Amazon and Microsoft-Backed CarbonCure Raises $80M
CarbonCure Technologies closes more than $80 million in a new equity round led by Blue Earth Capital to bolster the company’s global scale of carbon removal technologies and supply of carbon credits.
Nova Scotia-based CarbonCure Technologies is a leader in CO2 removal technologies for the concrete industry and a provider of high-quality carbon credits. The new funding will help strengthen the company’s carbon removal technology while expanding its supply of high-quality carbon credits.
Blue Earth Capital is a mission-driven, global investment firm advocating for sustainability through its growth investments. Through its Climate Growth Strategy, it supports companies that significantly contribute to global energy transition and decarbonize major economic sectors.
In addition to Blue Earth Capital, other serial investors of the round include Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Taronga Ventures, and 2150. New investors participating in the round are Samsung Ventures and BH3 Growth Equity.
Doubling Down Efforts in Cutting Concrete’s Emissions
Buildings are responsible for about 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, making them a major source of carbon pollution.
The embodied carbon – CO2 released in creating building materials – accounts for almost 50% of carbon emissions from new construction. Of that, about 8% is courtesy of producing cement, a key material in making concrete.
Emissions from producing cement stood at 1.7 billion metric tons of CO2 in 2021. Here’s how its carbon emissions grow for decades.
Each 1,000 kg of cement production generates more than 900 kg of carbon emissions.
This is particularly what CarbonCure targets, to reduce the emissions of carbon-intensive concrete with its unique carbon removal technology. It injects captured carbon into fresh concrete, locking up the gas so it doesn’t return back into the atmosphere. As the process lowers the amount of cement needed in every mix, the concrete’s carbon emissions also decrease.
The climate tech company said that its technologies have already produced about 5 million truckloads of low-carbon concrete. This results in saving around 290,000 metric tons of CO2, or removing 64,000+ gas-powered cars off the road in one year.
The $80 million investment will allow CarbonCure to scale up its CO2 removal technology and remove millions of tonnes of carbon emissions annually. It will also support the company in ramping up its product roadmap and reaching its growth plans. To date, it operates in thirty countries.
The majority of the new investment will be for expansions in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Overall, it will allow CarbonCure’s platform to provide more sustainability value to concrete producers while contributing to global climate goals. The company’s Chair and CEO, Robert Niven, asserts how important this new funding is to CarbonCure, saying:
“With more than 750 systems sold, this latest investment will drive CarbonCure’s deployment across the global concrete industry as the private sector doubles down on sustainability in new construction and as federal, state and even municipal procurement policies requiring green building materials continue to multiply.”
Carbon Removal and High-Quality Carbon Credits
Niven further noted the investment’s role in advancing decarbonization efforts and accelerating “immediate, permanent and verifiable” carbon removal pathways.
It promotes CarbonCure’s solution for low embodied carbon concrete. The company’s carbon removal technology also tracks and measures carbon from the point of capture to mineralization in concrete mixes.
This method allows carbon credit buyers to track the precise date and location of CO2 storage.
Other carbon removal solutions focus on removing CO2 and storing it deep underground. But CarbonCure’s tech brings more value to captured CO2 – use it for making low-carbon concrete.
Thus, the carbon credits they create are of high quality as they don’t just remove CO2 but help the concrete industry in reducing its carbon footprint, too.
CarbonCure’s cutting-edge innovations have attracted global recognition and prestigious awards, including Musk’s Carbon XPRIZE Grand Prize Winner. The company also won the Cleantech 100 Hall of Fame Company and the 2022 CNBC Disruptor 50 List Company awards.
The climate tech firm signed the world’s biggest carbon credit purchase agreement for CO2 storage with Invert last year.
Further acknowledging its decarbonization efforts, Citi served as a financial advisor to CarbonCure during this latest round.
With its innovative technology, the carbon removal company is enabling the concrete sector to use captured CO2 to make low-carbon concrete mixes. This is crucial for the sector to stay competitive as stakeholders demand greener building materials to mitigate climate change.
The post Amazon and Microsoft-Backed CarbonCure Raises $80M appeared first on Carbon Credits.
