The bricks in our homes, the clothes we wear, and the food we eat – all these activities involve carbon emissions. Carbon forms the building blocks of today’s economy and this is not going to change. Reportedly, human activities release over 40 Gigaton of CO2 into the atmosphere every year. Capturing CO2 from the air is key to reversing global warming.
Carbon removal companies are having a moment as carbon capture and storage are moving up on the climate agenda of both European countries. The industry is a vital part of the economy of the region, with a higher contribution to gross value added than the EU average; industries like cement and chemicals have higher emissions than the EU average, and countries are significantly more dependent on fossil fuels.
As it is extremely important, the carbon capture and storage market is expected to reach $9.39 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 14.69%. Understanding this potential, several investors are pouring funds into startups in this industry. In recent times, carbon capture and management startups, including Compact Syngas Solutions, Noya, and Carbon Re secured investments.
That said, here is a list of carbon capture startups in Europe that you need to watch for in 2023. Check out this list here.
RepAir Carbon Capture (Israel)
Founder/s: Yehuda Borenstein, Yushan Yan
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: $11.5M
RepAir Carbon Capture aims to innovate the direct air capture (DAC) industry with technology that uses less energy than conventional DAC systems. Its solution captures carbon dioxide from the air, utilising renewable electricity to separate CO2 at a gigaton scale. The system is also built using multiple cell stacks, which makes it modular, scalable, and affordable.
Late last year, the Israel-based provider of an energy-efficient and scalable CO2 capture solution raised $10M in Series A funding. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.
Carbominer (Ukraine)
Founder/s: Nick Oseyko, Viktoria Oseyko
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: $950K
Kyiv-headquartered Carbominer has developed a modular Direct Air Capture carbon removal technology. Its hardware uses intermittent renewable energy to effectively capture diluted carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into pure CO2 that is pumped into greenhouses. The company’s first market target is providing sustainable and fossil-free CO₂ to indoor agriculture growers in the EU.
Novocarbo (Germany)
Managing Director: Sven Wissebach
Founded year: 2017
Total funding: NA
Novocarbo is a carbon removal company built by business professionals with a legacy of passion for soil and agriculture. It produces biochar from plant residues such as wood chips, nutshells, and manure. Different feedstocks, and the way these materials are processed, create biochars with different properties. This makes biochar suitable for different uses, including as a soil conditioner, in biogas plants, or as bedding for stables and cowsheds
In addition to soil conditioner, NovoCarbo also produces other types of biochar: used as a feed additive, biochar regulates digestion and increases feed efficiency.
CUR8 (UK)
Founder/s: Marta Krupinska, Gabrielle Walker, Mark Stevenson
Founded year: 2022
Total funding: $7M
London-based climate tech startup offering a market-making platform for carbon removals is addressing the challenge of decarbonisation by professionalising and accelerating the carbon removals industry. It recognises that companies face obstacles in investing in carbon removal portfolios due to issues such as supply limitations, concerns about quality and risk, and high prices.
Earlier this year, CUR8 closed £5.3 million in a pre-seed funding round. It will use the investment to invest in growing its team, further product development, and scale up its platform’s capacity to serve more customers and suppliers.
CarbonSpace (Ireland)
Founder/s: Oleg Demidov
Founded year: 2020
Total funding: $990K
Based out of Dublin, CarbonSpace has developed a satellite-powered carbon footprint monitoring platform to bring a new level of transparency to these organisations. Its proprietary AI core processes several layers of satellite, sensor, and inventory data, which yields high spatial and temporal resolutions and allows for reliable assessments across geographies.
In 2021, the Irish startup closed a €900K seed round to scale its business in the EU and the US with a focus on food and forestry supply chains.
Carbon Infinity (UK)
Founder/s: Jia Li, David Izikowitz
Founded year: 2019
Total funding: NA
Yet another UK-based female-founded carbon capture startup is Carbon Infinity. It is developing a modular, cost-effective technology capturing CO2 directly from the atmosphere. The technology, optimised for standardised production and rapid deployment, provides a green CO2 feedstock and a platform to de-fossilise difficult or impossible to decarbonise sectors, such as petrochemicals, concrete, long-distance aviation, and shipping.
The technology involves advanced sponge-like materials that adsorb CO2 directly from the atmosphere, creating a pure stream of CO2 for conversion into carbon-based products or subsequent storage. In 2021, Tech Nation selected Carbon Infinity as one of 32 startups participating in the latest stage of its Net Zero accelerator program.
Greenlyte Carbon Technologies (Germany)
Founder/s: lorian Hildebrand, Niklas Friederichsen
Founded year: 2022
Total funding: $8.5M
This German-based startup, Greenlyte Carbon Technologies, develops and markets a novel low-temperature direct air capture technology operating at unprecedented energy efficiency. Its robust Direct Air Capture technology captures CO2 at world-leading energy rates whilst supplying hydrogen as a by-product. Recently, Greenlyte Carbon Technologies snapped a pre-seed extension round by raising an additional €4.5 million.
Arbonics (Estonia)
Founder/s: Kristjan Lepik, Lisett Luik
Founded year: 2022
Total funding: $2M
Estonian startup Arbonics enables nature-based solutions to fight climate change, focusing particularly on forestry. It will make it easier for landowners to analyse and calculate the ability of their land to absorb carbon. It takes less than one minute for the platform to analyse the carbon opportunity of a given area of land or forest, using a dozen data sources combined with the team’s forest expertise.
Arbonics will unlock new income sources for forests and landowners, whilst improving the voluntary carbon market, enabling landowners to generate additional income. In 2022, the Estonian startup landed €1.8 million in a pre-seed funding round from Taavet Hinrikus’ Plural fund to spearhead the development of the platform and transform the analogue world of forestry with technology.
Pyreg (Germany)
Founder/s: Jörg Dohna
Founded year: 2009
Total funding: NA
Pyreg designs, develops, and manufactures top-quality machinery for carbonisation purposes all of which contribute considerable value to their customers. Irrespective of whether you are in the wastewater, fertiliser, composting, agriculture, forestry industries, or industries in general, a combination of the uniqueness of a Pyreg system and its multi-purpose benefits substantially enhances the economic success of their customers.
Seabound (UK)
Founder/s: Roujia Wen, Alisha Fredriksson
Founded year: 2021
Total funding: NA
Female-led Seabound, a London-based startup, is on a mission to change the course of shipping decarbonisation. Currently, the company is prototyping carbon capture equipment that connects to ships’ smokestacks to cut up to 95% of carbon emissions. Seabound’s technology traps emissions from a ship’s exhaust via an onboard device filled with porous, calcium oxide pebbles, which bind to carbon dioxide to form limestone. It plans to process the CO2 on land and sell it for utilisation or sequestration.
In 2022, Seabound raised $4.4 million in seed funding led by Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital with participation from Eastern Pacific Shipping, Emles Venture Partners, Hawktail, Rebel Fund, and Soma Capital.
