“Inflection Point,” “New Frontier,” “Finally Getting Serious”- are some of the ways the carbon removal field has been described in headlines over the past few weeks. With Frontier Climate, Lowercarbon capital, and Climeworks all announcing big new infusions of money into the wicked problem of pulling CO2 from the air, it’s fair to say the field has entered a new stage.
At a recent panel at Columbia University, Carbon Direct Vice-Chair Nili Gilbert said that she believes there are currently over 1000 companies working on carbon removal. She also noted that of those that are vetted, only 5% will be invested in.
The online newsletter Climate Tech VC found that after the IPCC mitigation report identified a major need for carbon removal in April, over $2.2 billion has been invested into CDR.
Forty-five companies received funding, with $1,100 million flowing to climate tech, $920 million to carbon accounting and marketplaces, and $65 million to MRV (with the other $1b committed by Stripe et al. via Frontier).
Before all this happened, our co-host Susan Su said that if a startup has a good CDR idea, it will access funding. That has turned out to be very prescient in the months since that forecast.
On this episode we talk about some of the big deals that have happened in 2022, the technical aspects of different funding methods, as well as what VC can and cannot do for CDR companies. The group also discuss Adam Neumann’s much-publicized foray into the world of carbon credits.
There’s also one more piece of big news we can announce - Na’im Merchant will be joining us as a regular co-host! That means every month you can hear Radhika, Susan, and Na’im discuss the latest news in CDR Business.