The advance market commitment focused on carbon removal technologies Frontier has announced its fourth round of funding with nine startups set to receive $500,000 each.
Buyers in the round included Stripe, Shopify, Alphabet, H&M Group, and Match with the transaction happening through the Watershed platform.
One of the main themes in the round is that five of the companies are looking to leverage existing industrial infrastructure and add carbon removal to already existing projects. With costs for removing CO2 remaining at high levels, startups have been looking for ways to address this by finding technological ways to plug into existing facilities for waste water management, minning, agriculture and cement production.
Here is the full list of the companies and their focus areas:
- Alithic – the startup’s process combines a solvent CO2 capture method with innovative ion exchange for efficient solvent regeneration, converting CO2 and industrial waste into resellable materials for low-carbon concrete production, offering scalable, low-energy CO2 removal adaptable to various alkaline feedstocks.
- Alt Carbon – they company becomes the first India-headquartered company to receive a prepurchase agreement from Frontier and will use it to further develop Enhanced Rock Weathering that improves crop yields for tea estates while simultaneously removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
- Anvil – spreads basalt on tea plantations in the Himalayan foothills, where the hot, humid environment helps speed up the natural reaction with water to remove CO2 and store it as durable bicarbonate.
- Capture6 – This project employs an electrochemical system that utilizes electricity and saltwater to capture CO2 while managing industrial waste, leveraging established technologies to seamlessly integrate into various processes and produce clean metals or freshwater, thereby enhancing scalability and promoting the productive use of low-carbon chemical byproducts.
- Exterra Carbon Solutions – directly fights climate change by reducing CO2 in the air by rapidly, safely, and irreversibly storing it in mineral carbonate form. Additionally, its exclusive patent-pending process enables the extraction of critical, strategic minerals such as nickel, and generates first-class carbon credits for industrial emitters and direct-capture companies.
- Flux – Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, Flux is a pioneering Carbon Dioxide Removal company unlocking the potential of Enhanced Rock Weathering in Africa. The company recently announced a partnership with the local government.
- NULIFE – The process of hydrothermal liquefaction efficiently converts wet waste biomass into bio-oil, which is cost-effective for transport and can be injected underground for permanent sequestration; it also eliminates contaminants like PFAS from the biomass and produces marketable co-products that reduce the overall cost of carbon removal.
- Planeteers – Using an innovative pressure-swing method, this process transforms inexpensive limestone into hydrated carbonate minerals, a rapidly dissolving feedstock for various carbon removal techniques; the pilot project integrates this material into water treatment plant outflows, where it reacts with atmospheric CO2 to produce stable bicarbonate, capitalizing on existing infrastructure and minimizing costs.
- Silica – This Mexican startup uses basalt and volcanic rocks on sugarcane farms in Mexico, where warm, humid conditions enhance weathering and CO₂ storage as bicarbonate, pioneering a cost-effective method for measuring carbon removal on small farms while collaborating with consumer brands to integrate carbon removal into agricultural supply chains.
These winners represent six countries and five different pathways, confirming that multiple carbon removal approaches will continue to attract interest in the short and mid-term.
For five of the startups this is the first buyer contribution and will help them in moving up the technological readiness ladder while continuing to explore a path of their own or one of co-benefits with more established industrial partners.
Frontier recently announced several sizeable funding rounds and made its offtake agreements template public, to help startups communicate with
Read more: New Offtake Agreements Template By Frontier To Stimulate More CDR
