The Melbourne smart energy and home-themed accelerator has secured Spotless Group, EnergyAustralia, Amazon, Cisco, Google and Intel as backers.

The distributed energy management platform has closed an ABB, General Electric and National Grid-backed round at $17.5m after adding $5.5m from Zoma Capital.

Ameren Accelerator has chosen the seven energy technology startups startups that will make up its first batch.

The bankrupt saltwater electrolyte battery developer had raised $190m in financing from investors including Shell, Total and Exelon but was bought for less than $9.2m.

Temasek led the Alphabet-backed vegan food developer's latest round, which took its funding over the past three years to about $260m.

Closed Loop Ventures, which manages a $100m social impact fund backed by several retail and consumer goods companies, has invested $3m in GreenMantra.

Agricultural digitisation technology developer Prospera has secured $15m in a series B ronud led by Qualcomm Ventures that included Cisco Investments.

The round, which was led by SoftBank Vision Fund, reportedly represents the largest ever agricultural technology investment, and will be used to expand Plenty's urban farm network.