Applied Carbon (previously known as Climate Robotics), a company designing automated biochar production machines that convert in-field agricultural crop waste into biochar, announced it has raised a $21.5 million Series A. This funding round was led by TO VC, with participation from Congruent Ventures, Grantham Foundation, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, S2G Ventures, Overture.vc, Wireframe Ventures, Autodesk Foundation, Anglo American, Susquehanna Foundation, US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, and Elemental Excelerator.
The funding round will also deploy a fleet of biochar machines across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, delivering high-durability carbon removal and agricultural services. And the company was also recently named as a top-20 global finalist in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition and as a semifinalist in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) CO2 Removal Purchase Pilot Prize.
Applied Carbon developed a mobile and in-field solution that picks up agricultural crop residue left after harvesting and converts it into biochar in a single pass. And the resulting biochar product is deposited back onto the field, simultaneously increasing soil health, improving agronomic productivity, reducing lime and fertilizer requirements, and offering a durable carbon removal and storage solution.
Applied Carbon’s technology utilizes a fully self-contained trailer pulled behind a tractor that collects crop residue and processes it into biochar via high-temperature pyrolysis before quenching it with water and supplementing it with nutrients and microbes as desired by the farmer. And the final biochar product exits the machine and is spread directly onto the field, eliminating bulk material transport and drastically reducing its cost per ton. The machine can also operate in an efficient edge-of-field configuration for added flexibility to address diverse crop wastes all year long.
Along with the agricultural benefits, the biochar produced by Applied Carbon’s technology represents an immense carbon removal opportunity. And research indicates that carbon removed through biochar is one of the safest and most permanent atmospheric carbon removal methods currently available.
Last year, over 90% of the durable carbon removal sold to commercial buyers came from biochar, a trend that is expected to continue. Applied Carbon’s biochar technology, combined with the company’s precision automation and data monitoring system, provides advanced carbon removal monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV), qualities that are critical for transparent engagement with large-scale carbon removal buyers.
Before rebranding from Climate Robotics to Applied Carbon in June to better align with the operational motivation of the company, the company was also named as a top 20 finalist in XPRIZE’s four-year, $100 million global Carbon Removal Competition. Plus, the company was named a semi-finalist and awarded $50k to scale its CO2 removal solution through the Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Purchase Pilot Prize program in May.
KEY QUOTES:
“Multiple independent studies indicate that converting crop waste into biochar has the potential to remove gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year, while creating trillions of dollars in value for the world’s farmers. However, there is no commercially available technology to convert these wastes at low cost. Applied Carbon’s patented in-field biochar production system is the first solution that can convert crop waste into biochar at a scale and a cost that makes sense for broad acre farming.”
– Jason Aramburu, co-founder and CEO of Applied Carbon
“We’ve been looking at the biochar sector for over a decade and Applied Carbon’s in-field proposition is incredibly compelling. The two most exciting things about this approach are that it profitably swings the agricultural sector from carbon positive to carbon negative and that it can get to world-scale impact, on a meaningful timeline, while saving farmers money.”
– Joshua Posamentier, co-founder and managing partner of Congruent Ventures
“Up to one-third of excess CO2 that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the start of human civilization has come from humans disturbing soil through agriculture. To reach our net-zero objectives, we need to put that carbon back where it belongs. Biochar is unique in its potential to do so at a permanence and price point that are conducive to mass-scale adoption of carbon dioxide removal solutions, while also leaving farmers and consumers better off thanks to better soil health and nutrition. Thanks to its technology and business model, Applied Carbon is the only company that turns that potential into reality.”
– Joshua Phitoussi, co-founder and managing partner at TO VC
