Kenyan cleantech startup ,Octavia Carbon has raised a $5 million seed round.
The company will use the funds to build its Direct Air Capture (DAC) storage plant.
Led by Lateral Frontier and E4E Africa, the seed round saw participations from Catalyst Fund, Launch Africa, Fondation Botnar, and Renew Capital.
About Direct Air Capture
Direct air capture technology involves the use of machines to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere by drawing air into the machine, filtering out the carbon dioxide, and storing it safely underground.
Excess CO2 in the atmosphere depletes the earth’s ozone layer, increasing ultraviolet (UV) radiation that can cause skin cancer, cataracts, and plant damage.
In Kenya, this CO2 is liquefied and injected into the porous basalt of the Rift Valley, where it gradually mineralizes into solid rock.
About Octavia Carbon.
Launched in 2022 by Martin Freimüller and Duncan Kariuki, Octovia Carbon designs, builds, and uses machines to capture CO2 from the atmosphere.
Octavia is among 18 direct air capture plants globally, who build machines specifically for DAC technology.
The list includes Climeworks and Carbon Engineering.
Freimüller and Kariuki built their first carbon capture machine on a kitchen table.
With its new funding, Octavia plans to open the first phase of its plant this year.
Martin Freimüller,Co-founder and CEO at Octavia, said in a statement;
“This funding enables us to soon become the world’s second DAC company to complete the full cycle of deploying CO2 capture and geological storage in the field.”
Octavia Carbon generates revenue primarily by selling carbon credits to corporations or individuals looking to offset their carbon emissions.
Companies buy carbon credits to neutralize their carbon footprint.
The company claims it has pre-sold 2,000 tons of carbon dioxide..
Octavia wants to reduce the cost of CO2 extraction from its present range of $680 to $820 / ton to $100/ton.
“What sets us apart is our ability to harness Kenya’s abundant geothermal energy, especially waste heat, to significantly lower the costs of DAC,” said Freimüller
According to the company, 80% of its energy needs are serviced using geothermal energy.
The company also aims to capture 1,000 tons of CO2 per year.
“Scaling for us involves increasing our carbon removal efforts far beyond Project Hummingbird’s initial capacity of 1,000 tons of CO2 per year,” Freimüller notes.
Octavia Carbon also aims to become an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for DAC technology.
This will enable it to sell DAC machines to project developers globally.
