Supercritical, the vetted carbon removal marketplace, has announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round, raising an impressive $13 million. The funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from RTP Global, Greencode Ventures, MMC Ventures, and other notable investors. The capital injection will be utilized to expand the company's team, enhance its product offerings, and attract more customers. Supercritical aims to drive the urgent scaling of carbon removal technologies by aggregating business demand and introducing innovative purchase models.
While many corporations strive to reduce their carbon emissions, achieving full net zero solely through decarbonization efforts is often unattainable. Carbon removal, therefore, plays a crucial role in helping businesses reach their sustainability goals. Supercritical's marketplace stands out from traditional emissions avoidance offsets by providing fully qualified carbon removal credits, in line with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) industry standard. By enabling corporations to purchase these credits, Supercritical empowers them to effectively reach net zero.
However, despite the growing demand for carbon removal, the capacity for Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is far from reaching the required levels. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), achieving the goal of keeping global average temperature rises below 1.5°C necessitates significant scaling of CDR. Alarming statistics reveal that in 2022, a mere 600,000 tonnes of CDR were purchased, accounting for less than 0.01% of the 10 gigatonnes required annually by 2050.
Recognizing the urgent need for action, Supercritical stands at the forefront of efforts to accelerate the CDR market. As the only marketplace focusing on high-quality, vetted, and durable CDR projects, Supercritical offers a wide range of solutions. These include engineered methods such as biochar, direct air capture (DAC), and enhanced weathering, as well as nature-based solutions like afforestation. Each CDR project listed on the platform undergoes a rigorous vetting process, with only 6% meeting the stringent criteria.
By aggregating demand from corporate buyers, Supercritical acts as a market maker, driving the scale-up of CDR projects. Additionally, the company is pioneering innovative purchase agreements to catalyze accelerated CDR capacity growth. In a recent milestone achievement, Supercritical brokered a long-term offtake agreement for biochar provider Carbo Culture, facilitating the pre-purchase of thousands of tonnes of biochar. This agreement enabled Carbo Culture to establish C1, a commercial-scale facility that converts carbon-containing biomass into biochar.
Supercritical's impact extends to businesses across various sectors, helping them measure, reduce, and remove carbon emissions. As one of the world's largest carbon removal marketplaces, Supercritical already facilitates 35% of corporate purchases in the industry. Notable clients include Tide, the leading business banking platform, which became the first fintech company to eliminate 100% of its emissions with Supercritical's support. Another prominent partner is XTX Markets, a leading algorithmic trading firm that ranks among the top 10 global CDR purchasers, thanks to its collaboration with Supercritical. Veriff, Multiverse, and IMC are among the other notable customers benefiting from Supercritical's services.
Looking ahead, Supercritical has ambitious plans to further expand its team, evolve its product offerings, and acquire new customers. The company is committed to fostering gender diversity and maintains a gender-balanced cap table, marking its second fundraising round with this important principle in mind.
Supercritical's successful Series A funding round not only demonstrates the market's growing recognition
of the importance of carbon removal but also signifies a significant milestone in the race against climate change. With its unique marketplace approach, Supercritical is playing a pivotal role in accelerating the adoption of carbon removal technologies and driving the world closer to achieving net zero emissions.