San Francisco and Linz-based startup Everest Carbon, which develops technology to permanently and cost-effectively remove CO2 from the air, has raised $3 million in funding led by Carbon Removal Partners, with support from Ponderosa Ventures and the Carbon Drawdown Initiative, as the startup told Vestbee.
- Founded in 2022 by Pascal Michel, Everest Carbon is a carbon removal measurement company focused on making open-system carbon removal measurable.
- Everest Carbon's sensor measures CO₂ removal through Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) by tracking changes in soil alkalinity. The sensor uses an ion-exchange resin to capture cations from dissolved rocks, which bind CO₂ into stable forms. These chemical changes are then converted into digital data, providing real-time, accurate measurements of carbon removal.
- Everest aims to reduce MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) costs by over 90% while automating processes, making enhanced rock weathering (ERW) a scalable, gigaton-level carbon removal solution.
"Wrapping well-established material science into a scalable digital sensor will facilitate a new era of independently verifiable, data-driven carbon removals while enabling more than 10x lower measurement cost as we eliminate the need for labor-intensive sample collection and lab analysis." Founder of Everest Carbon, Pascal Michel, commented in a statement.
Details of the deal
- The funding round was led by Carbon Removal Partners, a Swiss venture capital firm dedicated to investing in startups that focus on combating climate change.
“Everest’s sensor is a breakthrough for ERW—for the first time, all stakeholders can get access to real-time, accurate measurements directly from deployment fields. We are delighted to partner with Everest in scaling ERW to address the global climate crisis," Cliams Max Zeller, Founding Partner of Carbon Removal Partners.
- Ponderosa Ventures, a New York-based VC firm focused on transforming the food, agriculture, and ocean sectors, along with the Carbon Drawdown Initiative from Germany, also participated in the funding round.
- With the funds, the startup plans to scale the production and deployment of its alkalinity sensor for enhanced rock weathering (ERW), enabling direct, scalable, and cost-effective CO₂ impact quantification.
