Applied Carbon, a tech firm specialising in automated biochar production machines that convert agricultural crop waste into biochar, has secured $21.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by TO VC, with contributions from Congruent Ventures, Grantham Foundation, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, S2G Ventures, Overture.vc, Wireframe Ventures, Autodesk Foundation, Anglo American, Susquehanna Foundation, US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, and Elemental Excelerator.
The funds will be used to deploy biochar machines across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana, enhancing carbon removal and agricultural services.
Formerly known as Climate Robotics, Applied Carbon has developed a mobile, in-field system that transforms crop residue into biochar in just one step. This biochar is then returned to the field, improving soil health, agronomic productivity, and reducing the need for lime and fertilizers while providing effective carbon removal and storage.
Jason Aramburu, co-founder and CEO of Applied Carbon said, “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.”
The technology uses a high-tech, self-contained trailer pulled behind a tractor that collects crop residue, processes it into biochar via high temperature pyrolysis before quenching it with water and supplementing it with nutrients and microbes as desired by the farmer. The final biochar product exits the machine and is spread directly onto the field, eliminating bulk material transport and drastically reducing its cost per ton.
“We’ve been looking at the biochar sector for over a decade and Applied Carbon’s in-field proposition is incredibly compelling,” said Joshua Posamentier, co-founder and managing partner of Congruent Ventures. He added, “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.”
Over 90% of durable carbon removal sold to commercial buyers in 2023 came from biochar, a trend expected to continue. Applied Carbon’s technology, combined with its precision automation and data monitoring, offers top-tier carbon removal monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV).
Joshua Phitoussi, co-founder and managing partner at TO VC said, “Up to one-third of excess CO2 that has accumulated in the atmosphere since the start of human civilization has come from humans disturbing soil through agriculture. To reach our net-zero objectives, we need to put that carbon back where it belongs. Biochar is unique in its potential to do so at a permanence and price point that are conducive to mass-scale adoption of carbon dioxide removal solutions, while also leaving farmers and consumers better off thanks to better soil health and nutrition. Thanks to its technology and business model, Applied Carbon is the only company that turns that potential into reality.”