A funding round for CarbonCure Technologies, Nova Scotia-based developer of carbon dioxide-based processes for optimizing portland cement and compressive strength development in concrete, has once again attracted principals or affiliates of top technology brands.
The Climate Pledge Fund and Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) led an investment syndicate CarbonCure announced last month. Amazon.com Inc. seeded the former with $2 billion in June. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, along with his Microsoft Corp. counterpart Bill Gates, are among investors in BEV, which led an October 2018 CarbonCure funding round. Joining Climate Pledge and BEV in the current financing are the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, launched in January with $1 billion, plus BDC Capital, 2150, Thistledown Capital, Taronga Ventures and GreenSoil Investments.
“This investment by technology and property development firms is a great endorsement of CarbonCure as the go-to CDR [carbon dioxide removal] solution for the growing tech construction space and the overall shift towards low embodied carbon construction materials,” observes CarbonCure CEO and Co-Founder Robert Niven. “We witnessed the tech industry setting climate change trends with adoption of renewable energy sources like wind and solar. This investment in CDR signals a broader change for public and private infrastructure projects as industries and governments turn their focus toward the reduction of embodied carbon.”
Investment in CarbonCure aligns with The Climate Pledge, wherein Amazon commits to net-zero carbon operation by 2040. “We are looking forward to lowering the carbon footprint of many of our buildings by using CarbonCure concrete, including in Amazon’s HQ2 building in Virginia,” affirms Amazon Vice President of Sustainability Kara Hurst.
“CarbonCure’s success in North America is validation that its cleantech solution benefits concrete producers from a commercial standpoint as well as a sustainability one,” notes BEV’s Dr. Carmichael Roberts. “BEV is delighted to co-lead this investment with Amazon so CarbonCure can accelerate its global expansion.”
“Achieving a net zero carbon future requires developing innovative new technologies to address carbon emissions across industries,” adds Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund Director Brandon Middaugh. “Solutions like CarbonCure help us meet our goal to be carbon negative by 2030.”
The investment will accelerate a CarbonCure product roadmap and geographical expansion toward a goal of removing 500 megatonnes of carbon dioxide annually from the concrete industry over the next decade. The company’s CO₂ injection equipment and process is currently deployed in upward of 300 concrete plants.