Protein shakes from astronaut breath
Small Steps Vol. 94: Soft plastic recycling is back 🗑️; big pharma’s impact on carbon emissions 💊; and tips on how to time your raise 💰.
Kick start
♻️ Soft plastic recycling is back. You probably remember the collapse of REDcycle, Australia’s largest soft plastic recycling program, back in late 2022 (context here and here), after it came to light that it had been stockpiling millions of plastic items in warehouses and was shutting down operations. Now, its successor is here, but on a smaller scale – with initial launch in 12 supermarkets only.
The trial is underway in Melbourne in specific Woolworths, Coles and Aldi stores, and provides customers with an in-store option for ‘scrunchable’ soft plastic food packaging.
Turns out, recycling soft plastics is complex, expensive, and currently has little reward for its efforts. The biggest hold up in getting through the 10,400 tonnes of soft plastic that remains in storage in Australia is our lack of a soft plastics recycling infrastructure, which was exacerbated by a ban on its export in 2023.
For us, the controversy has only increased conviction that the best solution is to design emissions intensive and environmentally harmful plastics out of our lives at every opportunity. We’re excited by the amazing founders creating biodegradable and reusable alternatives (like the team at Great Wrap) or redesigning supply chains. If this is what you’re working on – we’d love to hear from you!
🧑🚀 The future of food could be protein shakes from astronaut breath. Sounds like magic, doesn’t it? That’s what one company has come up with in answer to NASA’s Deep Space Food Challenge.
Launched in 2021, entrants are tasked with generating novel food production technologies or systems that require minimal resources and produce minimal waste, while providing safe, nutritious, and tasty food for long-duration human exploration missions.
In response, New York-based Air Company designed a system that takes CO2 from astronauts’ breath and turns it into alcohol, which can then be fed to yeast, producing “something that’s edible”. Kinda gross, but also pretty cool. Makes us wonder how the future of food will look in our lifetimes.
New paths
💻 Mindset Health is hiring a number of roles including a Head of Marketing (Melbourne), Performance Marketer (Melbourne) , Video Editor/Videographer (Melbourne) and two Software Engineers (Melbourne).
🧻 One for your US-based friends – Who Gives A Crap is on the lookout for an Influencer Manager (Los Angeles).
⚡ Amber Electric is after an Executive Assistant and Office Manager (Melbourne).
🟢 Are you looking to get into VC and passionate about sustainability and circular economy? Asahi Beverages Australia is hiring a Circular Ventures Analyst (Melbourne).
https://www.seek.com.au/job/73720443 - Asahi
🔥 Also, check out our Giant Leap Fund jobs board for over 45+ available positions or fill out our expression of interest form. There’s even more jobs at ethical companies on the global B-Work job board.
Giant leaps
💧 Conserving Beauty scored a feature on Seven News on their new, bioplastic-free dissolving sheet masks and zit strips. Great news for thirsty skin!
♻️ Great Wrap has launched its compostable machine pallet wrap, allowing it to provide its full biodegradable wrap into the freight market.
📣 Goterra’s Olympia Yager shares the best career advice she’s ever received in this Forbes feature on five women in power.
🤵🏽♀️ WORK180 has released it’s 2024 ‘What Women Want’ Report - a must-read for anyone in a leadership position, people-management or HR wanting to attract and retain top talent.
📚 HEX launched its first-ever HEX High Accelerator Cohort with 84 ambitious high school students from across the country! The program teaches students how to build startups, with advice from industry leaders including our very own Managing Partner Will Richardson.
🎤 Giant Leap Partner Rachel Yang is appearing on a UN Women’s panel with former Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon on International Women’s Day - come along and say hi!
For the road
💸 Looking to raise capital this year? The Venture Crew has some great advice on both when to raise, and how to go about asking. In short, founders need to time their raise so that the additional capital primarily acts as an accelerant for the business. This means you already have product market fit and a strategy in place to encourage rapid adoption. They also suggest balancing raising as much capital as possible when you can, with being aware that your valuation will play into your ability to exit down the line.
🤯 There's a Neuralink chip in someone’s brain. Elon Musk said he was going to do it… and here we are. The chip allows the recipient to interact directly with computers via thought. “Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer. That is the goal,” Musk wrote on the matter. Brown University’s in brain-computer interfaces expert John Donoghue, sounds off on what this breakthrough means.
🩺 Amazon’s next frontier: chronic health. The tech giant has launched a new program aimed at tackling chronic disease treatment online by surfacing additional medical information on various health-related products. While the move has global implications, it’s aiming to address a uniquely US problem with an insurance-centric healthcare system deterring prevention and treatment measures; a staggering 40% of the US population suffers from two or more ongoing conditions.
🌳 As for the other Amazon… The world’s largest rainforest is still hanging in there, but is nearing breaking point. The Amazon is home to more than 10% of Earth's biodiversity and holds up to 20 years' worth of global carbon dioxide emissions. Now, rising temperatures are affecting its ability to capture and store carbon – the south-east portion of the forest is emitting more carbon than its storing.
💊 Making drugs causes more pollution than driving cars. Big Pharma produces 55% more emissions than the auto industry. That’s because most drug-making uses oil. Berlin-based company DUDE CHEM is aiming to solve this problem, with a series patented chemical that alleviates their reliance on oil. It’s just raised €6.5m to scale its operations.
🔋 “We have to be a partner, not an observer”: The Australian government has announced its intentions to fund an initiative that aims to make Australia a renewable energy superpower. The direction of the funds or strategy behind it is yet to be disclosed, though Prime Minister Albanese has inferred that it won’t be at the scale of investment we’re seeing overseas. We’d put money on hearing more about this plan closer to the Federal Budget this year.
⭐ Impact reporting done right. For anyone looking to measure their fund’s impact and are after a template of how to do it, look no further than EU impact fund Rubio Impact Ventures’ 2023 Impact Report. Released earlier this month, we think it’s a great example of strong impact methodology and clear reporting.
💪 For those moments when you’re both the problem and the solution…
🥺 And as a little treat… We can’t help but smile at this clip of a bat eating a banana.
Save the date
📅 February 26: Applications close for the Startmate Climate Fellowship.The eight-week course aims to help applicants gain the skills they need to turn their climate tech idea into a viable startup - we’d highly recommend! Scholarships are available, so apply now. Giant Leap Associate Katarina Throssell is an advisor, so feel free to reach out for a chat if you need more convincing.
📅 February 27: Join us for Terra.do’s Australian launch event! Terra.do is the largest upskilling platform for the clean economy. They're hosting a night of climate education to celebrate their launch in Australia. Our Associate Katarina Throssell will be presenting at the event, so if you’re a climate tech founder or just interested in learning how you can be part of the climate revolution, don’t miss it!
📅 February 27: Tune into the Entrepreneurship World Cup’s Australian National Final. Tickets are on sale now. The event pits startups of all sizes against one another for the opportunity to represent Australia in an international competition in Saudi Arabia later this year.
📅 February 29: Applications close for EnergyLab’s 2024 ScaleUp Program. It’s aimed at helping accelerate startups focused on decarbonising the energy sector. The program runs for about five months, starting in May. You can apply here.
📅 March 1: Applications close for Climate Salad’s 2nd Global Growth Program. It’s a nine-month accelerator for climate tech startups, aiming to help position companies for global growth. This one’s great for established startups looking to scale internationally. Apply now!
📅 March 3: Applications for the Melbourne Accelerator Program close. To apply you need to create a 90 second video and also answer a questionnaire about your founding team. Accepted startups receive $20,000 in funding, access to the program’s alumni network and access to a dedicated workspace.
📅 March 22 - 24: Techstars Sydney Startup Weekend! Do you want to build your innovation toolkit and learn how to think more creatively? Do you want to upskill so you’re better positioned to solve problems and make a difference? If so, Techstars Startup Weekend is the place for you! Join us for a fun weekend in March!