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Alt Carbon raises $12 million seed round to scale Carbon Removal (CDR) in the Global South
San Francisco and Bangalore, May 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- : Alt Carbon, a deep-tech science & data company, announced a $12 million seed funding round to build the agricultural infrastructure for climate action. The investment will help accelerate Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) in the Global South and expand Earth Sciences R&D, advance hardware innovations, and scale-up operations for durable climate action in India. The round was led by Lachy Groom, with participation from existing investors. This marks the largest seed round for climate tech in India, underscoring the novelty of the technology, growing demand for removal-based carbon credits, and the burgeoning opportunity for India to become the world’s frontier for climate action. “Alt Carbon is tackling a once-in-a-generation challenge. The personal journey of the founders, their technical approach, and ambitious vision will help us remove CO2 from the atmosphere at gigaton scale — all while adapting agricultural land for climate impact. In just 18 months, the team has built a world-class lab, created proprietary models, and laid the foundation for a new class of carbon removal and agricultural infrastructure. This is a category-defining deep-tech company that will reshape how the world thinks about climate action,” said Lachy Groom, Investor and Co-founder of Physical Intelligence. Alt Carbon uses a novel carbon removal method called Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW), which involves sourcing waste basalt rock dust from mines and spreading it across agricultural fields. This volcanic rock not only improves soil health and crop yields but also reacts naturally with rainwater to remove carbon dioxide. When CO2 in rainwater interacts with the basalt dust, a chemical reaction converts it into stable bicarbonate ions that are stored in the soil. Over time, these ions travel through river networks to the ocean, where they eventually reside as calcium carbonate (CaCO3) for over 10,000 years. Alt Carbon’s flagship initiative, The Darjeeling Revival Project (DRP), is a first-of-its-kind effort to unite climate action with cultural and ecological restoration. With an ambitious goal to remove carbon dioxide at scale, the DRP aims to not just remove CO2 but also restore livelihoods, revive degraded soils and ecosystems, and preserve India’s most valued export: Darjeeling’s tea. The project represents a new model for climate action — one that’s rooted in science, powered by community, and driven by the belief that revivals require ambition and audacious bets. “The climate crisis demands bold bets on science innovation, rethinking infrastructure, and deploying capital. Enhanced Rock Weathering is one of the most promising, permanent carbon removal pathways we have, and yet it’s vastly underbuilt. What sets us apart is our obsession with scientific depth: we’re building advanced labs and engineering the scientific backbone of a new era of climate action grounded in the Global South. Extraordinary crises require outsized ambition, and we now have the capital to kickstart a climate revolution and have a shot at gigaton-scale carbon removal,” said Co-founder & CEO Shrey Agarwal, Alt Carbon. In just the last two months, Alt Carbon signed two landmark agreements that signal a new chapter in climate collaboration between Japan and India. A strategic partnership with Mitsubishi Corporation marked a first of its kind framework for scaling Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) — a strong vote of confidence in both the science and Alt Carbon’s execution. This was followed by a historic offtake agreement with MOL Group to purchase 10,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits — the world’s first direct CDR offtake by a shipping company for ERW, and the first such deal between a Japanese and Indian company. Together, these partnerships not only validate ERW as a credible, scalable climate solution, but also mark the emergence of a robust Japan–India business corridor rooted in science-led, cross-border climate action. Alt Carbon has also received early catalytic support from ACT, a leading non-profit philanthropy platform, and participation from existing investors and leading angels, including Shastra VC, Jason Zhao (Co Founder, PIP Labs), Awais Ahmed (Co Founder, Pixxel Space), Amarendra Singh (Co Founder, DeHaat), among others. Nine months ago, Alt Carbon made history as the first India-headquartered company to be selected by Frontier, a $1 billion Advance Market Commitment backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey — to scale permanent carbon removal. Alt Carbon also became the first ERW company globally to receive an offtake agreement from the South Pole & Mitsubishi-led NextGen buyer’s coalition. Alt Carbon also announced the appointment of Yashovardhan Bhagat (former co-founder of ed-tech platform Seekho) as Chief Operating Officer to scale its carbon removal operations across India, Adithya Venkatesan (former brand head at Gojek, Meesho and Last9) to lead the in-house Climate Studio, and Dr. Sourav Ganguly (PhD, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) to lead the science & modelling team. “India needs $1 trillion of climate finance by 2030 alone to adapt our soil, rivers, and cities to climate impact. Globally, we need to remove 10 billion tons of CO2 every year by 2050. We’re nowhere close to either of these targets. Our goal is to make India a hub for carbon removal. We plan to remove CO2 at scale from the Global South, for the planet,” said Co-founder & President, Sparsh Agarwal. He added, “We thank the partners who have joined us in this ambitious, whirlwind journey, to revive Darjeeling, remove CO2 and undo the clock for this planet.” - Notes to the editor About Alt Carbon For more information please visit https://www.alt-carbon.com/ or follow us via LinkedIn or X About Lachy Groom About ACT "ACT’s belief in backing tech-first innovations has helped lay the groundwork for Alt Carbon’s first field deployments and validate the efficacy of ERW to remove carbon at scale. Philanthropic capital reflects a shared commitment to help the country meet its decarbonisation goals by accelerating climate solutions that are rooted in local realities and scalable across the Global South," said Alankrita Khera, Director, ACT. Attachment  Adithya Venkatesan — [email protected]
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