EIT Climate-KIC Startup Climeworks, the global pioneer in CO2 filtration from ambient air, announced yesterday the closing of a CHF 30.5 million (EUR 26.8 million) financing round. The investors include a group of existing and new private investors as well as the Zürcher Kantonalbank. This brings the Swiss company an important step closer to its vision of filtering one percent of annual global CO2 emissions from the air by 2025.
The funds will be used to further industrialize the modular and scalable Climeworks Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, prepare it for mass production and significantly reduce its costs. Climeworks plans to expand its presence in all market segments where it is already active in order to strengthen its leadership position. It is also planned to expand the team, strengthen development capacities and advance commercialization.
The fresh capital comes from a consortium of existing and new private investors and the largest cantonal bank in Switzerland, the Zürcher Kantonalbank. With this financing round, the investments (equity / public subsidies) in Climeworks AG and its groundbreaking DAC technology add up to more than 50 million Swiss francs.
Jan Wurzbacher, co-founder and Co-CEO of Climeworks AG:
“Our DAC systems address markets ranging from food, beverages and agriculture to renewable fuels, materials and carbon dioxide removal. In the latter area, companies and individuals can use Climeworks to reverse their unavoidable emissions. All these markets will grow. With this new investment Climeworks is well positioned. It forms a strong basis for further growth.”
Since the beginning of 2017, the Climeworks team has grown from 30 to 60 employees. The company has installed nine CO2 filter systems in three different market segments in six countries. Two of these plants marked milestones in the DAC industry last year: in May 2017, Climeworks installed the world’s first commercial DAC plant in Hinwil. Climeworks sells the CO2 filtered there to a greenhouse operator. In November 2017, Climeworks opened the world’s first DAC plant in Iceland combined with underground CO2 storage.
About Climeworks
Climeworks successfully completed Stage 3 of the EIT Climate-KIC DACH Startup Accelerator in 2012 and filters CO2 efficiently from ambient air with the world’s first commercial Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology. The modular DAC technology removes CO2 from the atmosphere to supply customers and pave the way for a future of negative emissions. In May 2017, Climeworks commissioned the world’s first commercial DAC plant in Hinwil, Switzerland, which sells the filtered gas directly to a customer – a greenhouse operator near Zurich.
DAC technology can be used in conjunction with CO2 mineralisation to permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere, an approach necessary to achieve international climate goals. Compared to other approaches to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, the DAC technology is independent of agricultural land, has a small footprint and is fully scalable.
The medium-term goal of Climeworks is to filter one percent of global CO2 emissions from the air by 2025. Since its foundation in 2009 by engineers Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher, Climeworks has built up a team of top-class experts, an excellent test environment and production capacities.
Further information: www.climeworks.com
Author: Editors