Originally published in ESGToday
Climate-tech startup CarbonBlue announced that it has raised $10 million in a seed funding round, with proceeds to be used to scale up and deploy its water-based Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) technology.
Founded in 2022 in Israel, CarbonBlue provides technology to turn any water-based infrastructure into a CDR facility by removing CO2 from water, enabling it to absorb more from the atmosphere. The company’s solution takes water containing dissolved atmospheric CO2 and pumps it into a reactor which extracts the CO2, mineralizing it into solid limestone. Then, using heat, a second reactor removes CO2 from the limestone. The stream of pure, removed CO2 is then used as an industrial feedstock, or sequestered in geologic formation granting a tradable carbon credit by the ton, while the low-CO2 water is returned to its source, for the removal of CO2 from the environment.
The company is constructing a facility integrated with the Maagan Michael desalination plant in Israel, and is developing projects in Europe, the MENA region, and North and South America.
According to CarbonBlue, the new capital will enable the company to expand its global operations, scale up its technology and pursue novel integrations with water-utilizing industrial facilities.
Dr. Dan Deviri, CarbonBlue Co-founder and CEO said:
The round was led by Ibex Investors and FreshFund, joined by strategic investors Engie New Ventures, and ZIM Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, and included further investments by existing investors Jibe Ventures, MoreVC and Secret Chord Ventures.
“The closing of our seed round marks an important chapter in our company’s journey. It will allow us to expand our collaborations with major players in the climate, energy, and water sectors, and help us solidify and mature our technology and its applications. This vote of confidence from industry leaders validates our approach; it shows that they believe climate change deeply affects their core businesses, and that CarbonBlue’s contribution to this global effort is a significant one.”
Jonathan Schwartz, investor at Ibex Investors said:
“What sets CarbonBlue apart from other CDR players is their ability to directly support and integrate into mission critical infrastructure projects such as efuels and desalination. The combination of CDR and industry co-benefits is the secret sauce Dan and Iddo, [CarbonBlue’s co-founders], have nailed.”
