The News: Amazon announced investments in two sustainable tech companies as part of the latest round of funding from The Climate Pledge Fund. Hippo Harvest, located in California, is a sustainable agriculture company that uses plant science, machine learning, and robotics to reduce emissions typically caused from growing lettuce and other leafy greens. Amogy, the second investment recipient, is focused on developing an ammonia-to-power system that will ultimately be used to power heavy-duty transportation. Read the full press release here.
Analyst Take: The Climate Pledge Fund, established in 2020, is a $2 Billion corporate venture capital fund dedicated to funding companies that can help Amazon meet its goals set forth in The Climate Pledge, according to Amazon’s website. Since its inception, The Climate Pledge Fund has been backing promising green tech startups that are focused on developing sustainable technologies. Hippo Harvest and Amogy are just the latest start-ups in a long list of companies that include Rivian, Pachama, and Ion Energy to name a few.
Hippo Harvest and Amogy are great additions to the list of companies funded by The Climate Pledge Fund. Each is dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the carbon footprint in industries that contribute to a large percentage of carbon emissions worldwide. Their technologies have promising implications for the future.
Hippo Harvest is the first agricultural company to receive an investment from The Climate Pledge Fund. Its technologies are working to grow leafy greens in greenhouse environments that eliminate the waste and emissions from traditional farming methods. The pilot farm system uses a direct-to-root fertilizer and system that requires 95% less water than traditional farming. Robotics and other technologies like data collection, make it easier to monitor plants and eliminates waste. The best part? Due to the controlled environment, the greenhouses can be built almost anywhere, which would eliminate the emissions from transportation and increase the shelf life of fresh vegetables.
This investment makes sense for Amazon as a grocery retailer. Eventually these produce products will likely be sold in Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh stores and potentially pay big dividends to the company.
Amogy is focused on developing ammonia-to-power systems that are emission-free from the start and will eventually be used to power heavy-duty transportation like marine transportation. Scientists have been working for years to tap into the power of ammonia. The energy-dense compound can be broken apart and then converted to hydrogen power without any emissions at all. Amogy is dedicated to commercializing this technology to power transportation like shipping vessels and other heavy-duty transportation methods, which has traditionally been one of the hardest sectors to eliminate fossil fuels. This could have huge implications for long-haul trucking, aviation, and marine transportation.
In September, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that it will take everyone, not just Amazon, to fight climate change. And he’s right. But it’s promising to see Amazon take a huge monetary stand in the fight. I know these two companies, and the others on the list, are only the beginning for The Climate Pledge Fund. I look forward to seeing what other visionary companies get funded next.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
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The original version of this article was first published on Futurum Research.
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