- Climate tech startup announces US$18M Series A round to bring to market its proven carbon removal technology by 2025
HELSINKI, FINLAND – November 28, 2023 – Carbo Culture is a Finnish-American climate solutions provider and biochar carbon removal technology developer, whose breakthrough technology converts biomass waste into geologically stable biochar and clean energy.
The Series A funding round is co-led by Singapore-based decarbonisation-focused investment company GenZero and San Francisco-based venture capital firm True Ventures with participation from Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) as well as notable climate tech investors and family offices.
The US$18.3 million round will help Carbo Culture unlock its next stage of commercialisation and deployment. Having successfully commissioned R3, one of Europe’s largest biochar plants in August this year, the company intends to use fresh capital to start developing commercial scale (20kt CO2/a) projects, which will be financed with project capital.
“GenZero is such an important partner for us at this growth inflection stage,” says Carbo Culture CEO and Co-founder Henrietta Moon, “To accelerate the green transition, companies like us need partners who understand the global energy transition and carbon markets, and are able to support companies in leading the space as they scale.”
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that in addition to rapid and widespread carbon reduction, in order to get to Net-Zero and limit warming below 2°C, substantial amounts of Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) will be necessary. Biochar is a material made from heating biomass at high temperatures in oxygen-limited environments, allowing it to durably store carbon. It has several co-benefits when it’s added to soil, including nutrient retention and water-holding capacity.
Biochar technology is one of the only functional ways in the world today to remove carbon in an energy-generating manner. According to cdr.fyi, biochar credits make up 87% of all delivered permanent removal to date. Carbo Culture salutes all the efforts made in farm-scale and in-field conversion technologies, and is aiming to lead the industrial-scale segment of biochar.
“We need to create a global (carbon removal) industry from scratch and we’re working against the clock, so the sooner we can roll out our projects to meet this demand, the better we can fight to remain below 2c. Our new partners are taking us to the next level in readiness and bankability,” says Moon.
“Henrietta and the Carbo Culture team have proven with their R3 reactor pilot that carbon can be removed from the atmosphere and locked into stable form,” said Toni Schneider, partner at True Ventures. “It was an imaginative idea and now it’s real. This next step of building a commercial facility is going to be a notable milestone in decarbonisation efforts.”
Frederick Teo, CEO of GenZero said, “Carbo Culture’s work leverages the power of both technology and nature to produce biochar with superior carbon sequestration capabilities. By undergoing Carbo Culture’s CarbolysisTM process, a greater amount of carbon is locked in per unit of biochar and stored more durably than conventional production methods. This proprietary technology also avoids the production of bio-oil, resulting in higher yields of clean syngas from waste biomass, which in turn can be used to generate renewable electricity and heat. We look forward to supporting Carbo Culture in their next stage of growth and scaling its decarbonisation impact across more markets.”
About Carbo Culture
Carbo Culture is a biochar technology and project developer. We are a biochar carbon removal company that converts CO2 bound by plant matter into stable carbon and locks it away for 1,000 years.
In our patented CarbolysisTM process we create vast amounts of high-grade renewable energy and geoscale permanent, solid carbon removal. The resulting carbon material called biochar is a high quality soil amendment used alongside nutrients in agricultural soils.
For more, including technology overviews, please visit https://carboculture.com/.
About GenZero
GenZero is an investment platform company focused on accelerating decarbonisation globally. Founded by Temasek, we seek to deliver positive climate impact alongside long-term sustainable financial returns by investing in opportunities with the potential to be nurtured into impactful and scalable solutions.
Driven by a common purpose to decarbonise for future generations, we recognise the need for a holistic and integrated approach to achieve a net zero world. At GenZero, we adopt a flexible investment approach across three focus areas to drive climate impact: (i) nature-based solutions that help protect and restore our natural ecosystems while benefiting local communities and biodiversity; (ii) technology-based solutions that deliver deep decarbonisation impact; and (iii) carbon ecosystem enablers which refer to companies and solutions that support the development of an effective, efficient, and credible carbon ecosystem.
For more information on GenZero, visit https://genzero.co/.
About Tesi
Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) is a state-owned, market-driven investment company that invests in venture capital and private equity funds and directly in Finnish startups and growth companies. Tesi has an industry-focused mission aimed at promoting economic growth, innovation, and investments.
For more information on Tesi, visit https://tesi.fi/en/.
About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early stage technology startups. With more than $3.8 billion under management, True provides seed and Series A financing to entrepreneurs in some of today’s fastest growing markets. To date, True has helped more than 350 companies launch and scale their businesses, creating over 85,000 jobs worldwide.
For more information on True Ventures, visit https://trueventures.com/.
