💨 150+ Carbon Capture and Removal Pioneers

The carbon removal market is booming. And every week we hear about the hottest fundraises and latest partnerships enabling the scale up of this new gigaton industry.

Just last week in Carbon x Climate:

• Berlin-based Ucaneo raised €6.75 million in seed funding to build one of the largest Direct Air Capture testing and development facilities in Germany.

• London-based Signol secured £2.5 million to apply behavioural science in reducing emissions in the shipping and aviation industries.

• Tech giant Microsoft purchased approximately 234,000 tons of carbon removal from Mexican startup Toroto to support the restoration of up to 47,000 hectares of tropical rainforest.

It’s a rapidly growing sector. In fact, the global carbon capture, removal and storage market was valued at $638 million in 2023. And by 2030, global investment in carbon removal capacity is predicted to reach between $100-$400 billion.

→ Without carbon capture and removal, achieving net zero is out of reach.

However carbon capture and removal technologies are certainly not the silver bullet to reducing and reversing climate change.

While these technologies can play a crucial role in mitigating emissions, they can come with high costs, energy consumption, potential risks and scalability challenges.

Moreover, they can distract from reducing emissions at source, such as transitioning to renewable energy, improving energy efficiency and rethinking manufacturing.

Yes, it can be controversial. But they still have a vital role to play, which is why carbon capture and removal will be up for debate at the HackSummit this December.

Before we meet in New York, we caught up with 15 investors, experts and CEOs on the topic and reveal a list of 150+ startups and scaleups to watch in the space. So keep scrolling…

🛠 150+ Carbon Capture x Removal Pioneers

To better understand the carbon capture and removal landscape, we’ve mapped 100 carbon frontrunners and built this growing list of 150+ startups in Carbon Deep Tech. 

The list includes:

• Innovators in the Global South: Mexican biochar startup Húmica, Kenyan DAC startup Octavia Carbon, carbon-negative construction startup FormWork in Hong Kong

• Industry Scaleups: Climeworks, building the world’s largest DAC plant and Heirloom who built the US’ first commercial DAC plant

• Recently Funded Startups: Graphyte securing $30 million Series A, Yama announcing $3 million seed funding, as well as Applied Carbon closing $21.5 million Series A

There are many more startups working in the space, so we’ve listed them all in a mighty airtable. And while we built it from a community-first approach, it’s possible a couple might have missed our radar. If there’s a startup we’ve missed, there’s a handy link to add them.

🤿 Carbon Deep Dive with 15 Industry Insiders

Tackling carbon capture and removal goes beyond inventing new technologies.

It’s about adopting them at scale through unprecedented partnerships and finding new ways to finance FOAK infrastructure that unlocks their potential.

We take a look at each of these technologies in this carbon cheatsheet.

The 10 technologies span across

• Mineralisation - turning CO2 into solid minerals

• Ocean CDR - sequestering/storing CO2 from the ocean

• Direct Air Capture - separating CO2 from ambient, or still air

• Enhanced Rock Weathering - taking CO2 out of the air and storing it in rocks

• + 6 more verticals - Afforestation, BECCS, BiCRS, Biochar, Construction, Transport

We caught up with Adrien Pages at MORFO, Cristina Doumitrachko at DTCF, Jim Mann at UNDO, Dalraj Nijjar at Concrete4Change and Ines Serra Baucells at BIOSORRA... to name a few. And now you can too.

🚢 Making Waves in Maritime Carbon Capture

Shipping is responsible for 3% of GHG emissions worldwide. But it also drives 90% of the world's economy and is the backbone of international trade. Can we decarbonise this global industry without disrupting business as usual?

Seabound thinks so. The UK-based startup is building an ocean-ready on-board carbon capture solution for shipowners.

Before their Co-Founder and CEO, Alisha Fredriksson joins us at the inaugural HackSummit in New York, we caught up with her to hear how Seabound captures and process onboard carbon and how they’ll navigate changing tides in the race to decarbonise the shipping industry.

👋 Meet the Carbon Deep Tech Community, and Beyond

It’s always a highlight to meet familiar faces at Meetups and Events. You’re bound to find many of them are joining us in New York at the HackSummit this December.

Where we’ll bring together industry mavericks spanning Climate Deep Tech to accelerate cross-industry learnings and growth as well as unlock new partnerships to help you put your best step forward in 2025.

Top tip: Code CARBON20 saves you 20% off your pass.

Let’s create new possibilities for a brighter future

Laura at Hack