$58.2M in funding and carbon removal deals support pilot underway in Brazil
Some of the biggest names in climate, technology, and investing are behind a bold plan to scale CO2 removal using an innovative technology called Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW). Terradot, a climate tech startup founded at Stanford, announced its launch with $58.2 million in funding and carbon removal deals.
“ERW has the potential to remove billions of tons of CO₂ this decade. Realizing that potential demands overcoming major scientific, engineering, and operational challenges within a tight timeline. We founded Terradot to do the improbable: to solve these challenges and transform Earth’s natural processes into a global carbon removal solution,” says James Kanoff, CEO of Terradot.
Terradot was founded in 2022 by Kanoff, previously co-founder of The Farmlink Project, a nonprofit addressing food insecurity, Sasankh Munukutla, a published author of AI for Climate Research, and Scott Fendorf, a world-renowned Earth System Sciences Professor. They were joined by Julia Marisa Sekula, esteemed Brazilian climate author and ex-banker, and Connor Sendel, climate-tech operator and ex-BCG.
Terradot’s model based on ERW accelerates the natural process of rock weathering to capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂), a major contributor to climate change. Terradot’s scaled trial in Brazil, one of the world’s most optimal locations for ERW, is foundational to the startup’s launch.
In just over a year of operations, 48,000 tons of rock were spread over 1,800 hectares of agricultural land in Brazil, showing that tropical temperature and humidity can improve weathering rates. Based on the trial’s further success, Terradot plans to transform the natural process of rock weathering into a global carbon removal solution within the next decade.
Prominent individual investors have stepped forward to support the startup’s goal. They include lead John Doerr, Sheryl Sandberg & husband Tom Bernthal, and George Roberts, KKR founder. Strategics are Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Google, Cisco and Venture Funds Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins, Acre Venture Partners, Gigascale Capital, Valor Capital, Ponderosa Ventures, and others.
The $58.2 million in funding includes $4.2 million of seed funding and a recently closed $54 million Series A round. The investments from Google and Microsoft represent both companies’ first-ever direct investment in an ERW company.
A team of leading scientists, engineers, and operators are driving the pilot, gathered to tackle the most important problems in ERW. They have published research (over 100,000 citations) and expertise in related fields, providing unmatched experience to advance ERW technology.
“With pioneers in the field, Terradot’s platform scales the ERW industry’s strongest scientific team to deliver gigatons (ie, billions of tons) of permanent CO₂ removal this decade. Terradot is tackling climate change at the speed and scale it demands. This is the kind of leadership and innovation we need in the fight for our planet’s future,” says Doerr.
Carbon removal agreements are also a part of Terradot’s launch strategy. They are facilitated by Frontier whose founding members include Stripe, Google, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability as well as Autodesk, H&M Group, Workday, and Salesforce.
A 90,000 tonne, $27 million purchase is in place with Frontier buyers for delivery between 2025 and 2029, while Google has signed an additional deal with Terradot to remove 200,000 tonnes in 2029 and beyond. The tech giant is making its largest single purchase of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and the largest single purchase from an enhanced weathering project.
Terradot’s collaboration with EMBRAPA, Brazil’s foremost agricultural research institution is an important component of the trial. It brings together industry, government, and academic partners to scale ERW projects across the country.
Their collective goal is to create a suite of tools and a digital platform for ERW that integrates into existing agricultural and industrial systems worldwide – a rapid scaling within this decade.
