Gm. With so many companies getting their valuations cut recently, there needs to be a new word for a startup that was once a unicorn, but has since dipped below the $1 billion mark.

We’ve seen them referred to as “ponies” a few times, which is good, but we have another idea: penguins

Highflying at some point in their evolution, but now fully grounded. Let’s see if it catches on.

FRESH POWDER

Looking at three funds that recently topped up their coffers.

ENVIRONMENT 

Climate tech 🤝 Paris Hilton

As record heatwaves sweep through the EU prompting residents to consider adding ice to their drinks, keeping cool sans fossil fuels has emerged as a point of focus for startups and investors.

• The stakes: For the first time ever, temperatures in the UK exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) this week. That's a major issue since under 5% of homes in England have AC installed. Google and Oracle data centers in the UK were literally melting on Tuesday adding to the region's woes.

With extreme heat events growing more common each year, climate tech is back in the venture capitalist spotlight.

The numbers

In Q1 of this year, five climate tech deals made it into CB Insight’s list of the top 10 biggest seed rounds. Those deals pulled in $1.4 billion in funding which subsequently rose to $2.5 billion and 8 deals by Q2.

Other data sets confirm that climate tech is having a banner year—a report from HolonIQ, a business intelligence platform, shows that the sector attracted $26.8 billion in investments in H1 2022 which puts it on pace to pass the $37 billion mark from last year.

But investments in future climate tech don't mean a damn thing to Europeans baking in their abodes. Startups are also building solutions to address the heatwaves of today:

• EcoLocked, a Berlin-based company, adds carbon that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere to its concrete mixture making it denser and improving insulation. Better insulation = less energy needed to heat or cool a home.

• Heat pumps, devices that literally move hot air from one place to another, are another popular solution that startups are working on.

Zoom out: Though the EU is grappling with extreme heat right now, many are already looking ahead to winter. Due to sanctions tied to the war with Ukraine, Russia may cut off its supply of natural gas to Europe. This week, EU leaders inked a deal with Algeria, Azerbaijan, and the UAE to make up for any potential lost production from Russia.

AUTO 

Hyundai is on a heater

Never thought that the above headline would grace this newsletter, but we gotta give credit where credit is due. Hyundai is killing it.

Not only has it been getting a ton of Twitter love for its snazzy retro design aesthetic (see above), but it also recently announced a partnership with Rolls-Royce to develop “a fuel-cell electric propulsion system for advanced air mobility.”

A what now?

The collab, announced Tuesday, aims to create a fuel-cell powered electric aircraft by 2025. Hyundai is very serious about its aerial ambitions bookmarking $1.4 billion to get flying taxis airborn in South Korea by 2025.

• It’s not alone: Toyota and GM are also working on their own flying EVs while Honda already demonstrated a concept hybrid eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle) last year.

Bottom line: Air mobility has flown under the radar in recent years as auto companies ramped up their EV ambitions. But now that everyone has a base level of EV competency, the race for the skies is the next frontier.

QUICK HITS

Seed Round

Stat: A lot of venture funds have been topping up their coffers recently…but some coffers are more topped up than others. In the first half of the year, nearly two-thirds of all venture capital was raised by just 30 funds. With established players hoovering up all the cash, first-time funds suffered: only 70 first-time funds were closed in H1, down from 250 such funds in 2021.

Story we’re watching: After scrapping plans to expand TikTok Shop in the US and Europe, TikTok has started laying off employees in the US while telling employees in Europe that their jobs are at risk too. But there seems to be a good bit of miscommunication around TikTok's corporate ambitions—some employees say it looks like a major company restructuring while others claim it's just a shift in focus. Either way, it’ll be interesting to see if the all-powerful clock app can avoid the major layoffs and hiring freezes seen across tech.

Rabbit hole: Watch John Mayer create a song in 2.5 minutes (YouTube)

WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON

• Netflix suffered two consecutive quarters of subscriber losses for the first time in its history.

• Instacart investor Capital Group Cos sliced its valuation of the company to $14.7 billion, down 62% from its high in March.

• The Twitter-Elon legal battle will take place in October, months earlier than Elon’s camp wanted.

• BlockFi is offering employees 10 months paid leave to resign in order to avoid announcing more layoffs.

THREE LIES AND A HEADLINE

What is reality these days? Let's see if you can tell fact from fiction. Three of these headlines are from the satirical news outlet The Onion, while one is from real life. Can you spot the outlier?

A. “EPA closes down after running out of salvageable environment to protect.”

B. “A company called Meta is suing Meta for naming itself Meta”

C. “15-year-old finds summer job as BetterHelp therapist.”

D. “Report: 70% of celebrities totally unaware they own half of tequila brand”

LAYOFFS TRACKER

Notable layoffs this week

Gemini: 68 people (7%)

Vimeo: 87 people (6%)

Invitae: 1000 people (34%)

FOUNDERS CORNER

The best resources we came across that will help you become a better founder, builder, or investor.

🏫 The Startup Library has been updated with 50+ resources in the last month

🗣️ How to get developers and UI designer to work well together, a Hacker News discussion

🌐 An actually novel Twitter thread of useful websites

THREE LIES ANSWER

B is a real headline. Very…meta.