Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is a fan of new technologies to combat climate change. Gates has backed companies working on all kinds of solutions including next-generation nuclear reactors, advanced carbon capture designs, and, most recently, an Australian startup working on nutritional supplements to make cows less gassy.
Breakthrough Energy, an organization founded by Gates in 2015 to invest in and support new climate technologies, is the latest investor in Perth-based startup Rumin8, a company that designs a synthetic supplement made primarily from seaweed for cattle that reduces the amount of methane in cattle. ‘ burps and farts—a major contributor to global warming.
Gates, along with Australian billionaire investor Andrew Forrest, participated in Rumin8’s $12 million Phase 2 seeding round, the company announced in a statement Monday. The fresh funds will “accelerate Rumin8’s path to commercialization,” according to the statement, as the company plans international trials, branding projects, and pilot manufacturing plants.
“Sustainable demand for protein has not been seen, that’s why [Breakthrough Energy] very interested in reducing methane emissions from beef and milk,” Carmichael Roberts, co-lead in the company’s investment committee, said in a statement.
Gates’ investment in Rumin8 marks the first Australian venture with Breakthrough Energy, but far from the first investment in climate technology startups overall, the billionaire said in an interview in Sydney with Michael Fullilove, executive director of the Lowy Institute, an independent think tank.
“We’ve invested in more than 100 startups now. This one in Australia, Rumin8, I think is the 103rd,” he said, adding that around 6% of global warming emissions come from cows.
Reducing methane emissions from livestock
The agricultural industry is on fire due to greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane, a relatively short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found in a 2013 report to have 80 times the planet-warming power of carbon dioxide. The first 20 years are in the earth’s atmosphere.
Methane causes about 30% of the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution, according to the United Nations. And the main source of methane is agriculture, specifically methane released from livestock droppings, burps, and farts, which account for 32% of human-caused agricultural emissions.
Rumin8 uses anti-methanogenic compounds found in seaweed, active ingredients that can target and eliminate methane-producing bacteria, to reduce methane emissions and even save livestock energy. The company said preliminary trials suggested methane emissions from cows fed the supplement dropped by more than 85%, which amounts to two tons of greenhouse gases removed from the air each year for each cow fed the supplement.
Similar technologies in other countries also suggest that giving livestock anti-methanogenic supplements can cause cows and sheep to save more energy for food production. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research developed a feed similar to what Rumin8 did last year using tannins and compounds found in leguminous plants that reduce methane production by 20% and help increase milk production in cows.
Climate technology funding boom
Rumin8, like many other climate technology companies in Australia, has benefited from an explosion of government funding for emissions reduction and green energy projects in recent months.
Since being elected Prime Minister last year, Labor politician Anthony Albanese has reversed many of Scott Morrison’s predecessor’s environmental policies, which scientists and activists criticized as unambitious and favoring fossil fuel companies over net-zero commitments.
In less than a year as Prime Minister, Albanese has directed an unprecedented amount of funding to climate initiatives. In November, his office announced AUD$500 million ($350 million) in funding to help launch Australian businesses working on projects and technologies designed to reduce emissions.
Also in November, Rumin8 announced that the government had provided AUD $5 million ($3.5 million) in R&D grants to 11 projects working on low-emission food supplements for livestock. Rumin8 is involved in three federally supported projects.
“It’s great that Australia is involved in climate,” Gates said in an interview. “The world won’t trade with people who don’t have serious climate commitments. Australia has been a bit of an outlier so far.
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