The Saturday Morning Newsletter #51
Touching Grass, Humanity, Red Tape, Destruction, Safety, and More
👋 Hello friends,
Thank you for joining this week's edition of The Saturday Morning Newsletter. I'm Drew Jackson, and today we're exploring 11 articles, essays, companies, ideas, podcasts, videos, or thoughts that caught my attention this week for their potential to significantly impact our future.
Before we begin: The Saturday Morning Newsletter by Brainwaves arrives in your inbox every Saturday, a concise and casual digest of current events, optimistic news stories, and other interesting tidbits about venture capital, economics, space, energy, intellectual property, philosophy, and beyond. I write as a curious explorer rather than an expert, and I value your insights and perspectives on each subject.
Time to Read: 5 minutes.
Let’s dive in!
#1: Aira
Description: Aira is a producer of residential heat pumps.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Aira recently raised $150M in venture capital funding. It’s estimated that around 10% of Europe’s CO2 emissions are caused by residential heating. Energy bills continue to rise. Their current factory in Poland provides up to 500k heat pumps each year with the hopes of being able to keep pace with the demand around the world.
#2: Life Safety Inspection Vault
Description: Life Safety Inspection Vault develops software for fire and life safety companies.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Life Safety Inspection Vault recently raised $28.7M in venture capital funding. Their mission is to create software for fire and life safety companies that helps them conduct, document, and manage inspections and maintenance to meet compliance requirements. This helps streamline inspections and further protects communities against fires.
#3: Ultraviolette
Description: Ultraviolette is an electric motorcycle developer.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Ultraviolette recently raised $21M in venture capital funding. At the time of its founding 9 years ago, India’s electric motorcycle market was dominated by low-speed, basic models, primarily Chinese imports offering low-cost options. Ultraviolette wanted to match existing 150-800cc motorcycles, so they recreated the design from scratch, cultivating the company into what it is today.
#4: Jeh Aerospace
Description: Jeh Aerospace is an aerospace manufacturing startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Jeh Aerospace recently raised $11M in venture capital funding. They provide a one-stop shop solution for aerostructures and aero-engine components for commercial space programs. Their factory has a capacity of 160k+ sq. ft to help deliver components certified by aerospace professionals.
#5: Hylenr
Description: Hylenr is building clean fuel generation systems.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Hylenr recently raised $3M in venture capital funding. They are working on harnessing low-energy nuclear reactions (LENR) to develop carbon-free energy systems for industrial heat and power applications. Their advancements in LENR technology are protected by two patents, one for product architecture and the other for underlying process innovation.
New York Times: EPA To Cancel Solar Grants
The EPA is drafting termination letters to anyone who received some of the $7B in grants from the “Solar for All” program. This program was aimed to help low- and moderate-income families install solar panels on their homes. This can significantly impact access to solar panels for residents across the country.
New York Times: Canada Has Second-Worst Wildfire Season Ever
There are over 700 fires currently burning throughout Canada, forcing thousands of people to evacuate and thousands more to be on high alert. This has become Canada’s second-worst wildfire season on record. 18.5M acres of land have burned since the start of the year, around half of the biggest year, but experts maintain that the fire season can continue throughout September and October.
Futurism: White House Orders NASA to Destroy Important Satellite
The White House has instructed NASA to delete two major climate-focused satellites. These satellites have been historically collecting widely used data, providing oil companies, farmers, and more with detailed information about the distribution and makeup of carbon dioxide on Earth.
Pitchbook: For Defense Tech Startups, Red Tape is a Burden—and Also a Moat
Over the last couple of decades, the face of war has changed to electronic warfare, drone warfare, and many other forms of intelligence. As such, the existing defense infrastructure needs to be updated. This has fueled VC investment into newer technologies, which have civilian and military applications. In 2025, VC investment in defense tech has already reached a new peak.
Vox: What Does It Mean to Be Human? Philosopher’s Views Have Changed
What distinguishes humans from other animals and other things throughout the universe is that we have the unique ability to ask the question of what it means to be human, suggesting a level of self-consciousness and self-reflectivity that others don’t possess. However, in modern thought, the mind and nature have been seen as separate, which influences this view of humanity’s uniqueness in the world. In this piece, a philosopher discusses how they would update the current thinking.
The Guardian: Human Connection to Nature Significantly Decreasing
A new study by Miles Richardson from the University of Derby found that people’s connection to nature has declined by more than 60% since 1800.
This decline has a high correlation (and potential causation) with the disappearance of nature words such as river, moss, and blossom from books and other literary sources.
Sophisticated computer models predict that the level of nature connectedness will continue to decline unless there are far-reaching policy and societal changes. This would include introducing children to nature at a young age and reintroducing green spaces into our environments.
To quote the article, “The modelling predicts an ongoing ‘extinction of experience’ with future generations continuing to lose an awareness of nature because it is not present in increasingly built-up neighbourhoods, while parents no longer pass on an ‘orientation’ towards the natural world. Other studies have found parental nature connectedness is the strongest predictor of whether a child will become close to nature.”
All in all, we, as humans, throughout our lives and our experiences in the world, should be prioritizing connections with nature as much as we can.
To use the tragic cliche, it’s time to touch grass.
See you Wednesday for Brainwaves,
Drew Jackson
Website: brainwaves.me
Twitter: @brainwavesdotme
Email: brainwaves.me@gmail.com
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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this content are my own and do not represent the views of any of the companies I currently work for or have previously worked for. This content does not contain financial advice - it is for informational and educational purposes only. Investing contains risks and readers should conduct their own due diligence and/or consult a financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Any sponsorship or endorsements are noted and do not affect any editorial content produced.