A recent IPCC report suggested that tremendous amounts of carbon will need to be removed from the atmosphere to bring global carbon dioxide emissions to net-zero by 2050 and limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C.
The company is working on uniquely cost-effective, scalable, and verifiable carbon capture and storage system based on algae to permanently and quantifiably sequester carbon at the gigaton scale.
Brilliant Planet’s carbon-sequestering method is solar-powered – because the algae are effectively powered by the sun – But also needs to run pumps to move seawater around.
“By using empty desert and seawater that would not have otherwise come to the surface, our solution creates ‘new’ Net Primary Productivity,” said Raffael Jovine, Chief Scientist and Co-Founder of Brilliant Planet.
The company has now announced the closing of its oversubscribed $12 million Series A funding co-led by Union Square Ventures and Toyota Ventures.
“With many of the world’s largest companies announcing net-zero targets each month, we expect substantial growth in demand for high-quality carbon credits over the next few years,” said John Buttrick of Union Square Ventures, who will be joining the Board of Directors.