Origen has been named as one of 17 industry-leading technology companies selected to be part of the latest cohort by US-based climate tech investor Elemental Excelerator.
The cash injection will be used to help Origen continue its ground-breaking work to produce zero-carbon lime, which can be used to remove billions of tons of CO2 from the atmosphere.
In a statement, Elemental — which has one of the most robust climate tech portfolios in the industry with 151 start-ups — highlighted the work being done by Origen.
Explaining why it had selected Origen, Elemental said in a statement: “This is a dual-threat climate solution, decarbonizing a mega-emitting industry (responsible for 400 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year) while enabling gigaton-scale carbon removal.”
The announcement is Elemental’s 11th cohort to date and focuses on urgent themes that pivot around climate resilience, zero carbon and the built environment.
Investment focuses on hard-to-decarbonise industries
This latest round of investment focuses on hard-to-decarbonise industries like maritime and ports, buildings, and construction.
In a statement, Elemental Founder & CEO Dawn Lippert said: “Today we welcome 17 teams working to redraw the big picture around our largest-emitting sectors and meaningfully collaborate with communities tackling climate change.
“Entering our second decade of climate investing, we are betting on entrepreneurs tackling major sources of emissions — like shipping, air conditioning, transportation and construction — and working with every company to deploy successfully in local communities,” she said.
News of the award has been welcomed by Origen CEO, Ben Turner as further evidence of the company’s growing ambitions.
“Joining Elemental’s 11th Cohort is exciting news for Origen. Elemental is an incredibly successful company focussed on innovation, systems change and community and we are thrilled to be working with them to further Origen’s goal of removing CO2 from the atmosphere to tackle climate change head-on.”
Elemental has now awarded more than $57 million to its portfolio of beneficiaries, and those companies have since progressed to raise just over $7 billion in follow-on funding.
“This round was focused on companies tackling major sources of emissions – and our breakthrough carbon removal technology does just that,” Turner continued.
“We are looking forward to working with Elemental and the other 17 members of the cohort to further our shared purpose: to decarbonise our economy while creating equitable opportunities for all.”
Elemental’s announcement comes just a few months after Origen and 8 Rivers Capital announced that a joint direct air capture joint project had entered into an initial carbon removal purchase contract facilitated by Frontier, an advanced market commitment to accelerate carbon removal founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey.
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Media contact
Hadley Menk
Wildfire PR
origen@wildfirepr.com
+44 (0)20 8408 8000