Author: Tahra
We are thrilled to announce that the World Economic Forum has selected Captura as one of its 2024 Technology Pioneers. This prestigious recognition highlights our innovative approach to combating climate change through Direct Ocean Capture technology and our rapid progress in scaling and commercializing our solution.
The Technology Pioneer community comprises early to growth-stage start-ups from around the world involved in developing and deploying new technologies and innovations. Each year, the World Economic Forum selects 100 companies to join the select community and work with society’s foremost political, business, and cultural leaders to address issues facing people and the planet.
The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers are selected based on their innovative solutions, potential for long-term societal impact, and exceptional leadership. This year’s cohort includes start-ups from 23 countries, all of which have made significant technological breakthroughs and are now on explosive growth trajectories. Being selected in this year’s cohort places Captura among some of the most promising tech startups working to address the world’s pressing challenges across various industries, including nuclear fusion, biotechnology, quantum, AI, and climate.
As part of Captura’s selection of the Technology Pioneers, CEO Steve Oldham will be invited to contribute to key Forum initiatives over the next two years, such as attending global meetings, workshops, and events. Captura is also invited to work within the Forum’s Centre for Nature and Climate, a multistakeholder platform dedicated to protecting our environment and fostering sustainable practices. The Centre’s goals include creating a space that engages, supports, and collaborates with a diverse network of stakeholders to drive climate action, catalyze industry and economic transformation, and achieve a net-zero future with significant societal benefits.
Verena Kuhn, Head of Innovator Communities World Economic Forum, said, “The World Economic Forum is excited to welcome Captura to this year’s cohort of Technology Pioneers. Their Direct Ocean Capture process is an example of an innovative technology, and the company itself shows a strong commitment to sustainability and climate action. We look forward to seeing how their contributions will advance our global efforts towards achieving net-zero emissions and fostering sustainable practices within our Centre for Nature and Climate.”
The full list of 2024 Technology pioneers can be found here.
Captura is incredibly honored to receive this recognition. To learn more about our work, watch our company video here, and follow us on our social media channels to discover more about our progress and upcoming initiatives. If you have not already, sign up for the Captura Current: A Quarterly Direct Ocean Capture Digest here.
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- Building on its success as one of 15 teams awarded a US$1M Milestone Award by XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation, Captura is now working toward the US$50M grand prize to be awarded in 2025
- This follows recent commercial progress made by the company, including the close of a US$45.3M Series A financing – one of the largest Series A rounds into a carbon removal company
LOS ANGELES (May 8th, 2024) — Today, XPRIZE Carbon Removal announced the top 20 finalists in its US$100 million global competition, with Captura named among the successful companies. With more than 1,300 teams from 88 countries competing, this cohort of top 20 innovators represent some of the most promising carbon removal solutions on the planet. Captura’s inclusion on the list – one of only four ocean-based solutions – highlights the great potential of its Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere via the ocean at a climate-relevant scale.
XPRIZE Carbon Removal is a four-year competition to find scalable solutions that can capture CO2 directly from the atmosphere or oceans and sequester it durably and sustainably. Teams were evaluated across three key areas – operations, sustainability, and cost. To win the US$50 million grand prize, teams must demonstrate their ability to execute a substantial demonstration that approaches the competition’s goal of removing 1,000 net tonnes of CO2 in the final year of the competition, and a viable pathway to reaching megatonne scale in the coming years and eventually gigatonne scale with an understanding of their environmental and social impacts.
Captura’s advancement into the final stage of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition follows its previously granted US$1 million Milestone Award from XPRIZE and the Musk Foundation in April 2022, and underscores the company’s rapid progress in scaling its DOC technology. With the operational success of two pilot systems, a 1 -ton-per-year and 100-ton-per-year system at the Port of Los Angeles, Captura is now working with international energy company Equinor to build a 1000-ton-per-year DOC pilot plant in Karsto, Norway, slated to commence operations late this year.
Additionally, Captura recently closed its Series A financing round, amassing a total of US$45.3 million, one of the highest Series A closings for a carbon removal company. These commercial milestones, in conjunction with the recognition from the XPRIZE Carbon Removal judges, positions Captura to become a major player in the carbon removal field as it increases its focus on deploying large-scale, commercial plants in the near future.
This achievement also affirms Captura’s dedication to sustainable and responsible deployment – a key criteria for XPRIZE Carbon Removal. Captura’s DOC technology has been designed to be highly scalable and cost-effective, while leaving minimal to zero impacts on the marine ecosystem. The process adds nothing new to the ocean and leaves no by-products behind; it simply removes excess CO2 from the ocean that the atmosphere then replaces. Captura’s practices for ensuring its ocean operations are safe are outlined in the company’s publicly available Ocean Health & MRV Protocol.
QUOTES:
Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE said: “For the world to effectively address greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removal is an essential element of the path to Net Zero. There’s no way to reverse humanity’s impact on the climate without extracting carbon from our atmosphere and oceans. We need a range of bold, innovative CDR solutions to manage the vast quantities of CO2 released into our environment and impacting our planet. The teams that have been competing for this Prize are all part of building a set of robust and effective solutions and our 20 teams advancing to the final stage of XPRIZE Carbon Removal will have an opportunity to demonstrate their potential to have a significant impact on the climate.”
Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director of XPRIZE Carbon Removal said: “This cohort of exceptional teams represents a diversity of innovations and solutions across a range of CDR pathways, and shows the significant progress the industry is making in a short period of time. Over the past three years, this competition has helped accelerate the pace of technology development for a whole new industry of high-potential solutions aimed at reversing climate change.”
Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura said: “We are deeply honored to be counted among this distinguished list of top 20 finalists in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition. This is a remarkable recognition from XPRIZE Carbon Removal and the Musk Foundation of the hard work and dedication of our team in delivering a scalable, sustainable, and low-cost climate solution. The sheer scale of the climate challenge means we are going to need as many feasible tools as possible, and we thank XPRIZE Carbon Removal, and all our fellow innovators, for their continued efforts in driving this important industry forward.”
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About XPRIZE
XPRIZE is an established global leader in designing, launching, and executing large scale competitions to solve humanity’s greatest challenges. Our unique model democratizes innovation by incentivizing crowd-sourced, scientifically viable solutions to create a more equitable and abundant future for all. Donate, learn more or join a team at xprize.org.
About Captura Corporation
Captura is a Direct Ocean Capture company headquartered in Pasadena, California. Captura combines innovative technology with the natural carbon removal powers of the ocean to remove CO2 from the atmosphere at large scale and low-cost, providing a critical capability in the fight against climate change. Captura was founded at Caltech and its solution has been validated and supported by the Musk Foundation’s Carbon Removal XPRIZE, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, and Frontier Climate. To learn more about Captura, our progress, and technology, watch our video below.
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- National Grid Partners and Japan Airlines Innovation Fund/Translink Capital join Captura as new investors in this latest raise
LOS ANGELES (April 11th, 2024) — Today, Captura announced it had further expanded its Series A funding round leading to a total of US$45.3M. This expanded round underscores Captura’s momentum in scaling up and commercializing its Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology, a high-potential climate solution that harnesses the ocean’s natural role in carbon absorption.
Captura welcomes National Grid Partners and Japan Airlines Innovation Fund/Translink Capital as new investors in the round, alongside a number of the company’s existing investors. This diverse and global team of investors are backing Captura’s unique DOC technology that has significant potential as a low-cost and highly scalable carbon removal solution.
This latest increase in funding follows two recent, previously announced raises in January 2024 and January 2023 highlighting the rapid progress of Captura’s commercialization strategy. With two fully operational pilot plants in California and an upcoming pilot plant to be installed in Norway in late 2024 in partnership with Equinor its first commercial deployments that are expected to remove tens of thousands of tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) annually.
Captura’s DOC technology offers an approach to carbon removal that extracts CO2 directly from the ocean, thereby enhancing the ocean’s natural ability to absorb atmospheric CO2. The captured CO2 can then either be safely and securely stored to deliver carbon removal, or it can be used to produce sustainable products, such as low carbon intensity fuel. These fuels can be useful for the decarbonization of hard-to-abate transportation sectors such as aviation and shipping, where electrification is challenging.
Captura’s process takes advantage of the ocean’s higher volumetric CO2 concentration compared to the air, offering an efficient method to tackle excess atmospheric CO2 Captura’s process uses no added absorbents, creates no by-products, and adds nothing new to the ocean – it simply removes excess CO2 that the atmosphere then replaces.
QUOTES:
Kristian Bodek, Director of Corporate Venture Capital of National Grid Partners said: “Investing in Captura’s Direct Ocean Capture technology aligns with National Grid’s strengths and aspirations in sea-based electric network development, along with our plan to achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050. We are excited to be part of this journey and to support Captura in scaling its impactful solution.”
Takao Suzuki, Executive Officer, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Japan Airlines said: “We have identified significant potential in Captura’s advanced Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology because their solution paves a new way for efficiently capturing CO2 while concurrently exploring alternative uses including e-fuels. We are pleased to work with Captura as they aim to contribute to society by tackling CO2 capturing and repurposing the earth’s environment through this innovative technology.”
Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura said: “We are thrilled to welcome investments from National Grid Partners and Japan Airlines Innovation Fund/Translink Capital, as they join us and our leading team of investors. This infusion of capital not only further highlights the potential of our Direct Ocean Capture technology but also accelerates our march toward a market-ready solution. With these strategic investments, we bolster our mission to create sustainable change at a climate-relevant scale.”
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About National Grid Partners
National Grid Partners (NGP) is the venture investment and innovation arm of National Grid plc, one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world. NGP invests for strategic and financial impact and leads companywide disruptive innovation efforts. The organization provides a multi-functional approach to building startups, including innovation (new business creation), pathfinding and incubation, corporate venture capital, business development and venture acceleration. We also convene the NextGrid Alliance (www.ngalliance.energy), a network of senior executives from more than 100 worldwide utility companies. NGP is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices in Boston, London, and New York. Visit ngpartners.com or follow us at www.twitter.com/@ngpartners_ and www.linkedin.com/showcase/national-grid-partners.
About Japan Airlines Innovation Fund and Translink Capital
Japan Airlines Innovation Fund is a strategic fund that has a structure of Translink Capital as a GP and Japan Airlines as an LP to push the innovation frontier of airlines business.
Japan Airlines (JAL), Japan’s first private aviation company, was established in 1951 and is a member of the oneworld® Alliance. The airline operates a fleet of 227 aircraft (as of March, 2024) and began renewing its international long-haul aircraft with the Airbus A350-1000 starting 2023 Winter Schedule. Together with other JAL Group and partner airlines, JAL offers an extensive domestic and international network that serves 376 airports across 64 countries/regions. The airline is dedicated to ensuring the highest standards of flight safety and overall service quality, striving to be the most preferred airline by customers worldwide. The JAL Group recognizes that action to address climate change is a particularly important issue for the sustainability of society, and in June 2020, the group announced its commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
For details and to learn more, visit JAL’s official website at https://www.jal.com/en/.
Translink Capital invests mainly in early-stage startups across the globe that enable disruptive technologies and business models. Those startups can go through accelerated growth by benefiting from the firm’s long-standing relationships with leading global technology, Internet, electronics, telecommunications, financial services and mobility corporations based in Asia.
About Captura Corporation
Captura is a Direct Ocean Capture company headquartered in Pasadena, California. Captura combines innovative technology with the natural carbon removal powers of the ocean to remove CO2 from the atmosphere at large scale and low-cost, providing a critical capability in the fight against climate change. Captura was founded at Caltech and its solution has been validated and supported by the Musk Foundation’s Carbon Removal XPRIZE, the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E, and Frontier Climate. For more information, visit www.capturacorp.com.
