5 Interesting Startup Deals You May Have Missed In November: Stronger Plants, Better Protein And Longer Lashes

This is a monthly column that runs down five interesting startup funding deals every month that may have flown under the radar. Check out last month’s entry here.

The holiday season is upon us and everyone’s busy.

That means it’s pretty easy to miss some of the more intriguing rounds that get announced. No matter. We have you covered as we take a look at recently funded startups doing everything from fighting climate change to riding on the moon to longer lashes through AI.

Lucrative lashes

There are a lot of things we don’t know a lot about. (OK, maybe I’m speaking mostly about the writer of this article.)

The eyelash market is certainly one of those things.

However, lash extension services are big business apparently — especially when paired with AI and robotics. That’s exactly what Luum does. The Oakland, California-based startup raised a Series A that brings its total raised to $30 million.

Luum’s AI lash extension robots, or Luum Lash, is exactly what it sounds like — an autonomous robot that works on eyelash extensions. Due to how delicate and precise such work can be, Luum claims the robot is actually safer and more accurate than humans, and uses no sharp instruments.

The company already has collaborations with Ulta Beauty (an investor) and Nordstrom, which is piloting the eyelash extension service in San Jose store locations.

It’s not shocking that an AI robot can perform eyelash extensions, but $30 million is a lot of cash for eye lashes. Then again, everyone has them.

Fortifying plants for climate change

Data from WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas shows that 25 countries — with about one-quarter of the global population — face extremely high water stress each year. In the U.S. alone, it’s estimated about 23% of the land area is experiencing water stress.

With water becoming a rarer commodity and the related stress occurring more often, it is important populations somehow strengthen their food supply to compensate.

One startup looking to do that is Elicit Plant, which locked up a $48 million Series B led by Carbyne Equity Partners.

The startup has developed phytosterol-based solutions to help plants adapt better to climate change. Phytosterols are natural substances produced by plants in response to water stress, enhancing resilience and reducing water dependency.

Elicit’s solutions can be applied as a spray early in the season, helping crops mitigate environmental stress. Farmers who have used the spray reported reduced water consumption of 20% while increasing yields by up to 10%.

The company will use the new cash to expand in the U.S. Since 2022, it has been partnering for field trials in the country’s corn belt. The company is ready to launch its product next year and expand its product range to soybean and other crops by 2027.

More protein

Staying on food for a minute, Plantible Foods closed a $30 million Series B co-led by Piva Capital and Siddhi Capital this month.

The San Diego-based global food supply chain company has developed a proprietary agricultural manufacturing platform to produce Rubi Protein — a protein derived from duckweed, a fast-growing aquatic plant.

The startup says its Rubi Protein outperforms the functional and nutritional properties of both  traditional animal- and plant-based proteins.

While the protein is plant-based and viable for vegan diets, its properties are more akin to animal protein and can be used in baked goods, condiments, meat alternatives and more.

It’s also highly sustainable, as duckweed can actually double its mass every two days.

The company will use its new investment to expand its manufacturing operations at its first commercial plant in West Texas.

With duckweed’s ability to grow quickly, that Texas plant may be very busy.

Water tech

Since 1970, water demand has increased by 1.7x, while supply has dropped by 50%, and now experts project that 5 billion people could be without clean drinking water by 2050.

That’s obviously a problem — and one water tech startup OceanWell aims to help cure. The Los Angeles-based company locked up an $11 million Series A this month as it looks to scale its modular deep-sea water farm solution. The round included participation from Kubota Corp.

OceanWell is developing deep-sea water farms which can harness pressure at depths of 400 meters for reverse osmosis desalination. The farms are made of pods which can  produce up to 1 million gallons of fresh water daily. The tech even ensures “ultra-clean water” by filtering out salts, bacteria and more.

While traditional desalination processes are energy-intensive, OceanWell says its farms reduce that energy consumption by up to 40%.

The company is set to launch a California water farm pilot — a state that faces a severe water crisis in the not-too-distant future — with Las Virgenes Municipal Water District.

Building out space

While many think of rocket launches when detailing the new space economy, it’ll take more than just propelling things from Earth to build-out space.

Lunar Outpost is hoping to be one of the startups to lead that charge with its lunar mobility offerings. The Golden, Colorado-based startup raised a Series A round co-led by Industrious Ventures and Type One Ventures. The amount in the round was not disclosed. The company raised a $12 million seed round in 2022.

The company, which creates commercial LTVs and rovers for space exploration, has four missions to the moon with  the first voyage launching this year on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. That mission will include the first operation of a commercial rover on another planetary body.

The startup — which also is developing a platform to create oxygen from the atmosphere of Mars — also has contracts with NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense for other missions as it looks to take part in future exploration and infrastructure development of space.

Getting to the moon is one thing — getting around on it is another.

Illustration: Dom Guzman