This Week I’m Tracking: 13 developments across the sectors shaping our future
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Let’s dive in.
#1: AGent Energy
Description: AGent Energy integrates backup generators into the grid during emergencies.
Why Is This Company Interesting? AGent Energy recently raised $11M in seed funding. AGent is an energy technology platform that turns idle commercial and industrial backup generators into revenue generators for businesses. By remotely managing and monetizing underutilized power generation, AGent provides demand-response services to strengthen power grid reliability during peak and emergency conditions.
#2: Naked Energy
Description: Naked Energy is a solar thermal developer for businesses.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Naked Energy recently raised $10.4M in venture capital funding. Naked Energy specializes in solar thermal and hybrid photovoltaic-thermal energy collectors. Its modular, vacuum-tube solar systems decarbonize heat and power for commercial and industrial buildings while using significantly less roof space than traditional solar installations.
#3: Venus Aerospace
Description: Venus Aerospace is a developer of rocket engines for hypersonic flight.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Venus Aerospace recently raised $91M in venture capital funding. Venus is developing hypersonic transportation systems and defense technologies. Known for its rotating detonation rocket engine, Venus aims to enable ultra-high-speed commercial flight and advanced space launch and defense capabilities.
Description: Hephae Energy Technology is a geothermal drilling startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Hephae Energy Technology recently raised $17.8M in venture capital funding. Hephae is developing ultra-high-temperature electronics and sensors for extreme environments. The company has developed specialized drilling, measurement, and logging tools that withstand temperatures exceeding 200 Celsius to accelerate deep geothermal energy extraction.
#5: Flexell Space
Description: Flexell Space is a developer of space solar solutions.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Flexell Space recently raised $20M in venture capital funding. Flexell Space is manufacturing flexible, ultra-lightweight solar cells for orbit. They use flexible solar cell technology to power satellites, rovers, and space infrastructure, with higher power-to-weight ratios than current market solutions.
The New York Times: Climate Change Raises Risk of Disasters Like Nepal Floods
This week there was deadly flash flooding in Nepal and Tibet. Scientists are still determining the exact cause of this week’s catastrophe. Climate change is heating up the world and increasing the risk of disasters. As humans warm the planet by burning fossil fuels, mountains are losing their permafrost, a layer that has remained frozen for thousands of years. This destabilizes the foundation beneath glaciers, leading to collapses.
The New York Times: This Year’s Record-Breaking El Niño in 3 Charts
This year’s El Niño is already very intense, and it’s just the start. Scientists expect that by December, this series of events may be the strongest in the last 80 years. This could alter weather patterns across the planet, with projections estimating that 49 million people will be driven into hunger as a result. This article highlights three charts and data sets that show the true power we’re facing.
Reuters: The Little Reactors that Could? How SMRs Became Nuclear’s Best Bet
As the world needs more clean, reliable sources of electricity, small modular nuclear reactors are becoming one of the favorite underdogs, potentially capable of disrupting the entire sector once they reach scale. The technology remains largely unproven commercially, yet market tailwinds are propelling developers toward what may be the best opportunity in nuclear energy in recent history.
Smithsonian Magazine: A Startup Just Got Approval to Test Beaming Sunlight to Earth. Here’s Why Experts Are Worried
Reflect Orbital is a company aiming to beam sunlight from space to Earth using a fleet of mirrored satellites. The goal is to improve the source of sunlight to power solar energy on Earth. Reflect Orbital wants to extend solar panels’ working hours into the nighttime. They recently received FCC approval to launch the first test satellite, but scientists are worried about the sunlight’s effects on wildlife, research, and human health.
Pitchbook: VCs Are Finding Their Best Returns Outside the Coasts
VC investment has traditionally stayed concentrated on the coasts; however, those investments have performed much more moderately. Startups in smaller hubs have been much more lucrative this year on a MOIC basis. VCs are increasingly looking outside of major metro areas for the next generation of founders.
The New York Times: This Is Why People Hate the Government
This economist describes the “time tax”: the burden of work (emotional, logistical, knowledge, etc.) that goes into any paperwork or bureaucratic process where you are the end user. Many government forms aren’t purposeful; they’re designed more to make people feel good about themselves and the government. Additionally, they’re one of the ways that we construct class—segmenting who can and who can’t.
IP Watchdog: How Patent Filings Are Now the World’s Largest Open-Source Intelligence Database
For the last 200 years, investors have publicly disclosed their inventions in exchange for a limited-time monopoly. Now, governments, intelligence agencies, and, most importantly, AI systems mine patent filings. Patent databases have become one of the world’s richest sources of open-source technology intelligence. At this point, does patent disclosure, given where AI is today, fundamentally change its strategic value?
Philosophy Break: Simone de Beauvoir: the Best Romantic Partners Celebrate Each Other’s Freedom
One of Simone de Beauvoir’s main philosophies is “To will oneself free is also to will others free.”
This is what Beauvoir thinks authentic love will look like. If we value our own freedom, then we must value the freedom of others. She believes an authentically loving relationship involves the meeting and continuation of two individual freedoms, governed by reciprocity, free choice, and respect.
In other words, love is not about forever committing to pre-given roles: the best romantic relationships consist in mutual projects of growth and change.
I’m not saying this is by any means the best or only statement on love in the universe. I think it’s a very interesting one, one that we should think more about—how love is a dynamic process that enables all to have freedom.
That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup.
Drew Jackson
Founder & Writer
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