National Grid Partners and Japan Airlines Innovation Fund/Translink Capital join Captura as new investors in this latest raise
LOS ANGELES, April 11, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 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 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.
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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.”
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.
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
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.
