Carbon Removal Startup Carbo Culture Sets Bold Goal to Remove 1 Billion Tons of Carbon From Atmosphere by 2030

HELSINKI, April 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Carbo Culture, a biotech startup commercialising large-scale carbon removal, has a north star vision to remove 1 billion tons (1Gt) of carbon from the atmosphere by 2030. Today, the company is announcing its $6.2 million seed financing round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm True Ventures and co-led by Cherry Ventures.

The new funding will fuel Carbo Culture's engineering, research and product development, and grow its remote team across the US and Europe. The company is preparing to commence the engineering on a technology scale-up in the coming months.

Capturing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere in high volumes is both difficult and energy intensive. However, the biosphere does this every day by using energy from the sun for photosynthesis and turning CO₂ into plant matter that eventually decomposes and re-enters the atmosphere. This is the carbon cycle that Carbo Culture taps into.

"We let nature do the heavy lifting of removing CO₂ from the atmosphere and then we convert this carbon into a stable and useful form," said CEO and co-founder Henrietta Moon.

Carbo Culture's technology is an ultra-rapid conversion where woody residues are turned into functional biocarbons at a high temperature. The process locks the carbon into a stable form for over 1,000 years. A tonne of Carbo Culture biocarbon contains over 3.2 tonnes of CO₂ in a safe and stable form.

"Venture capital should play a greater role in creating a sustainable planet, and Carbo Culture has so many of the right ingredients for solving one of earth's most pressing problems," said Toni Schneider, partner at True Ventures. "Demand for carbon capture is rising, and meeting this demand will require some reimagining. Carbo Culture has the experience, technology, passion, and palpable vision to turn this big idea into a truly impactful one."

"Carbo Culture has created one of the most effective negative emissions technologies through their patented technology and I can't wait for them to scale up and remove significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere," said Sophia Bendz, partner at Cherry Ventures.

SOURCE Carbo Culture