Dartmouth-based Canadian cleantech company, CarbonCure Technologies, which develops carbon dioxide removal solutions for the concrete industry, announced on Thursday that Carbon Direct and Mitsubishi Corp. have invested in the company.
At the same time, investment groups, 2150 and GreenSoil Investments, increased their participation in CarbonCure.
The amount of each investment was not revealed.
“This investment by new and existing strategic partners is yet another endorsement of CarbonCure as one of the leading CDR (carbon dioxide removal) solutions in the construction industry,” said Robert Niven, CEO and founder of CarbonCure Technologies said in a news release.
CarbonCure said it intends to use the capital investment to accelerate the commercialization of a growing portfolio of CDR innovations and the international expansion timelines — particularly in Europe and Asia — to meet its goal of removing 500 megatonnes of carbon dioxide annually from the concrete industry by 2030.
The investments announcement Thursday follow recent financing co-led by Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
The latest round of investments recognizes CarbonCure as a leadership in carbon dioxide removal technologies to deal with concrete’s large carbon footprint, according to the company.
“The latest investment in CarbonCure presents a wonderful opportunity for the global ready mix industry to capitalize on the increasing demand for sustainable concrete and enable the low carbon construction of sustainable cities,” Niven stated in the news release.
CarbonCure has developed an “easy-to-adopt carbon removal technology” that enables concrete producers to use captured carbon dioxide to produce reliable, low-carbon concrete mixes and achieve market differentiation.
Available from hundreds of concrete producers, CarbonCure states that its mixes have permanently removed more than 100 tonnes of carbon emissions from the atmosphere.
Concrete is described by CarbonCure as most abundant human-made material in the world after drinking water. It is the key ingredient that gives concrete its strength and is the largest industrial emitter of carbon dioxide accounting for eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
CarbonCure’s technology enables concrete producers to continue manufacturing the same concrete while permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
In the news release, Carbon Direct is described as a strategic advisor to partners with carbon removal commitments and an investor in an array of carbon removal, utilization, and low-carbon technologies. The company’s investment fund supports companies that are helping to build the negative-emissions industry and enabling the clean-energy transition.
“Carbon Direct’s mission is to scale carbon removal and utilization into a major global industry, so CarbonCure is an ideal fit for our investment portfolio. The company’s growth equity fund makes private investments in leading technology providers to the carbon removal and utilization ecosystem,” Jonathan Goldberg, CEO of Carbon Direct was quoted in the CarbonCure release.
Mitsubishi Corp. has 10 business groups that operate in a variety of industries and represents 1,700 different companies. The group has committed to tackling sustainability issues while delivering societal, economic, and environmental value.
“We are thrilled to work together with CarbonCure and support its deployment in Japan and Asian region. Climate change is no exception, and we strive to lead the low carbon transition of the global cement and concrete industry with advanced CO₂ technologies like CarbonCure,” Yusuke Tsuji, Leader, Low Carbon Taskforce, Mitsubishi Corp. stated in the news release.
CarbonCure is already used by nearly 300 concrete producers to supply low embodied carbon concrete to construction projects around the world.
