🌍Newsletter - September 2024

Sep 02, 2024

Welcome to the 10th edition of the AFI Ventures’ newsletter.

As a reminder, AFI Ventures (fund managed by Ventech) is an impact VC fund that invests in pre-seed/seed startups with a strong environmental and social ambition, producing a systemic change. We invest once a month in France & Europe tickets ranging from €250K to €500K.

Each month in this newsletter, you'll find a summary of 2 articles on the impact ecosystem that have caught our attention, fundraisings realised by impact start-ups in France, and news from our portfolio. 💚

👀 What Caught our eye

The cool technologies that could protect cities from dangerous heat

by Shanon Halls

Innovations in Cooling Technologies

Improving Air Conditioning Efficiency

Traditional Air Conditioning Drawbacks: Current air conditioners consume a significant amount of electricity and emit greenhouse gases. Globally, they account for about 20% of the electricity used in buildings.
‘Electrocaloric’ Heat Pump: Developed by Emmanuel Defay and his team, this technology uses an electric field to manipulate atomic vibrations in an insulating ceramic to generate and dissipate heat without environmentally harmful coolants.
- Collaboration with Murata, a Japanese manufacturing company, helps in scaling the technology, but widespread use may take a decade.

Supercool Materials for Passive Cooling

Supercool Materials Definition: Materials that can keep surfaces cooler than their surroundings without using electricity by reflecting solar radiation and emitting thermal radiation effectively.
- Supercool Aerogel: Created from salmon sperm DNA and gelatin by researchers at Sichuan University, it cooled surfaces up to 16°C below ambient temperature.
  - The material is noted for being sustainable, energy-efficient, and degradable, but there is skepticism about the results due to potential measurement inaccuracies.

Cool Materials

Cool Materials Concept: Materials engineered to reflect most of their incident solar radiation but not necessarily optimized for emitting thermal radiation.
- Startups are developing coatings for vertical surfaces that adapt to seasonal changes, such as polypropylene bags that can cool or warm buildings depending on the season.

Reflective and Cool Pavements

Testing in Arizona: Reflective cool pavements at a shopping center in Arizona showed an 8°C cooler surface temperature and 0.8°C cooler air temperature above the pavement compared to conventional pavements.
- Potential drawbacks include reflecting heat upwards, which could make surfaces uncomfortable in high-sun conditions.

Shape-Shifting and Phase-Change Materials

Phase-Change Inks: Developed by Mohammad Taha and their team, these inks use nanoparticles that change from superconductors to metals depending on temperature, enabling them to reflect or absorb heat accordingly.
- Future applications could include window coatings to reduce heat loss and greenhouse effects in glass buildings.

The Green Economy Is Hungry for Copper

By Vince Beiser

Far from being just a simple raw material, copper has become a strategic asset and a source of conflict in many regions around the world.

The article of Vince Beiser takes the example of Moqadi Mokoena, a security guard in South Africa who lost his life while trying to protect a power station from armed thieves. This illustrates the dangerous reality faced by those who protect this precious resource. Energy infrastructures, vital for the proper functioning of the country, are under constant threat from armed gangs attracted by the increasing value of copper.

Why this rush for copper? Simply because this metal is indispensable to our energy future. Used in electric cars, solar panels, and wind turbines, copper is the best natural electrical conductor after silver. Demand for this metal is soaring, to the point where some analysts estimate that we will consume more copper over the next 25 years than humanity has used since its beginnings.

This growing demand has led to a surge in prices, from $6,400 to over $9,000 per ton in just four years, making copper a prime target for thieves worldwide. Millions, if not billions, of dollars' worth of copper are stolen each year, often under extremely dangerous conditions for the thieves themselves.

Around the world, from South America to Europe, and across Asia, this metal is at the center of an illicit trade driven by rising demand and the massive profits it can generate. Public infrastructures are regularly sabotaged, and economic losses continue to mount.

This situation highlights a paradox of our energy transition: to move to cleaner energy sources, we rely on metals whose extraction and trade can cause immense social and environmental damage. The rush for copper shows no signs of slowing down, and with it, the risks for those who depend on it for survival.

In the age of electrification, copper has become as valuable as gold. And as the world rushes to decarbonize our economies, we must question the human and environmental costs of this copper rush.

🍃 AFI Ventures - Main Highlights

💰 Early-stage impact rounds in France

Magma Technology (€800k/ BAs) offers a simple solution to optimize container management and achieve operational excellence.
Wattalps (€11M/Supernova, Move Energy, Ring Capital) lithium-ion batteries with patented immersion cooling technology.

🤝 Our Team

Charles Fourault Partner - charles@afi.ventures
Mamadou Dembele Senior Associate - mamadou@afi.ventures
Constantin de Chaudenay Associate - constantin@afi.ventures
Juliette Lelievre Analyst - Juliette@afi.ventures

Don't hesitate to reach out if you're an impact entrepreneur or just interested in any of these topics. 🍃

🌍🍃 AFI Ventures