🌍 Venturing in ReFi #26
Your 5-minute deep-dive into regenerative web3 investing
Happy Thursday!
Today’s curated content covers:
🧑🔬 How DeSci could reinvigorate science (an investor’s opinion)
⛓️ Astral Protocol’s Location-Data Product
🌊 Bioregions(?) and what Deep Science Ventures is creating
We’re excited to profile and invest in this emerging sector with you. Let’s dive in:
Global Ecosystem News 🌊
Fundraises 🚀
💸 Return Protocol, a ReFi startup that allows users to offset their’ on-chain emissions automatically, raised $2.5M in pre-seed funding led by Cherry Ventures.
💵 Thallo, an on-chain carbon credit marketplace, announced it closed a $2.5M seed round from Web3 venture firms, including enterprise blockchain Ripple.
General
🌲 Open Forest Protocol announced a partnership to provide accurate data verification for forest projects on the Senken carbon credit marketplace.
🛰️ Shamba, a Kenya-based climate-data provider, expanded services to multiple blockchains, including Arbitrum, Avalanche, Ethereum, Optimism, and Polygon.
🌥️ dClimate, a decentralized climate data network, partnered with Canadian blockchain solutions provider GuildOne to bring Canadian land data on chain.
🌟 Return Protocol, a Web3 carbon offsetting platform, announced they would offset with Regen Network’s ecocredits and carbon tokens.
🔗 Flowcarbon announced a partnership with the Hedera blockchain’s HBAR Foundation to provide traceable links to the ecological data backing Flowcarbon credits.
🍃 Menthol Protocol announced a partnership with Astra Protocol, a Web3 KYC platform, to provide regulatory compliance.
Newly Launched Projects 🤔
🔄 Circularise, a blockchain-powered supply chain software provider, launched new software after completing its pilot with Shell and Neste.
🧬 SimplexDNA released plans to create a global community-driven biodiversity dataset utilizing blockchain and environmental DNA (eDNA) technology.
🌸 Flowcarbon launched a website for their climate-positive Flow3rs NFT collection (launching on November 28), where two-thirds of auction proceeds will be used to retire carbon credits.
⏩ Evercity, a Berlin-based sustainable finance protocol, launched forward financing for carbon projects using the Hedera blockchain.
💳 KlimaDAO launches the “Fiat to Retirement” payment platform, allowing users to retire tokenized carbon credits via credit card seamlessly.
Founders, feel free to DM our editor a project on Twitter @AlexFilotimo
Curated Readings 📚
1 - Astral’s Geospatial Role in the Kolektivo Framework
This is a quality technical outline of Astral Protocol's product for anyone interested in blockchain-based data infrastructure.
Astral Protocol creates “geo-NFTs,” tokens representing a specific location on the Earth with details about its ecological state (that is, the types and quality of natural resources at that coordinate). The startup does not solve an obvious problem immediately, but it's exciting. Astral creates infrastructure that many other #ReFi startups can use.
Kolektivo — a four-year-old #ReFi startup from Curaçao that enables local cryptocurrencies — uses Astral to reward people who create value with “regenerative” actions (like planting trees). Other companies could use Astral's location data to monitor carbon credits or issue insurance.
Long term, Astral Protocol believes their growing dataset could help governments (or bioregions) look after their local climates.
Photos from Kolektivo and Astral Protocols’ Bluepaper
2 - Why decentralized science will upend the scientific establishment
In this piece, a Partner at Dragonfly, Anirudh Pai, compares the current state of science to the stale, corrupt church of the 16th century. He shares that Decentralized Science (DeSci) could bypass issues in contemporary academia and allow non-traditional science to advance.
Much of the current scientific system — from the academic tenure process to the types of projects or people who receive funding — creates inefficiencies. Blockchain and DAOs could improve funding routes, review processes, and IP sharing.
Maybe most importantly, DeSci will allow anyone to do quality science, not constrained by access within the realms of traditional science (often dictated by the focuses of hierarchies).
P.S. You can find more content on the emerging DeSci industry in our 18th newsletter.
3 - Designing and scaling startups for bioregions
“A bioregion is a land and water territory whose limits are defined by the geographical limits of human communities and ecological systems rather than by political boundaries.”
Some think tanks believe we should define costs for natural resources based on regions or, maybe, move towards bioregional governance instead of national governments.
Deep Science Ventures — one of the best incubators for science startups — shares in this article that some climate startups should build their products for bioregions. The article shows that startups could scale faster by focusing their solutions on ecosystems (like the Amazon bioregion, mid-west plains, or rice paddies) instead of national markets.
If you work on regenerative agriculture, reach out to them. DSV is creating bioregional innovation programs by collating ecosystem experts, farmers, and policymakers for the various ecosystems.
Fun extras
🦜 If you’d like a regular carbon market analysis, Toucan Protocol runs the excellent deCarbonized newsletter.
🛠️ If you want to build a startup in ReFi, the ReFi DAO supports our industry’s founders.
Feel free to reply with feedback, suggestions, or fantastic articles for crypto/climate investors. 📩
With love,
Alex, Yoshi, and the Aera Force DAO
Researching web3 venture investments for a flourishing future
P.S. If you want to contribute to web3-climate investing, feel free to contact us or contribute to this open-source insights repository.
This newsletter is for educational purposes only. While we strive for accurate and unbiased information, none of it is verified or intended to help as investment advice.