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Applied Carbon, an innovative agtech startup based in Houston, Texas, has secured $21.5 million in a Series A funding round for its pioneering biochar technology. This round, led by TO VC, included a diverse group of investors such as Congruent Ventures, Grantham Foundation, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, S2G Ventures, Overture.VC, Wireframe Ventures, Autodesk Foundation, Anglo American, and several others.
The funds will be used to deploy Applied Carbon's advanced biochar machines across several Southwestern U.S. states, including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. These machines are designed to offer durable carbon removal and agricultural services. Since its inception in 2020, Applied Carbon has raised $21.5 million from over a dozen investors.
In 2021, the U.S. agriculture sector was responsible for nearly 11 per cent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, as reported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Joshua Phitoussi, co-founder and managing partner at TO VC, emphasized the critical role of agriculture in greenhouse gas emissions, stating, "Up to one-third of excess CO2 in the atmosphere since the beginning of human civilization is due to soil disturbance from agricultural activities." He further highlighted the importance of returning carbon to the soil to achieve net-zero targets, with biochar being a viable solution.
Applied Carbon's cutting-edge mobile system features a high-tech, self-contained trailer that can be towed by a tractor. This trailer collects crop residue left after harvesting and pyrolyzes it into biochar, a type of charcoal. The biochar is then infused with water, nutrients, and microorganisms tailored to the grower's specific needs, all within a single pass through the field. The final biochar is then redeposited into the field, enhancing soil health, improving agronomic productivity, and reducing the need for lime and fertilizers while also providing a stable carbon removal and storage method.
What sets this technology apart is its on-farm processing capability, which eliminates the need to transport biochar to a separate facility for processing. This significantly reduces the capital and time investments required and slashes the cost per ton for farmers by removing the bulk material transport expenses. Applied Carbon's solution is revolutionary and practical, providing a cost-effective and efficient way to enhance soil health and sequester carbon.
Applied Carbon Co-Founder and CEO Jason Aramburu explained, "Multiple independent studies indicate that converting crop waste into biochar has the potential to remove gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year while creating trillions of dollars in value for the world's farmers. However, there is no commercially available technology to convert these wastes at low cost. Applied Carbon's patented in-field biochar production system is the first solution that can convert crop waste into biochar at a scale and a cost that makes sense for broad acre farming."
Joshua Posamentier, co-founder and managing partner of Congruent Ventures, stated, "We've been looking at the biochar sector for over a decade, and Applied Carbon's in-field proposition is incredibly compelling. The two most exciting things about this approach are that it profitably swings the agricultural sector from carbon positive to carbon negative and that it can get to world-scale impact, on a meaningful timeline, while saving farmers money."
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