Terraxy, a pioneering startup born out of research at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), has secured $3 million in a Seed-2 funding round. The investment was led by Wa’ed Ventures, the local venture capital arm of Aramco, with strategic participation from KAUST.
The capital injection is designated to scale the company’s proprietary soil-regeneration and desert-greening technologies, which target both architectural landscaping and carbon capture in arid environments.
The primary objective of this funding is to transition Terraxy from pilot-scale production to full industrial deployment across Saudi Arabia. Central to this expansion is the establishment of a 30,000-square-meter commercial production facility in Al Zulfi.
This move underscores Wa’ed Ventures’ focus on accelerating deep-tech, locally developed solutions out of the laboratory and into the market to advance the Kingdom’s economic diversification goals.
Validating Proprietary Science via Regulatory Sandboxes
Saudi Arabia’s sandy soils are historically inefficient at retaining water and nutrients, which creates a steep barrier for large-scale environmental initiatives. Terraxy’s flagship product, Carbosoil, tackles this by acting as a high-efficiency soil enhancer.
Under real-world conditions, Carbosoil delivers up to a 70% improvement in plant growth and yield using identical water inputs. This efficiency pathway was validated through the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture’s (MEWA) Regulatory Sandbox, ensuring seamless regulatory compliance alongside scientific efficacy.
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Beyond basic land rehabilitation, the engineering behind Carbosoil offers a critical dual-impact advantage for the carbon management sector. The technology binds and stores CO2 durably within the soil matrix for centuries, directly positioning the company as a key contributor to the emerging carbon credit economy.
Supported by KAUST’s National Transformation Institute (NTI), the collaborative venture directly aligns with the environmental mandates of the Saudi Green Initiative and Vision 2030.
By converting university research into a scalable industrial asset, Terraxy provides hard-to-abate sectors with a practical tool to simultaneously combat land degradation and manage corporate carbon footprints.
