Ripple was Seedrs’ startup of the year in 2019 and is currently crowdfunding on the platform to raise £350K. With over 20 days left, it’s at 70% of its target.
As the UK’s first ever clean energy ownership platform, Ripple will be tapping into the $11T global wind and solar market in a manner thus far unprecedented in the UK. It allows household and business users to part-own wind farms – thus actively increasing the amount of renewable energy on the national grid, and reducing electricity bills at the same time.
Ripple works in partnership with Co-op Energy and Octopus Energy, which recently announced it will create 1,000 new green tech jobs and help make Britain ‘the best place to invest in green energy’. It launched its first pilot wind farm in summer this year, and has since June handled £1M+ of transactions. Looking to the future, Ripple hopes to expand into the B2B market.
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We wrote about HumanForest back in September just as their summer trial period in London was coming to an end. The sustainable mobility organisation’s bottle green bikes lined the streets of Camden and Islington throughout lockdown, taking advantage of a cycling surge. In general, micro mobility is set to grown 20% per year to $150B by 2030. Apparently the HumanForest pilot saw almost 10K riders accessing bikes through its freemium app and partners FT, Whole Foods and Rude Health.
HumanForest’s zero-emissions e-bikes run entirely on renewable energy and were designed to “get our great city moving again” in the most affordable, efficient and sustainable way possible. Following an earlier funding round, where HumanForest garnered £1.8M from figures including Juan de Antonio and Vicente Pascual, who founded Cabify, it’s back and this time it’s crowdfunding.
Funds raised on Crowdcube will help HumanForest plough on with its next stage of growth ahead of 2021. With just under three weeks to go, it’s raised 90% of its £1.25M target.
In other biking news, RAYLIER is crowdfunding on Kickstarter to help lift off its range of smart motorbike jackets. Rumour has it one of these might even save your life.
Riding a motorbike can be very dangerous because of low visibility on the road – bike lights are lower than most motorists’ eyes. The RAYLIER jacket solves this problem with eye-level brake lights that help motorcyclists remain seen at all times.
The protective gear has class AA certification, the highest level of certification worldwide for motorbike jackets, and hosts no less than 240 LEDs – which can even flash at varying speeds. Each jacket is equipped with level 2 visco-elastic protection shells and made from anti-abrasive, tear resistant fabric.
With just under a week to go, RAYLIER is overfunding its £22.5K goal.
