Twelve Raises Over $600 Million to Turn CO2 into Clean Jet Fuel
Carbon transformation-focused cleantech company Twelve announced that it has raised $645 million of capital, including a mix of project equity, a Series C financing and credit facilities, with proceeds aimed at building out the companies capacity to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from CO2.
Nicholas Flanders, Chief Executive Officer at Twelve, said:
“Our financing strategy has been to build a comprehensive capital stack that enables us to deliver product to customers at scale while continually driving down costs. We’re proud to work with visionary financing partners and collaborators who share our commitment to deploying first of a kind technologies that address climate change at scale.”
Founded in 2015, California-based Twelve produces chemicals, materials, and fuels from carbon, instead of fossil fuels through a carbon transformation technology that converts captured CO2 into products with water and renewable energy as inputs and producing only water and oxygen outputs. It uses an electrochemical reactor that takes in carbon dioxide from waste or captured directly from the air and uses a metal catalyst and electricity to split the CO2 and water and recombine the elements into different chemicals. The company aims to “de-fossilizing manufacturing processes” with its technology, starting with the aviation sector.
Twelve is currently developing its first SAF plant, AirPlant One in Moses Lake, Washington, which is anticipated to begin production in 2025 as the company’s first facility to produce E-Jet SAF, a power-to-liquid jet fuel made from CO2, water and renewable electricity, producing up to 90% lower lifecycle emissions compared to conventional jet fuel. Additional benefits of the fuel relative to other SAF products include substantially lower water use for production, and less land usage relative to biofuel-based products.
The new financing package includes $400 million in project equity led by TPG Rise Climate, the $7 billion climate investing strategy of TPG’s global impact investing platform, TPG Rise, in addition to $200 million in Series C financing, also led by TPG, alongside Capricorn Investment Group and Pulse Fund, a $25 million construction loan by clean energy investor Fundamental Renewables and a $20 million green loan by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC).
TPG Rise Climate’s project equity capital will support the development of future AirPlant facilities.
Jonathan Garfinkel, Managing Partner at TPG Rise Climate,
“We are drawn to companies and founders that have developed and proven unique solutions to complex problems. Twelve is a clear leader in CO2 conversion technology, which is a core part of the power-to-liquids technology stack and the process we believe represents the long-term, scalable solution for SAF production.”
The Series C funding round included several new investors including Fifth Wall, northstar.vc, Toppan Global Venture Partners, Alaska Airlines’ investment arm Alaska Star Ventures, as well as existing investors and DCVC, Munich Re Ventures, Emerson Collective, Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Carbon Direct Capital, and Elementum vc.
Greg Smithies, Investment Partner, Hardware and Materials at Fifth Wall, said:
“Using electricity to convert carbon dioxide into fuels and materials is the only solution we’ve seen that can scale large enough to truly ween the world off of its fossil fuel addiction. While there is a lot of focus on fuels, what we forget is that much of our world is also made out of fossil fuels. From plastics, to paints, to insulation, to clothing. We’re excited to back Twelve for their ability to make those same materials in a carbon negative manner.”