Kenya-based direct air capture (DAC) company Octavia Carbon has successfully closed a $5 million seed funding round.
The round was co-led by Lateral Frontiers and E4E Africa, with participation from Launch Africa Ventures, Catalyst Fund, Renew Capital and Fondation Botnar.
$1.1 million of the secured funding came from contracted presales of carbon credits, a testament to the rising interest in innovative climate solutions.
CEO and co-founder Martin Freimüller commented that this funding will enable Octavia Carbon to soon become the world’s second DAC company to complete the full cycle of deploying both CO2 capture and geological storage in the field.
The company uses the bountiful geothermal resources in Kenya to provide a DAC system that captures CO2 directly from the atmosphere.
The captured carbon is stored underground, where it mineralizes into solid rock, providing a reliable pathway for permanently removing excess emissions. For this leg of the operations, Octavia is collaborating with Cella, a mineral storage company specializing in geologic CO2 sequestration.
Octavia Carbon, selected as one of the XPRIZE finalists, is working on a trajectory to bring the costs of this technology down to an affordable rate.
Relevant: Climate Vault Backs Octavia Carbon & Carbon Lockdown
The company, which currently has two operational systems, will use the recent funding to accelerate the development of project Hummingbird, their DAC+Storage pilot plant that is scheduled to launch towards the end of 2024.
The pilot will have an initial removal capacity of 250 metric tons of carbon, with the aim of reaching a 1,000 tons per year, a leap that will be made possible with a carbon storage site operated by Cella.
At the Hummingbird facility, Octavia Carbon will also deploy the first digital monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) mechanism for DAC, developed in partnership with Carbonfuture.
This financial boost will support Octavia in the advancement of its DAC technology as they work towards large-scale deployment and commercialization of their solution.
Read more: Octavia Carbon To Offer High-Quality CO2 Credits On CEEZER Platform
