Cquestr8 raises $300k seed capital to develop safe & permanent carbon sequestration solution

Funding round led by Counteract to enable environmental science and reactor development

LONDON, April 21, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cquestr8, 2020 winners of the Climate-KIC's ClimateLaunchpad "Next Big Thing" prize, has secured funding to develop their unique carbon sequestration solution, leveraging natural processes to safely lock away CO2 as stable ocean bicarbonate. Cquestr8 solutions target hard to decarbonise sectors including cement, lime, and steel production.

Funds will be deployed toward proof of concept development, ahead of customer engagement in 2022. Cquestr8 is working with the University of Malaya, Nottingham University and other partners on extensive validation of the reaction engineering and marine environment benefits.

Steve Willis, co-founder of Cquestr8 said, "The world will need many carbon removal and sequestration channels to keep the atmospheric temperature rise below 1.5 °C and yet still keep essential industries operating. We are excited that our scalable solution will deliver 100% measurability, 1000 year+ permanence and significant environmental co-benefits, all at a very low cost. This investment helps us turn 2 years of research and design work into an engineering prototype supported by robust environmental science." 

Andrew Shebbeare, Managing Partner at Counteract, said, "We get particularly excited by carbon removal applications with systemic benefits. The Cquestr8 team combines deep chemical engineering expertise with extreme care for the natural environment and is uniquely placed to develop a product not only combating the climate emergency but also helping sustain marine ecosystems. We believe their idea can reach Gigaton scale, with a host of practical customer applications from point source to direct air capture. We're excited to support them in the next phase of their business' evolution."

Paul Ellis, MD, Schaefer Kalk (Malaysia), and President of the International Lime Association said, "Our members always seek safe and effective carbon removal pathways. Mineralisation is one of the most promising sequestration channels, thanks to its safety, scalability and permanence. The drawback can sometimes be lower measurability and higher cost. We believe the Cquestr8 team has cracked that nut thanks to their unique approach and we are excited to work with them as their offer develops."

About Cquestr8

Launched in 2020, Cquestr8 is the first commercial project to graduate from Herculean Climate Solutions, a non-profit research group seeking billion-tonne-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. Cquestr8 was co-founded by Steve Willis and Jerry Joynson, experienced chemical engineers with backgrounds in large scale industrial processes. 

About Counteract

Launched in February 2021, Counteract combats the climate crisis through research, development and investment in carbon removal. Counteract gives engineer and scientist entrepreneurs the financial and strategic support to turn fresh ideas into self-sustaining businesses with the potential to capture or store greenhouse gases at gigaton scale.

Counteract was founded by experienced entrepreneurs and investors from the world of digital media, finance, technology, sustainability and consulting, with a shared track record of growing global organizations from startup to global scale and a shared belief that business can be a profound force for good.

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