its EV charging units and software at apartment buildings and office blocks.

The Series B round was led by Keyframe Capital with participation from ArcTern Ventures, Moderne Ventures, clean tech investor Ramez Naam, Nexus Labs, Wind Ventures and Alpaca VC. The company has also raised a $10 million credit line from Bridge Bank.

Xeal has partnerships with the likes of UBS, Friedman Realty Group and Stoneweg to install charging points in their buildings, which the company describes as the “gas stations of the future”.

“When we closed the Series A about a year ago the plan was to launch technologies that makes clean energy work anywhere for anyone and part of that was working with real estate owners and developers that control the keys to the future,” chief executive Alexander Isaacson said.

Xeal has developed a platform called Apollo, which is built on distributed ledger technology, to operate its EV charging stations and its accompanying software for drivers that use them.

Isaacson said there is a recurring problem among EV charging companies where the technology is connected to a central server, creating a single point of failure when there is downtime.

“When we first launched the technology in 2019, we deployed it in apartments and workplaces and that’s when all hell broke loose,” he said of the initial version of the technology that Xeal used.

The company was fielding hundreds of complaints from users: “Everyone pointed back to a single point of failure dependent on a central server.”

The patent-pending Apollo harnesses the power of each user’s smartphone – “the mobile data center in their pocket” – on the system rather through a central server.

Xeal generates revenue through multiple channels. It charges property owners for the installation of the chargers with a subscription for access to the management software.

“On the driver side, the driver simply just taps to pay, like Apple Pay, and we make a revenue share with the building owner where they make the majority of the revenue that the driver pays and we make small portion off that as well,” Isaacson said.

The new funds will be invested in further development of the technology, including expansion of the company’s new engineering lab in Venice, California.

“Another portion of the funding will be used to grow our partnerships. That involves bringing on more real estate champions to be part of our community.”

The company also plans to develop a reseller program and expects to have a network of 10,000 chargers by the end of the year.

Isaacson said the company wants to expand its presence across the country, particularly in regions where electric vehicles have yet to take off at a significant scale.

He said taking this plunge is necessary to solve the chicken-and-egg problem in electric vehicle uptake and charger availability.

“Clean tech companies in general have always gone to places they’re welcomed. It oversaturates key markets instead of empowering new markets. If we don’t have charging stations in areas where there’s no EV drivers then there’ll never be EV drivers. It’s the chicken and the egg.”

Isaacson added that he is hopeful the new federal tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act will stimulate EV growth and consumer confidence.

Source: Forbes.com

Loblaw Companies Limited (“Loblaw”), Canada’s leading grocery retailer, today announced a major milestone in its efforts to fight climate change by reducing food waste. Since 2019, through its relationship with Flashfood, a digital marketplace that connects consumers to heavily discounted food nearing its best-before date, Loblaw has diverted 40 million pounds of food from landfill and helped Canadians save more than $110 million on groceries. The landmark achievement is due to the integration of Flashfood’s program across 720 Loblaw stores and franchises. As Loblaw fights climate change by reducing food waste, consumers save money on groceries.

Over the past two years, more than 1.6 million users in Canada have turned to Flashfood to save money and reduce waste. With Flashfood, shoppers save up to 50% off items nearing their best-by date, such as meats, dairy, seafood, fresh fruits and vegetables, snacks, and more. Shoppers conveniently browse and buy applicable products right from their mobile device. Purchases are made directly through the app and customers can simply pick up their order from the Flashfood Zone located inside their participating store. 

“As a purpose-led organization, Loblaw is firmly committed to helping Canadians live life well. By partnering with Flashfood, we are reducing our impact on the environment while also helping our customers save money,” said Robert Sawyer, Chief Operating Officer, Loblaw Companies Limited. “This is an incredible milestone, made possible thanks to industry leaders like Flashfood, and we look forward to the ongoing impact of our partnership.”

The 40 million pounds of food diverted equates to 76 million pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) saved from reaching the atmosphere, or the equivalent of 7,428 gas powered passenger vehicles being taken off the road for an entire year.

“Loblaw was our first partner to scale and continues to be our biggest partner,” said Flashfood Founder & CEO, Josh Domingues. “The 40 million pounds of food saved milestone underscores the ability of our mobile marketplace to deliver on our mission to reduce food waste and connect families with more affordable groceries. Loblaw is an industry leader in food waste reduction and this milestone is just the beginning of the impact we’ll continue to make for Canadian shoppers and families.”

Today, Flashfood can be found in Loblaw corporate and franchise supermarkets across Canada including No Frills, Maxi, Real Canadian Superstore, Atlantic Superstore, Loblaws, Real Canadian Wholesale Club, Zehrs, Independent, Provigo and Dominion. For all Loblaw and Flashfood partner locations, visit flashfood.com/locations/home. To learn more about Flashfood, visit flashfood.com.

About Flashfood

Flashfood is an app-based marketplace that strives to eliminate retail food waste by connecting consumers with discounted food nearing its best-by date. The mobile app operates in over 1,400 grocery locations throughout the U.S. and Canada. Shoppers can buy items from grocery retailers through the Flashfood app and pick them up in-store at great prices while collectively reducing food waste. To date, Flashfood has diverted over 50 million pounds of food, saved shoppers over $120 million and more affordably fed hundreds of thousands of families. Flashfood is currently working with The GIANT Company, Meijer, Tops Friendly Markets, Loblaw, Martin’s Markets, VG’s, Family Fare, Food Lion, Giant Eagle, Giant Food and Stop & Shop. Flashfood is a free app available on iOS and Android. For more information, please visit www.flashfood.com.

About Loblaw Companies Limited

Loblaw Companies Limited is Canada’s food and pharmacy leader, as well as its largest retailer and private sector employer. With approximately two billion transactions each year in its unmatched network of nearly 2,500 stores and national e-commerce options, Loblaw brings food, pharmacy, beauty, apparel and financial services to customers through many of Canada’s favourite and most-trusted brands: President’s Choice, No Name, Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, No Frills, Real Canadian Superstore, T&T, Joe Fresh, PC Express and PC Financial. The company’s loyalty program, PC Optimum, has more than 18 million members and is one of Canada’s largest, and most loved reward programs. Loblaw’s purpose is to help Canadians live life well. It makes good food affordable, health, beauty and wellness accessible, saving for the future possible, and essential style achievable. For more information, visit Loblaw’s website at www.loblaw.ca.

Source: Flashfood

For further information: Melissa Rhodes, melissa.rhodes@flashfood.com

A California community electricity distributor has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with Toronto-based Hydrostor Inc., a deal worth almost US$1-billion that moves a long-duration energy storage project closer to fruition.

Under the agreement, Central Coast Community Energy will contract for 40 per cent of the offtake from Hydrostor’s Willow Rock Energy Storage Center, a proposed development near Rosamond, in Kern County, Calif. The project will employ the company’s advanced compressed air energy storage technology.

Willow Rock is one of two planned Hydrostor developments in California. The plants, which can store energy longer than lithium-ion batteries, will allow more renewable energy onto grids by smoothing out the inherent supply variability of wind and solar farms. The company is also developing a project in New South Wales, Australia. The three plants are expected to cost about $2.5-billion to build.

Privately held Hydrostor plans to make a final investment decision on the 500-megawatt Willow Rock facility in mid-2024, pending project debt and equity financing, engineering and permitting. All of those are on track, and the power purchase agreement with Central Coast represents a major milestone toward starting construction, Hydrostor chief executive officer Curtis VanWalleghem said in an e-mail.

Hydrostor’s system works by pumping compressed air into a cavern deep underground. The rush of air pushes water up to a reservoir at the surface. When electricity is needed, the water is released back into the cavern, sending the air out and driving turbines to generate power. The Willow Rock plant has been designed to discharge energy for up to eight hours, and the system can run on either excess or off-peak power from the grid or from renewable sources.

Last year, the company attracted big-name investors in its bid to develop its current slate of projects and expand around the world. The asset management arm of Goldman Sachs committed US$250-million, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to invest US$25-million. Hydrostor’s other backers include ArcTern Ventures, Lorem Partners, Canoe Financial and Business Development Bank of Canada.

Central Coast serves 447,000 customers in 33 communities in California and aims to source 100-per-cent clean energy by 2030. In a statement, it called energy storage “the most critical piece of the transition to renewable energy.”

Hydrostor said Central Coast will buy 200 megawatts, or 1,600 megawatt hours, of electricity from the storage project. It also said it is in talks with several other parties for the remainder of its capacity.

In October, Hydrostor announced it had struck a deal with engineering and construction company McDermott International to proceed with front-end engineering and design studies for its Silver City storage project in that country.

Source: The Globe and Mail