Carbonova Corp. Raised $6 Million to Produce Sustainable Materials from Greenhouse Gas Emissions

CALGARY, AB, March 12, 2024 /CNW/ - Carbonova Corp., a start-up that aims to turn greenhouse gas emissions into carbon materials for sustainable and inexpensive everyday essentials, announced today that it has successfully closed its SAFE equity financing in an oversubscribed round with $6 million raised. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the financing to advance its strategy towards building the first commercial demonstration carbon nanofibers unit in Canada.

The financing round was led by Kolon Industries, a multi-billion-dollar Korean conglomerate. Kolon has a keen interest in Carbonova's technology applications in Asia, including batteries, plastics, and other materials.  Another major participant in this round was the Natural Gas Innovation Fund NGIF Capital, a venture capital firm focused on innovative technologies for improving the environmental performance of existing or renewable natural gas and hydrogen production. This round also saw strong participation from the company's directors, management, and staff team. This funding adds to the previously announced $2.5 million from Sustainable Development Technology Canada "SDTC" and the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program "NRC-IRAP" secured in February of 2023 (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carbonova-awarded-2-million-from-sustainable-development-technology-canada-301750327.html).

"Carbonova's vision is to create everyday essentials from everyday emissions for everyone on earth, and with this financing, we are on track to complete the design of our first-of-a-kind commercial demo unit to put our vision into action," said Mina Zarabian, Carbonova's CEO and Co-Founder. "We have investors and customers from the wide spectrum of the carbon value chain validating the strong pull from the market for transitioning to this recycling of carbon to enhance the building blocks of virtually everything in modern society".

Carbonova currently produces carbon nanomaterials for customers at a pilot facility at the company's headquarters in northeast Calgary, Alberta. The commercial demonstration  expansion will result in unit production cost efficiencies and is forecast to reduce the CO₂ footprint of the carbon nanomaterials to below net-zero.

"Carbonova is on track to complete the front-end-engineering design (FEED) of its first commercial demo unit; the new design will represent a significant scale-up from Carbonova's existing pilot facility," said Zarabian. "The new plant will generate multiple hundreds of kilograms of carbon nanomaterials per day. This amount is sufficient to generate thousands of tons of sustainable end products and serve dozens of customers to bring their own innovative sustainable products in different sectors to the market."

Carbonova's revolutionary patent-protected process converts widely-available greenhouse gas feedstocks ? such as methane and carbon dioxide ? into a sustainable, relatively inexpensive, high quality solid carbon nanomaterials product. The carbon nanomaterials can then be used in multiple market applications ranging from plastics to batteries, and construction materials. Carbon nanomaterials have unique performance attributes, including low density, high mechanical strength, as well as electrical and heat properties, which contribute to improving the overall performance and reduce the carbon footprint of everyday products.  

Demand for sustainable materials has surged in recent years, resulting in growing market for green technologies. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s Technology and Innovation Report 2023 estimates that demand will create a $9.5 trillion market by 2030 (https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/tir2023_en.pdf).

SOURCE Carbonova