Funding at the crossroads
N°9 - September 2025
As September concludes, this edition documents significant changes in investment flows across multiple sectors and regions.
European ESG funding dropped 88% by mid-2025, falling from €84.1 billion in 2024 to just €10.1 billion, according to Emily Lai's analysis of the sustainability investing pullback. FoodTech follows a similar trajectory, with global investment retreating from $54B in 2021 to $16B in 2024, returning to 2015 levels.
Guillaume Bregeras reports European venture funding cycles now stretch to a median 696 days between rounds, with 46% of seed financings becoming bridge rounds rather than priced equity. This extends across all stages, with Series A gaps reaching 774 days.
Meanwhile, reinsurers are reducing catastrophe exposure by half while raising attachment points, according to Leslie Kaufman's reporting from Monaco's industry conference. This creates "insurance deserts" as companies withdraw from climate-vulnerable regions.
Corporate structures show varied responses. Bret Taylor announces OpenAI's restructuring with the nonprofit receiving over $100 billion in equity, while Marieke van Iperen examines Ben & Jerry's struggle to maintain social mission under Unilever ownership.
Patrick Artus's analysis demonstrates current US monopoly capitalism underperforms the redistributive capitalism of the 1960s-70s on both growth and inequality metrics, with the top 1% now holding 36% of national wealth versus 22% previously.
Physical systems continue changing as Dominic Hughes reports childhood obesity now exceeds underweight globally, while Delger Erdenesanaa's research indicates 12% of nearshore waters face ecosystem transformation by 2050.
The featured graph shows FoodTech's funding decline from its 2021 peak, with H1 2025 tracking at just $5.7B.
We hope this curation will drive your own reflections and actions. Please feel free to share it with those who might be interested.
Let’s dive in! 💫
Insights
Marieke van Iperen 🇳🇱 reflects on Ben & Jerry's struggle to maintain social mission integrity under Unilever ownership, questioning whether public companies can truly preserve values when external shareholders gain control. The Settly CEO examines how B&J's "Make ice, not war" ethos faces pressure from CEO removal and Middle East conflicts, while Magnum's planned Dutch listing creates new independence dynamics, using this as a lens for considering her own company's future mission preservation strategies. | LinkedIn - GOVERNANCE - Mission-Driven Business
Bret Taylor 🇺🇸 announces OpenAI's restructuring into a Public Benefit Corporation while maintaining nonprofit control, with the nonprofit receiving an equity stake exceeding $100 billion, potentially creating one of the world's most well-resourced philanthropic organisations. The recapitalisation enables capital raising for AGI development while ensuring safety decisions remain mission-guided, launching with a $50 million grant initiative for AI literacy, community innovation, and economic opportunity programs. | OpenAI - GOVERNANCE - AI Philanthropy
Patrick Artus 🇫🇷 argues that US monopoly capitalism since 2000 has proven less effective than redistributive capitalism of the 1960s-70s, with the "Magnificent Seven" tech giants now representing $18 trillion in market cap, one-third of total US stock market value. The economist demonstrates that while redistributive capitalism achieved 5-6% growth with lower inequality (Gini index 0.33), current monopoly capitalism delivers sub-3% growth with soaring wealth concentration, as the top 1% now hold 36% of national wealth versus 22% in the late 1970s. | Le Monde - ECONOMICS - Capitalism Evolution
Leslie Kaufman 🇺🇸 reports that global reinsurers are halving catastrophe exposure while raising prices and deductibles, creating "insurance deserts" across America as they retreat from climate risk. At Monaco's Rendez-Vous de Septembre conference, executives warn they're "reaching the limits of traditional insurance" with Swiss Re calculating 5-7% annual growth in natural catastrophe losses and projecting a 1-in-10 chance of a $300 billion disaster year, while demanding stronger building codes and flood plain restrictions as the price of continued coverage. | Bloomberg Green Newsletter - INSURANCE - Climate Risk Retreat
Dominic Hughes 🇬🇧 reports that childhood obesity has surpassed underweight globally for the first time, with one in 10 children aged 5-19 now obese according to UNICEF data from 190+ countries. The shift from traditional diets to ultra-processed foods has driven obesity rates from 3% to 9.4% since 2000, while underweight declined from 13% to 9.2%, with Pacific Island states showing highest rates and economic costs projected to exceed $4 trillion annually by 2035. | BBC - GLOBAL HEALTH - Childhood Obesity
Delger Erdenesanaa 🇺🇸 reveals that human activities are fundamentally reshaping Earth's oceans, with 3% of global marine ecosystems at risk of becoming unrecognisable by 2050, rising to 12% in nearshore waters. The Science study by Ben Halpern shows coastal regions face "death by a thousand cuts" from ocean warming, overfishing, and acidification, threatening salt marshes, mangroves, and coral reefs that support millions of jobs and cultural communities like the Gullah Geechee people of South Carolina. | New York Times - MARINE SCIENCE - Ocean Transformation
Guillaume Bregeras 🇫🇷 shares what you will discover in the downloadable Ocean introduction. How the Ocean provides every second breath and absorbs 9 gigatons of CO₂ annually while supporting 3 billion livelihoods, yet remains dangerously undervalued. The comprehensive guide reveals why 34% of overexploited fish stocks and $8.5 trillion in economic value at risk over 15 years demand urgent investment in marine protected areas, sustainable aquaculture, and ocean intelligence platforms to unlock blue economy opportunities. | 2050 - OCEAN ECONOMICS - Investment
Emily Lai 🇬🇧 reveals Europe's ESG pullback as €84.1 billion in sustainable funds raised in 2024 dropped to just €10.1 billion by July 2025, with 95% of capital flowing to non-ESG funds. The PitchBook analysis shows European managers scaling back ESG efforts amid US political backlash and capital competition, though experts suggest this represents recalibration rather than retreat, with focus shifting from regulatory compliance to tangible value creation and risk management. | PitchBook - FINANCE - ESG Recalibration
Guillaume Bregeras 🇫🇷 reveals Europe's venture funding crisis with median time between rounds reaching 696 days in Q2 2025, forcing 46% of seed financings into bridge rounds rather than priced equity. The analysis shows European unicorns aging to a median 8 years with 40% over nine years old, while Series A-to-B gaps stretch to 5.8 years, prompting LP shift toward evergreen structures projected to double from €90B to €140B AUM by 2029 as traditional liquidity models break down. | 2050 - VENTURE CAPITAL - European Funding Cycles
Elena Kazamia 🇺🇸 reveals that cities worldwide follow biological scaling laws similar to Kleiber's Law governing animal metabolism, with EPFL researchers finding universal relationships between population size, transport networks, and CO2 emissions across 100 global cities. The study challenges the "bigger is better" urban planning assumption by showing cities self-organise like living organisms regardless of geography or planning, with population analogous to animal mass, economic activity to metabolic rate, and road networks to circulatory systems. | Nautilus - URBAN SCIENCE - Biological City Laws
Graph of the week
This edition's graph from DigitalFoodLab reveals FoodTech investment has collapsed from a $54B peak in 2021 to $16B in 2024, with H1 2025 tracking at just $5.7B. The sector has regressed a full decade in funding volume, with pre-seed and seed deals dropping 31% despite overall 2024 increases driven by delivery megadeals.
Geographic concentration intensifies as US startups capture 59% of investments—their highest share ever—while Europe retreats to 12%. Deal count declines more sharply than deal size, with alternative protein funding nearly halting. However, public sector involvement and corporate partnerships provide some offset, with acquisition activity remaining robust at $10B annually, led by $6B in wellness and healthy aging brands.
