Berlin-based climate tech company, ecoLocked, has announced the closing of its €4M ($4.3 Million) seed funding round. The round was co-led by climate-focused VCs Matterwave Ventures and Climentum Capital, with participation from existing investors Counteract, SFO, Sabanci Building Solutions, and Voyagers.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are a vital tool in combating climate change. Biochar carbon removal (BCR) accounts for 94% of delivered carbon credits in 2023. ecoLocked offers biochar producers access to a highly scalable end application and unlocks the built environment as the largest human-made carbon sink.
Their first product line, eLM Zero, is an admix material, enabling carbon-neutral concrete. Multiple concrete producers in the DACH region and the Netherlands have already embedded eLM Zero into their product portfolio. Additionally, they collaborate with prominent players in the cement industry and work with municipalities and real estate developers to bring down construction projects’ footprint.
“In order to stay well below 2 degrees warming, emissions reduction won´t be enough: carbon will need to be removed from the air and stored safely. Biochar is among the cheapest and most scalable solutions to do it, and its addition to building materials provides an effective way to decarbonise the built environment, immediately” said Ines Kolmsee, General Partner at Matterwave Ventures, an early-stage VC firm investing in the sustainable future of European industry. He added, “In this context ecoLocked plays the vital role of linking the biochar market to the building materials industry”.
ecoLocked will use the new funds to grow its production plant, launch additional product lines, and accelerate the offtake of its products. With investments in its R&D team, ecoLocked is set to expand its AI-driven platform which enables it to make use of the feedstock variability – generally the key challenge for the construction sector – to efficiently create consistent, high-quality products for specific segments.