Spring 2022: Verdox wins XPRIZE Carbon Removal Award & More
See the latest highlights from Prime's portfolio companies. To find out more about our entire portfolio, visit investments page.
Avalanche Energy has emerged from stealth mode! Avalanche is building a micro-scale fusion generator backed by co-investors including Lowercarbon Capital and Congruent Ventures.
Clean Crop Technologies raised a $6MM series A round. The round was co-led by ReGen Ventures, Trailhead Capital, and MassMutual's Catalyst Fund. Clean Crop's high voltage plasma technology can increase yields and improve food safety while reducing food waste.
Ford Motors announced the annual purchase of 25,000 tons of lithium from an Argentinian site in development by Lilac Solutions and Lake Resources. Lilac's patented ion exchange technology allows lithium extraction from brine without the need for evaporation ponds.
The CEO of MicroByre, Dr. Sarah Richardson, was featured at Technonomy's climate summit. MicroByre uses synthetic biology to replace petro-feedstocks in biomanufacturing. Watch her spotlight here.
Project Vesta—exploring carbon capture using the mineral olivine to deacidify the ocean—has recently been covered in The Wall Street Journal, Daily Beast, and Bill Gates’ upcoming documentary “Solving for Zero.”
Verdox—a company that's developed an electrically driven approach to capture CO2 at scale—is one of 15 winners of the $1MM XPRIZE Carbon Removal Award, along with partner Carbfix. The award panel selected this proposal from 1,133 submissions, and the selection positions Verdox to compete for the $50MM grand prize in 2025. In February, Verdox announced $80MM in committed capital from a syndicate including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Prelude Ventures, and Lowercarbon Capital.
BloombergNEF selected Verdox and Twelve as winners of their annual Pioneers competition, which highlights cutting-edge solutions and companies solving key problems in the climate transition. Project Vesta and Charm Industrial were also finalists for the award in the carbon removal challenge category.
Twelve was named No. 3 on Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2022 and one of the 10 Most Innovative Energy Companies. Twelve replaces the use of petrochemicals in everyday products with CO2, renewable energy, and water.
The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announced $44MM in funding for carbon removal efforts, including a $20MM strategic program investment into Twelve and a carbon removal purchase from Charm Industrial.
Ameen Saafir, CEO & Co-Founder at Tynt Technologies, joined the Carbotnic podcast to discuss commercializing tech, startups, and much more. Tynt is developing the next generation of smart windows, based on proprietary reversible metal electrodeposition technology.
The Entrepreneurs for Impact podcast featured Dr. Shreya Dave, the CEO of Via Separations, on the heels of their $45MM round. Via Separations electrifies energy-intensive processes for industrial chemical production.