Dartmouth-based green construction technology company CarbonCure Technologies has closed a US$80 million (C$105.7 million) venture capital round – the largest VC round ever in Nova Scotia.
The global leader in carbon dioxide removal technologies for the concrete industry released a statement Tuesday saying the round was led by Swiss impact investor Blue Earth Capital, a new investor in the company. The funding syndicate included Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a returning investor that is backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and other multi-billionaires.
The funds will allow CarbonCure to accelerate its mission to remove carbon from the atmosphere and support its growth plans. For Atlantic Canada, a round of this size will ensure that the region’s venture capital stats don’t collapse despite the tough economic environment.
“The financial backing of this special syndicate of investors is an exciting endorsement of CarbonCure as a go-to solution for low embodied carbon concrete, a leader in carbon removal technologies and a provider of the highest quality carbon credits in the voluntary carbon market,” said CarbonCure Chair and CEO Robert Niven in a statement.
“This latest investment underscores the growing appetite across the public and private sectors for proven solutions and the most impactful strategies to advance industrial decarbonization and accelerate carbon removal pathways that are immediate, permanent and verifiable,”
Already operating in 30 countries, CarbonCure sells technology to inject carbon dioxide into concrete, sequestering it and strengthening the end product. Concrete is the second most abundant man-made material in the world. And cement, its key ingredient, is responsible for an estimated 7 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
The company said this funding round will allow it to accelerate its mission to reduce and remove millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere each year. It will help in achieving growth plans and accelerating the product roadmap.
As well as Blue Earth and Breakthrough Ventures, the investors in the round were Taronga Ventures, Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund and 2150. New strategic investors include BH3 Growth Equity and Samsung Ventures, which are also using the CarbonCure technology.
“We look to support promising technologies and companies enabling the redesign or supplementation of major industrial processes by using lower carbon-intensive materials and/or enabling raw materials to be reused,” said Blue Earth Head of Private Equity Kayode Akinola. “CarbonCure’s technologies achieve both, on the one hand enabling concrete production with less carbon-intensive cement and on the other creating less solid waste and using less fresh water.”