Climeworks Tops $1B in Total Funding with $162M Raise, Eyes Global Scale for DAC

Courtesy: Climeworks

Climeworks has secured $162 million in new equity financing, the largest carbon removal investment of the year to date, as the Swiss Direct Air Capture (DAC) pioneer seeks to scale its technology and expand its reach into blended carbon removal portfolios. The round, led by BigPoint Holding—the investment arm of Swiss billionaire Martin Haefner—and Partners Group, brings the company’s total equity raised to over $1 billion.

The announcement comes during a pivotal moment for engineered carbon removal. Investors, policymakers, and buyers are recalibrating expectations around DAC technologies, which remain costly and politically exposed despite growing scientific consensus on their long-term necessity. Climeworks, widely regarded as the global frontrunner in this space, is rapidly expanding its technology platform and adapting to shifting market conditions.

The new funding will be used to further industrialize Climeworks’ DAC systems and reduce the cost of CO₂ removals, which still hover around $1,000 per tonne for the company’s flagship operations. It will also support the expansion of its carbon removal portfolio—now a mix of DAC and nature-based solutions—allowing corporate buyers to access tailored packages that spread risk and meet evolving procurement strategies.

“This round solidifies our ability to scale both technologically and commercially,” said a Climeworks spokesperson in a statement shared with investors. “The backing from long-time partners and strategic investors underlines market belief that carbon removal is becoming a necessary part of climate strategy, not a speculative one.”

Growing Up in a Maturing Market

Founded in 2009, Climeworks was one of the first startups dedicated entirely to DAC, which captures CO₂ directly from ambient air for permanent storage. The company’s first commercial-scale plant, Orca, came online in Iceland in 2021 and was followed by Mammoth, a ten-times-larger facility launched last summer with a nameplate capacity of 36,000 tonnes annually. Mammoth is now operational and serves as a testbed for scaling and optimizing Climeworks’ proprietary solid-sorbent technology.

According to the company, recent process improvements have doubled energy efficiency, increased system throughput, and significantly extended the lifetime of filter materials—an often overlooked contributor to the overall cost per tonne. The goal is to bring removal costs down to the $250–350 range within five years, a critical threshold for DAC to play a meaningful role in global net-zero pathways.

But DAC’s road to scale hasn’t been smooth. In May, Climeworks laid off roughly 20% of its staff amid delays in U.S. federal support for its proposed DAC facility in Louisiana. The project was selected under the Biden administration’s DAC hub program, but support for the initiative has weakened under the new administration, which is reevaluating contracts tied to the Inflation Reduction Act.

Despite the U.S. policy uncertainty, Climeworks continues to pursue project development across North America and the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia, the company has held early-stage discussions with public and private sector actors looking to anchor regional removal capacity.

From Pure DAC to Platform Provider

While Climeworks remains best known for its DAC technology, the company has quietly pivoted in the past year to become a broader carbon removal platform, selling credits from multiple methodologies—some of which it doesn’t directly operate. These include biochar, enhanced rock weathering, and other engineered or hybrid approaches with varying degrees of durability and monitoring rigor.

The shift reflects a growing demand among buyers for blended removal portfolios that combine short-term affordability with long-term climate integrity. It also gives Climeworks more flexibility to structure deals at scale while reducing delivery risk. The company now claims over 6 million tonnes of carbon removal capacity under contract, with long-term offtake agreements in place with several multinationals.

One of its most recent deals, signed in June, involves a multi-year agreement with German software giant SAP. The contract covers the removal of 37,000 tonnes of CO₂ by 2034 through a mix of DAC, biochar, and mineralization. The partnership also includes a co-creation component to develop ERP-integrated carbon management tools for SAP’s enterprise customers, and Climeworks has adopted SAP’s software to help scale its own operations.

Courtesy: Climeworks

Funding Comes as Market Consolidates

Climeworks’ $162 million raise also sends a signal about the state of the carbon removal investment landscape, which has seen significant capital inflows but uneven progress on deployment. While venture-backed DAC companies proliferated over the past five years, some have struggled to deliver at scale or raise follow-on funding in an increasingly selective market.

The strong participation from existing Climeworks investors, including major institutional names like Microsoft and Morgan Stanley, reinforces the view that some level of consolidation may be underway, with capital concentrating in a handful of high-capacity players. “There’s more realism now,” said a carbon markets analyst familiar with the round. “Investors want to see execution, not just ambition—and Climeworks has real facilities, real partnerships, and a working business model.”

That business model is likely to continue evolving. Analysts estimate that the global carbon removal market could grow from around $2.5 billion in 2025 to $80 billion by 2030, and reach $1 trillion by mid-century. Much of that growth will depend on how quickly costs fall and whether policy frameworks can support long-term demand. DAC alone is unlikely to meet all removal needs, but most scenarios from the IPCC and IEA now include it as a critical piece of the net-zero equation.

A Milestone, But Not Yet a Turning Point

For Climeworks, surpassing the $1 billion mark in equity funding is significant. It’s a sign that investors are not just betting on carbon removal as a concept—they’re backing specific companies to build the infrastructure and commercial frameworks needed to make it viable. But the challenges ahead remain formidable: large-scale deployment, stable policy support, continued technological improvement, and—perhaps most importantly—proof that DAC can deliver cost-effective, measurable climate benefits without unintended consequences.

In the meantime, Climeworks appears well-positioned to lead the sector’s next chapter, armed with capital, credibility, and a strategy that goes beyond pure technology. Whether that will be enough to anchor DAC’s place in the climate toolkit depends not just on Climeworks—but on whether the market around it can keep pace.