The Saturday Morning Newsletter #64
7 Unique Pancake Types, Free Daily Australian Energy, and Premature Global Divestment in Africa
This Week I’m Tracking: 15 developments across the sectors shaping our future
Reading Time: 5 minutes of curated insights
Your weekly pulse check: The most important events in venture capital, energy, space, economics, intellectual property, philosophy, and more. I distill the most important developments across sectors I track, saving you hours of research while keeping you ahead of the curve.
New to these updates? They pair with our bi-weekly Brainwave analyses for comprehensive sector coverage. Wednesday’s deep dive explored life’s biggest questions - catch up here.
Let’s dive in.
#1: Sizable Energy
Description: Sizable Energy is developing offshore pumped hydro systems.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Sizable Energy recently raised $8M in venture capital funding. Their design is quite simple: a reservoir is placed on the ocean floor, another floating on the surface, and a pipe connecting the two, with reversible pump-turbines moving saturated sea salt brine between the two reservoirs. This process helps create and store energy, which can be deployed at a future time.
#2: Extellis
Description: Extellis is a satellite imagery startup.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Extellis recently raised $6.8M in venture capital funding. The company recently spun out of Duke Engineering. Extellis provides patented antennas that take thousands of radar images per day. These images are provided in near-real time, regardless of weather conditions, all at a low cost and high capacity.
#3: Valar Atomics
Description: Valar Atomics is a developer of nuclear energy projects.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Valar Atomics recently raised $130M in venture capital funding. Valar’s goal is to unlock the benefits of scale by building tens and hundreds of reactors on their “gigasites.” They use high-temperature gas reactors, which they argue is the best form of a Gen V reactor.
#4: NLPatent
Description: NLPatent is a provider of AI-powered patent research.
Why Is This Company Interesting? NLPatent recently raised $3M in venture capital funding. NLPatent has built a system that helps users search through existing patent filings and databases 10x quicker than existing solutions. This solution is built for all patent workflows, providing search, protection, licensing, and other capabilities easily.
#5: Gevi
Description: Gevi is a developer of micro wind turbines.
Why Is This Company Interesting? Gevi recently raised $2.7M in venture capital funding. Gevi is developing vertical wind turbines, allowing for 60%+ energy production compared to other micro wind turbines on the market currently. Micro wind turbines are better deployed in cities, on top of buildings, and in other areas where large-scale turbines cannot reasonably be deployed.
Electrek: Solar Leads New US Power Capacity for 2 Years Straight
In 2025 so far, solar and wind have accounted for 88% of new US electrical generating capacity. In August, solar and wind each added more new capacity than natural gas did. Within 3 years, the share of renewables in the total energy mix may exceed 40%.
Electrek: Australia to Provide Free Energy
Australia has installed a large amount of solar energy recently. Formerly, the country was powered primarily by coal. Now, renewables have taken over the energy mix. The Australian government has proposed a new rule to bring electricity savings to the consumer during peak daytime hours. This program would require electricity retailers to provide free electricity for at least 3 hours a day.
The New York Times: A Global Climate Leadership Vacuum
In the recent COP 30 discussions, the United States was noticeably absent, leading some to question who would fill the gaps left in global climate leadership. The shoes have been filled by China, Governor Gavin Newsom, and delegates from the host country of Brazil. Many see the United States as an important member, but not a critical member, of these talks.
The New York Times: China’s Green Triumph
As the United States suffers as a global energy superpower, China has stepped up, providing solutions to needy countries across the globe. China makes exporting solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and electric vehicles easy. They are investing billions in new factories to help power the future of energy across the globe.
The New York Times: New Mars Mission
A new set of data gathering machines has been launched towards Mars this week. These two orbiters will make simultaneous measurements in different locations, circling around Mars. The goal is to look further into why Mars, which once possessed a thick atmosphere and water on its surface, is now dry, cold, and almost airless.
Pitchbook: Government Shutdown Affects IPO Market
The government shutdown hampered many companies’ expectations to go public, and experts are projecting this trend will continue throughout the rest of Q4. Now that the government has reopened, however, companies have to go through many steps in the process again. Furthermore, this shutdown showed many that uncertainty and volatility are continuous elements of our economic process and will continue to be for the foreseeable future, leading companies to shy away from entering the public markets with these ongoing trends.
The New York Times: Africa Is Back?
Over the next couple of decades, Africa is expected to see a massive population boom (hundreds of millions of people). Currently, the US, China, and many European nations have been pulling back their presence there in terms of aid, trade, and investment. Are these decisions wise? This opinion writer thinks this is an unfounded take, as African nations will continue to develop and progress over time, and should be valued members of world trade, development, and organizations.
Federal News Network: How the Government Shutdown is Affecting IP Rights
The USPTO is a fee-funded office and wasn’t significantly affected by the government shutdown. It’s one of the few profitable government agencies. Most entities interacting with the USPTO are private and weren’t affected by the government shutdown. The only major changes recently have come through top-down policy changes, such as return to office mandates and the patent throw-out rate update.
Philosophy Break: We Are Time Unfolding
Philosopher Martin Heidegger had many interesting thoughts about time. In his view, time isn’t this big container we flow through that we could easily stop. Nor is it a resource we have or some quality that is added to us. Instead, time is a fundamental part of existence. We are time. We are the seconds ticking away. If time stopped, so would our existence.
Recently, I came across this cool depiction of how to make a wide variety of “pancakes.” I wanted to share in case you had an interest in the differences and wanted to make any different types in the future:
That’s a wrap on this week’s roundup.
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Drew Jackson
Founder & Writer
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