We at Soulmates Ventures are excited to announce the launch of our acceleration program with our portfolio startup and first investment of the 2023 Investment Cohort, VOS.health, as part of the new investment benefit we offer.

We're thrilled to see the European Commission launch the Green Deal Industrial Plan, a series of strategies and initiatives aimed at increasing the competitiveness of Europe’s net-zero industries, supporting the EU’s transition to climate neutrality and in making sustainable technologies and products economically competitive with traditional products.

Big congratulations to our portfolio startup Stimvia has qualified for the final selection. It’s amazing to see from an investor perspective how Stimvia has grown to the stage to be in the group with startups such as Flowbox, Agdata, Hedepy or Devinn.

We are Sustainability Hub Prague. The first Czech hub with a unique focus on sustainability in research, entrepreneurship, financing and investing. We are building a functional environment, for the creation of ideas and solutions in the field of sustainability that helps to achieve positive results.

Portfolio startups Stimvia (Tesla Medical) and Perfect-Air have successfully completed the ClimAccelerator programme for sustainable projects, under the auspices of Europe's renowned EIT Climate-Kic.

There were 104 exits of climate technology companies in the transportation, energy and agriculture sectors last year, four times more than in 2017, when the number was just 24, according to data from Silicon Valley Bank. The EIP Climate Tech Index for Sustainable Companies also saw significant growth, rising roughly 200% from the start of 2017 to the end of April 2022, nearly 70 percentage points higher than the Nasdaq index. We believe this is helped by, among other things, the climate policies of states.

Mobility is the most heavily funded sector in climate technology despite not being a major emitter of greenhouse gases. Between 2013 and the first half of 2021, the global value of VC investment in this category was $132 billion, or 61% of all VC investments in climate-tech. Energy accounted for 15% of investment, food and agriculture 12% and industry, manufacturing and resource management 9%. We believe that the distribution of investment in the Czech Republic is similar.

The war is impacting Czech and global startups. Interest in investing has dropped by 37% since the conflict began. In February alone, the volume of investments dropped by almost a third. We believe that there will be recovery over time, but the market will change permanently. The biggest opportunities will be within sectors that have emerged to address current issues, with sectors that focus on sustainability and self-sufficiency becoming more attractive in particular.

As many cities and countries around the world are starting to monitor their air quality, we are gaining more information about how polluted the air we breathe actually is. According to a new report by the WHO, 99 % of the population lives in areas where air pollution is in excess of the air quality limits set by the WHO.

This report serves as a summary of information, news, data and insights from the sustainable venture capital (VC) industry and startup environment.

While the people of Ukraine defend themselves against the Russian army, Europe is still withdrawing natural gas from rich reserves in Russia’s Siberia. With Putin holding this strategic material in his hands, it is much harder for the EU to effectively help Ukraine. What’s the solution? Europe needs to be energy independent through an updated Green Deal.

Ex-engineers from SpaceX have developed a new concept of self-powered, electric and autonomous rail vehicles to decarbonize the freight industry, vehicles that operate in parallel and don’t require locomotives.

The COP26 Conference in Glasgow didn’t bring us the certainty of keeping the Earth’s rising temperature at 1.5 C degrees, but it did give us signs of hope in other important areas. There was a promise made by these governments to come back next year with Paris-aligned near-term targets of stronger 2030 emissions reduction. Let’s dig down further into COP26 outcomes, to better understand the current situation.

Finding the right sustainability startups may seem difficult, particularly for investors in which this industry is new. There are a lot of things happening right now in this prospective industry, which means it is experiencing a huge investment and startup-launching boom.

The year 2020 is most remembered for the Covid-19 pandemic, but we would like to summarize this memorable year with a focus on the industry that we understand the most - let’s look back at how the year 2020 shaped startups and venture capital.

Rivian, one of the most serious competitors to the biggest producer of EV, Tesla, has attracted the attention of investors. And one of them is the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. The startup Rivian is now preparing its IPO, where the value of the company could rise to $50bn.

Today, we will introduce you to 4 startups that are making a huge impact on the green & clean technology industry, as well as world sustainability. These are startups that have reached the magical boundary of $1B in market value, earning themselves the title of ‘green-tech unicorn’.

When it comes to solar panels, one of the key requirements is their adaptability. Solar panels need to be installed in different shapes, in different places, made from different materials and installed at different angles too. In fact, adaptability is an aspect that is most in focus in the R&D of renewable resources. And we will introduce you one of the solutions called Agriphotovoltaics.

We have talked about green technology many times before, but something we haven’t really talked about is what green technology actually is. Now we want to remedy this, by showing you all of the possibilities inside the term ‘green technology’.

Yes, in the past there was a theory that said ‘when you invest in a good thing for the environment, it usually means a loss on investment’. This is not true anymore – the Coronavirus pandemic has proved that ESG assets can have a positive impact, and can also be economically sustainable. Which is important now more than ever.

The problem of consumption behavior has become an unquestionable issue. Normally, the issue resonates the most amongst younger generations such as Gen Z and Millennials who are more open to a resale market and shared economy. Yet, COVID 19 has changed buying habits across the whole society and, hopefully, it will lead to a more sustainable environment in the future.

The year 2020 was nothing less than an extraordinary, and extremely weird, year that brought to us a kind of life that we had never experienced before. What the year 2020 brought to us? We had to adapt to a new environment.

This promising new technology works in a similar way to solar power but, instead of generating electricity, generates water and could revolutionize the water generation industry. The start-up behind the technology, Zero Mass Water, is attracting attention from investors like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos or Michael Bloomberg, but is the technology efficient enough to be economically profitable?

It has become clear that carbon prices need to be raised if we are to hit our climate neutrality goals. To achieve this goal, major emitters in the manufacturing, buildings and transport industries need to switch from using fossil fuels to the clean energy sector. According to a new report, carbon prices need to be at least tripled in order to make this switch happen in the EU.

For the first time in history, renewable energy sources – wind and solar – took the biggest share of new energy generation last year. This could be a sign of a huge shift not only in the energy sector but everywhere where electricity is in demand. Bloomberg released a detailed study.

The diversity of plant species is declining and according to estimates 40% of plants around the world are facing possible extinction. One of the answers that can reverse this situation could be genome editing, a practice that many people are afraid of.

Norway has a reputation as a leader in sustainability. Renewable resources, specifically from 82 large hydroelectric plants, provide 96.1% of household electricity consumed. The government has invested a lot to enable the switch to electrified transport and electric vehicles (EVs). Now, they are bringing in the world’s first carbon capture project.

Looking broadly at the electric vehicle (EV) industry, the main issue is the batteries, even though companies like Tesla pour millions of dollars into innovative battery technologies. A new EV charging system concept called Sweden’s Evolution Road project could be a game changer.

Read about 3 Agri-food tech start-ups that innovated a breakthrough technology in their fields of specialty.

The circular economy is a loop concept of waste being reused as an input for future business operations. By applying the "reuse, reduce, repair, refuse and recycle" philosophy, companies can drastically reduce their carbon footprint and resource consumption.

The alternative protein sector is experiencing a huge boom in investments as consumers are looking for healthier and environmentally-friendly choices in their food habits. The investors are feeling the opportunities that the sector has to offer.

Venture with us into a land of green fields surrounded by mighty forests with plenty of healthy animals living in their natural habitat and take a deep breath of fresh and clean air. Take a journey with us and learn about green farming.

With the human population growing and people moving more from the countryside to big cities, there is a crucial question that we, as a species, have to answer.

Since Covid-19 has spread across the world, sustainable businesses and industries are helping the world fight the virus while developing …