A Kenyan climate startup, Octavia Carbon, which specializes in Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology, has acquired $3.9 million in early cash to expand its carbon removal business.
Martin Freimüller, the startup’s co-founder and CEO confirmed the funding and expansion plans in a statement on Wednesday.
Martin Freimüller and mechanical engineer Duncan Kariuki founded Octavia Carbon in 2022. The firm made a significant breakthrough in February 2024 when it started trapping carbon after a period of testing and general technology development.
With two DAC machines already in operation, the company hopes to expand its carbon capture capability to 50 tons annually by building additional machines.
As per the statement, leading African venture capital firms Lateral Frontiers and E4E Africa co-led Octavia Carbon’s US$5 million seed round, which also included participation from Fondation Botnar, Catalyst Fund, Launch Africa Ventures, and Renew Capital.
This round also saw the startup receive US$1.1 million in non-dilutive carbon finance, indicating that there is a high market demand for the company’s carbon credits.
Freimüller noted that Kenya’s geological and energy advantages are essential to the company’s mission, stating, “The capacity of Kenya’s Rift Valley is enormous—large enough to hold all of humanity’s cumulative CO2 emissions.”
A firm dedicated to addressing climate change, Octavia Carbon manufactures Direct Air Capture (DAC) devices that extract carbon from the atmosphere and liquefy it for subsequent underground storage.
The process used for the storage is managed by Cella Mineral Storage, a partner company.
The primary cause of global warming is the greenhouse gas carbon. By reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, the startup can combat global warming.
“This funding enables us to soon become the world’s second DAC company to complete the full cycle of deploying both CO2 capture and geological storage in the field,” said Freimüller.
We earlier reported that Ivorian fintech startup Waribei has secured €750,000 ($820,462) in pre-seed funds to get their inventory financing solution for African small traders developed.
