California-based climate tech company CarbonCapture announced today that it has raised $80 million, with proceeds to be used for the development and deployment of the company’s Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon removal systems.

DAC technology, listed by the IEA as a key carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system, extracts CO2 directly from the atmosphere for use as a raw material or permanently removed when combined with storage. According to the landmark 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate change mitigation study, scenarios that limit warming to 1.5°C include carbon dioxide removal methods scaling to billions of tons of removal annually over the coming decades, with DAC positioned to potentially account for a significant portion of the total.

Founded in 2019, CarbonCapture produces DAC machines that use solid sorbents to efficiently absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and the company utilizes a modular and upgradeable capture system that allows next-generation sorbents to be swapped in as they become available, enabling cost reductions over time without the need to construct entire new facilities. CarbonCapture is currently developing “Project Bison,” a new DAC project in Wyoming in partnership with carbon storage developer Frontier Carbon Solutions. The project is expected to be developed over multiple phases through 2030, reaching 5 million tons of capture and storage annual capacity.

The company has signed $26 million in carbon removal credits, with offtake agreements last year to remove over 55,000 tons of carbon dioxide announced with companies including Microsoft, Boston Consulting Group and Amazon.

New strategic investors joining the Series A financing included Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Aramco Ventures, and Siemens Financial Services. CarbonCapture said that the financing will support further technology development and to field early installations of the copmany’s modular DAC systems.

Adrian Corless, CEO of CarbonCapture said:

“To realize our ambitious mission to decarbonize the atmosphere, it’s imperative that we marshal the capabilities of the global industrial community. That’s why I’m so excited to welcome our new strategic investors—the unparalleled logistics and supply chain prowess of Amazon, the world-class capabilities of Aramco Ventures, and the digital transformation and energy transition expertise of Siemens will be pivotal to helping us scale DAC in the coming years.”

The financing was led by Prime Movers Lab, with participating investors also including Idealab X, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Neotribe Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and several other venture investors.

Zia Huque, Prime Movers Lab General Partner and CarbonCapture Board Member said:

“CarbonCapture has made substantial technical and commercial progress since our initial investment in the company, signing offtake agreements with some of the world’s largest brands. Prime Movers Lab has done due diligence on numerous carbon capture companies, and we believe Adrian and his team are the ones who will decarbonize our atmosphere at scale and emerge as one of the most important breakthrough science companies.”