Bangalore-based carbon removal startup, Alt Carbon, has become the first Indian company to secure a prepurchase agreement from Frontier, the advance market commitment for carbon removal. This support will fund Alt Carbon’s Darjeeling Revival Project, an innovative initiative combining cutting-edge carbon removal technologies with restoring India’s historic tea estates. As part of this agreement, Alt Carbon will receive $500,000 from Frontier for the purchase of high-quality, durable carbon removal credits generated through the Enhanced Rock Weathering process. The buyers participating in this agreement include Stripe, Shopify, Google, and Watershed (on behalf of Match).
Frontier is an advance market commitment (AMC) aimed at purchasing over $1 billion in permanent carbon removal by 2030. Founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability, the AMC guarantees future demand for carbon removal solutions to accelerate their development. The 2024 announcement of prepurchase agreements marks Frontier’s fourth cohort, and this is the first time an Indian company will join its global portfolio. This development is a significant step in mobilizing climate finance towards South Asia through the Voluntary Carbon Market, positioning the region as a hub for carbon removal efforts.
Alt Carbon is focused on turning these at-risk estates into pioneers of climate action. By using Enhanced Rock Weathering, Alt Carbon improves crop yields for tea estates while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The process involves spreading crushed basalt rock on Darjeeling’s tea estates, where the hot, humid climate accelerates the rock’s natural reaction with rainwater to pull CO2 from the air and store it in the soil. This not only enhances crop yields but also generates high-quality, engineered carbon credits, providing supplementary income for the struggling tea estates.
Alt Carbon’s precise measurement of carbon removal enables the production of durable, high-quality carbon credits, which are purchased by multinational companies to meet their Net Zero goals. This initiative channels climate finance into Global South countries and supports the revival of Darjeeling’s tea estates.
With an in-house MRV team and scientists from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the Darjeeling-Climate Action Lab (D-CAL), Alt Carbon has established itself as one of South Asia’s leading carbon removal companies. The Frontier team conducted extensive due diligence on Alt Carbon’s science, technology, and operations during the prepurchase selection process.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) has been endorsed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a vital tool for achieving Net Zero by 2050. In recent years, trust in low-quality, avoidance-based carbon credits has waned following a widely cited investigation by The Guardian. Alt Carbon is capitalizing on the growing demand for high-quality, durable, and traceable carbon removal projects. The voluntary carbon market, currently valued at $2 billion, is projected to expand to over $1 trillion by 2050, according to McKinsey.
Co-founder & CEO Shrey Agarwal said, “Carbon Removal is the next big manufacturing sector opportunity, and we plan to make India a hub for it by leveraging our unique geographical conditions & the best-in-class scientists from our academic institutions. To make Darjeeling the epicentre of our vision makes it even more meaningful for us.”
Shopify Sustainability Fund Lead Mitch Selby said, “We’re incredibly excited to add enhanced rock weathering standout Alt Carbon to Shopify’s carbon removal portfolio. There are so many things we like about the company—that they’re focused on a high-potential geography, targeting a new crop type, but above all, that it’s led by two entrepreneurial-minded founders.”
