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Alphabet, H&M Group, Shopify, Match and Stripe are investing $4.5 million in nine early-stage carbon removal startups to scale their pilot and demonstration projects. For five of these companies, this funding marks their first corporate-backed deal.
Each of the selected startups will receive $500,000 upfront. If they hit certain performance milestones, they'll be in line for potential commercial contracts with Frontier, a corporate buyers group co-founded by Alphabet, McKinsey, Meta, Shopify, and Stripe. "There is no clawback if companies don't deliver," notes Joanna Klitzke, Frontier's procurement and ecosystem strategy lead.
This backing is designed to accelerate startups from the R&D phase to full-scale commercial production. It also gives corporate buyers a clearer understanding of the potential risks of emerging carbon removal technologies. Luk Shors, co-founder and president of Capture6, one of the startups, adds, "It can serve as a signal to other companies that we've passed a significant threshold." Capture6 is working on an electrochemical system to capture carbon dioxide from industrial waste.
While the specifics of each startup's contract vary, corporate buyers are closely assessing several factors, such as:
Energy demands: How much energy the technology requires and whether renewable sources can be used. For instance, Planeteers, one of the recipients, employs a system that uses water from treatment plants, eliminating the need for additional infrastructure.
Leveraging industrial processes: The ability to harness existing industrial systems for carbon removal. Exterra, another startup, uses mining waste to mineralize carbon, effectively cleaning up extraction sites while capturing carbon. Similarly, Silica collaborates with sugar cane farms to integrate carbon capture into their operations.
Creation of co-products: The potential to generate byproducts that can be sold, creating an additional revenue stream. Alithic, for example, produces a byproduct that can be sold for use in concrete, lowering overall costs.
This cohort marks the fourth group of entrepreneurs to receive funding under Frontier's prepurchase program. Two startups from the 2023 round have already landed significant off-take contracts.
Vaulted Deep, a company that removes CO₂ by converting it into a carbon-rich slurry and injecting it underground, secured a $58.3 million contract with Frontier within a year of their repurchase.
Similarly, Holocene, a direct air capture company, inked a $10 million deal with Google on September 10, where Google will pay $100 per tonne for carbon removal credits if the technology proves successful.
Out of 163 applicants, the winners were selected through a rigorous review by 40 external experts alongside Stripe's internal Frontier team.
Here's a quick overview of the other selected startups:
- Alt Carbon: Spreads basalt on Indian tea plantations to boost soil health.
- Anvil: Uses rock minerals to turn atmospheric CO₂ into carbonate.
- Flux: Accelerates soil carbon capture using basalt in Sub-Saharan Africa.
- Nulife: Converts wet waste biomass into bio-oil, then injects it underground.
Frontier has committed to spending $1 billion on carbon removal by 2030. The group has signed nearly $320 million in contracts, representing around 572,000 metric tonnes of carbon removal.
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