The globe likely breezed past 1.5°C of warming above pre-industrial levels this year, crashing through the 2016 Paris Agreement’s aspirational target. Further warming increases the risk of catastrophic consequences, including more frequent extreme droughts, floods, and fires; stronger hurricanes; faster-spreading infectious diseases; and declining wildlife and fish populations. A host of carbon-capture startups hope to reverse this trend by removing large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere.
One of those startups, Heirloom Carbon, announced on Wednesday that it had raised $150 million in Series B funding to help scale up its carbon-removal technology.
The startup is betting that by building bigger and capturing more carbon, it can bring down the cost to remove each metric ton of CO2, which currently runs from $600 to $1,000, according to the company’s own estimates. Heirloom expects industry-wide prices to drop to $200 to $300 per metric ton by the early 2030s, company spokesperson Scott Coriell told TechCrunch.
“Heirloom has line of sight to profitability at those prices,” he said.
That’s still far more than the $100 per metric ton that experts say is the sweet spot to make carbon capture a viable industry, although Coriell added that the company is “on a trajectory” to hit that price over the long term.
To put Heirloom’s fundraise in context, if the new round were to buy carbon credits at current prices, it would be enough to buy 150,000 to 250,000 metric tons’ worth. That’s about a decade’s worth of carbon removal from the company’s Louisiana plant that’s expected to open in 2026. (The new round does not include carbon credits for investors, though.)
Unlike many other direct air capture (DAC) startups, Heirloom doesn’t use a liquid to capture carbon dioxide from the air, but crushed lime derived from limestone. The company treats the lime with a proprietary compound to speed the rate at which it can absorb CO2. Once the absorbed gas transforms enough of the lime into limestone, the company heats it to release the carbon dioxide so it can be stored elsewhere.
Though carbon removal is generally considered too expensive to deploy widely today, climate scientists have come to acknowledge that the technology will be required in the coming decades as the world continues to burn fossil fuels unabated.
Future Positive and Lowercarbon Capital led the round with Ahren Innovation Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Carbon Direct Capital, Japan Airlines, MCJ Collective, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., MOL Switch LLC, Quantum Innovation Fund, and Siemens Financial Services participating.
Heirloom already has contracts to sell carbon credits to Microsoft, a leading buyer of DAC credits, and Frontier, the advanced market commitment company owned by Stripe.
Japan Airlines’ participation in the round is notable, as some experts argue it will be easier and cheaper to continue flying using fossil-based jet fuel and remove the resulting carbon pollution through direct air capture. It’s clear that airlines are considering DAC as a viable alternative to e-fuels, which also remain prohibitively expensive.
