Global industries are under pressure to decarbonise operations by 2050, as part of net zero commitments, with carbon removals a key way to offset unavoidable emissions. Different carbon removal technologies include afforestation (planting more trees), direct air capture (extracting CO2 out of the air) and enhanced weathering (pulverising volcanic rock, which absorbs CO2, and spreading it on agricultural land where it is absorbed into the soil).
Yet the industry is still in its infancy, struggling with challenges including lack of supply, concerns about quality and risk and prohibitive prices. All of these challenges are deterring companies from investing in carbon removal portfolios to offset and reduce their emissions, despite needing to do so to reach their net-zero targets.
With those objectives in mind, London-based climate startup CUR8 is building the tools to professionalise and accelerate the carbon removals industry. The platform buys carbon removal credits from trusted suppliers and builds high-quality carbon removals portfolios, combining different strategies and methods, that buyers can trust. With an industry-standard set price of €170 per carbon removal, CUR8 hopes to bring the price down over time as the industry scales to make it more accessible to companies of all sizes.
Today CUR8 is announcing it has raised roughly €6.1 million in Pre-Seed funding led by GV (Google Ventures). The round, which also included funding from CapitalT, will be used to grow the team, scale up capacity and further product development of the CUR8 platform.
Marta Krupinska, co-founder and CEO at CUR8, says: “I’ve had the privilege of a career in which I was able to work on some of the world’s most important problems and I believe CUR8 to be the most important one to date. We’re witnessing the dawn of a future multi-trillion dollar industry that has the potential to not only stop the climate catastrophe but also to drive scientific progress, and create jobs and opportunity around the world. As we embark on building the platform that will unlock that growth, I’m delighted we’ve already been able to attract some of the best talent from across the industry, and now we couldn’t be more pleased to have backers like GV and Capital T to support us on this journey.”
CUR8 was founded in 2022 by serial fintech entrepreneur Marta Krupinska (co-founder of Azimo, Google for Startups UK lead), renowned climate scientist Dr Gabrielle Walker (carbon removals expert and founder of non-profit Rethinking Removals) and net-zero expert Mark Stevenson (author and former advisor to UK Ministry of Defense), whilst the wider team has experience working at Microsoft and the World Bank. Together they are building the market-making platform for carbon removals — providing high-quality portfolios of carbon removals to customers and building trust, transparency and verification that will enable a nascent industry to accelerate.
Luna Schmid, Partner at GV, says: “We believe that carbon removals play a critical role in helping to solve the challenges posed by the current climate crisis. CUR8 is at the forefront of the carbon removals market, serving as a trusted partner for enterprise customers and spearheading the development of financial tools to power the industry. We are thrilled to partner with Marta Krupinska, Gabrielle Walker, Mark Stevenson, and the CUR8 team on this journey.”
Already the platform has provided carbon removals for landmark royal events, including The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant and The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II and large-scale events including British Summer Time and All Points East, with the portfolio comprising removals such as direct air capture (1pointfive), enhanced rock weathering (UNDO) or durable soil carbon (Loam Bio).
