Bill Gates just invested in a startup that's trying to stop cows from burping and farting so much
Just ask Bill Gates, whose investment firm Breakthrough Energy Ventures, or BEV, led a $12 million seed funding round into an Australian climate tech firm working to reduce methane emissions — like those from cows.
Rumin8, a Perth-based startup, said Monday it has closed a Phase 2 seed funding round, bringing its total funding to 25 million Australian dollars, or $17.7 million. The company is developing a seaweed-based feed that would cut methane — a byproduct of the food digestion process — from livestock emissions.
Methane is the most common greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide. It is also 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in the atmosphere, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
As livestock accounts for about 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, there are now global efforts to farm such animals more sustainably.
"The demand for sustainable protein has never been more apparent, which is why BEV is keenly interested in reducing methane emissions from beef and dairy," Carmichael Roberts, a business lead at BEV's Investment Committee, said in a press release.
