Last month, a cloud-seeding startup called Rainmaker raised $25 million in Series A funding. Just weeks later it was being unfairly accused by conspiracy theorists for causing the tragic floods in Texas.

• "I suddenly got thousands of notifications on my phone," recalls Rainmaker CEO Augustus Doricko. "It was because [retired] General Mike Flynn jumped in and insinuated that cloud-seeding was responsible."

Before continuing, I want to be clear that I called Doricko, not the other way around, after a reader alerted me to the situation. He feels frustrated, not victimized — an important distinction in light of a death toll that now stands at 120 souls.

What it does: Rainmaker uses drones to enhance rain, with contracts in such drought-vulnerable states as Texas, Utah, Colorado, and California.

• It's next-gen cloud-seeding, with Rainmaker also designing drones for weather conditions that may be dangerous for human pilots.
• As Axios Pro's Katie Fehrenbacher notes, China also has been testing drone-based cloud seeding.

What happened: Texas regulators have suspension criteria for cloud seeders, in order to mitigate the chance of flooding after severe weather.

• Doricko says those thresholds were met on July 3, but that Rainmaker stopped operations in the region on July 2 because of what its own meteorologists were seeing. He adds that such pauses occur "tens of times" per year.
• The Guadalupe River began flooding late in the evening of July 3 into the early hours of July 4.
• Moreover, some third-party climatologists have argued that Rainmaker's cloud-seeding can't produce the amount of precipitation that led to this outcome. Instead, they believe it was caused by remnants of Tropical Storm Barry.

Fever swamps: Flynn's tweet, which says he'd "love to see the response" from Rainmaker, has been seen one million times,

• He never posted the company's response, nor even seems to have acknowledged it. Instead, he later replied to another post about the supposed threat of "weather modification."
• It's also worth noting that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said one day after the floods that she'll introduce a bill that would make any "weather modification" a felony.

The other side: This is about extreme voices, not regular partisans.

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), for example, said at a press briefing that he's seen "zero evidence" that weather modification played a role in the floods, and dismissed "crazy theories" on the internet.

The bottom line: This episode highlights the increased risks being faced by both climate-tech entrepreneurs and investors, well beyond federal funding cuts.

• A couple folks I reached out to declined to comment on the record, saying they no longer feel comfortable doing so in this political environment.
• Welcome to the rise of climate cancel culture.

Ferrero International, the family-owned Italian maker of Nutella, has agreed to buy breakfast cereal maker WK Kellogg (NYSE: KLG) for $3.1 billion in cash.

Why it's the BFD: As a rabid viewer of Saturday morning cartoons in the 1980s, I consider Kellogg to be America's dominant company.

By the numbers: Ferraro is paying $23 per share, which represents a 31.4% premium over yesterday's closing price.

Zoom in: No word yet on product integrations, such as Nutella Frosted Flakes or gold foil-wrapped Froot Loops.

The bottom line: Kellogg has struggled due to healthier-eating trends and inflation, particularly since its 2023 split with a snacking unit that got renamed Kellanova.

• In an interesting parallel, both groups have agreed to go private via family-owned businesses, as Kellanova is being bought for $36 billion by Mars.

• iCapital, a New York-based provider of private markets tech platform for financial advisors, raised more than $820m at a $7.5b valuation. T. Rowe Price and SurgoCap Partners led, joined by insiders Temasek, UBS, and BNY. axios.link/44lWwPR

• Revolut, a U.K. neobank, is in advanced talks to raise primary and secondary funding at a $65 billion blended valuation, per Axios Pro. Greenoaks is likely to lead, with Dragoneer and Coatue also participating. axios.link/3UamBLD

• Groq, a Mountain View, Calif.-based AI chipmaker,, is in talks to raise between $300-$500m at a $6b post-money valuation, per The Information. axios.link/4kwrSrW

• Airalo, an eSIM provider, raised $220m at a valuation north of $1b. CVC Capital Partners led, joined by insiders Peak XV and Antler Elevate. axios.link/44xOe7L

• Also, a micromobility startup spun out of Rivian, raised $200m from Greenoaks Capital at a $1b valuation, per Bloomberg. axios.link/408KYNm