{"id":195966,"date":"2025-11-23T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T12:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/195966\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T12:22:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T12:22:18","slug":"climate-tech-startup-carbon-collect-taps-ex-keelings-boss-to-board-and-plans-to-raise-80m-to-commercialise-its-offering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/195966\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate tech startup Carbon Collect taps ex- Keelings boss to board \u2013 and plans to raise $80m to commercialise its offering"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ms Keeling \u2013 the former CEO of the eponymous family-owned fruit and veg producer Keelings \u2013 was an early investor in the Dublin-headquartered climate tech business. She joins as its first female board member, where she will sit alongside former taoiseach Enda Kenny, among others.<\/p>\n

She told the Irish Independent she hopes her family\u2019s company could use its technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve witnessed first-hand over the last 30 years how climate has impacted crop production,\u201d she said. \u201cCertain foods are no longer available in some regions, while others emerge and can be newly grown.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The business is working with London-based merchant bank Africa Merchant Capital on the funding. Stock image: Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve examined natural carbon solutions, but am convinced DAC will play a significant role in addressing climate change \u2013 other methods of reduction won\u2019t happen quickly enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany commercial greenhouses use electricity, hot water and CO2 from gas-generated power. Carbon Collect\u2019s technology could transform this from being carbon intensive to carbon neutral. I could foresee it being used in Keelings\u2019 operations,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To date, the DAC company has raised $15m in equity funding plus $5m in US government grants since it was founded in 2018. The planned $70m to $80m raise over the coming year will be in stages, its CEO P\u00f3l \u00d3 M\u00f3r\u00e1in said.<\/p>\n

The business is working with London-based merchant bank Africa Merchant Capital on the funding, although other financiers may also play a role. Follow-on investment from existing backers is anticipated, alongside the new capital, he added.<\/p>\n

Two Irish companies are among the international partners that have helped Carbon Collect to reach Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 7 with its second-generation \u201cmechanical tree\u201d system. Engineering firm PM Group and Westmeath plastics and composites producer Mergon, both of which have US operations.<\/p>\n

\n

In the medium term, Carbon Collect aims to achieve capture costs of $200 per tonne by 2030<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Only a small number of DAC businesses have achieved this milestone. The Bill Gates-backed, Swiss-headquartered Climeworks has achieved TRL 7-8, according to reports, having raised about $1bn.<\/p>\n

An indication of valuations and potential acquirers emerged when Canadian DAC startup Carbon Engineering was at TRL 6-7, having raised just over $100m by 2023.<\/p>\n

In the medium term, Carbon Collect aims to achieve capture costs of $200 per tonne by 2030.<\/p>\n

When extended, the mechanical trees look not unlike larger versions of air purifiers that might be used in homes and offices.<\/p>\n

The second-generation mechanical tree uses automated manufacturing and eliminates tariff-sensitive materials and rare metals, making it simpler to make, lighter to transport and cheaper to deploy, Mr \u00d3 M\u00f3r\u00e1in explained.<\/p>\n

A third-generation system will be deployable in a cluster of 18, with a 1,000-tonne capacity. The following one will be scalable to capture 50,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. Success with the former would represent TRL 8 \u2013 when commercial deployment is viable, with a target date of next September, Mr \u00d3 M\u00f3r\u00e1in added.<\/p>\n

Carbon Collect\u2019s initial deployment of the mechanical trees will be at the US Department of Energy-funded Southwest Regional DAC Hub in Arizona.<\/p>\n

\"'Climate<\/p>\n

‘Climate tech isn\u2019t just about the environment; it\u2019s about reshaping manufacturing, materials science and how we approach industrial chemistry,’ said \u00d3 Mor\u00e1in. Stock image\/Getty<\/p>\n

The Biden government previously committed $3.5bn for a number of them. However, the company\u2019s project is among only a minority that have survived Trump administration cuts.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s mid-term US elections may herald more supportive policy, Mr \u00d3 M\u00f3r\u00e1in added, with a hope that a pioneering state might fund a million-tonne DAC hub.<\/p>\n

Carbon Collect is also talking to a number of large tech companies about co-location with data centres.<\/p>\n

\n

There are cross-disciplinary opportunities for universities and businesses here to work with Carbon Collect<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Future data centre sites could function as hubs for various types of renewable energy generation, including battery storage, alongside CO2 capture and usage, he suggested.<\/p>\n

In South Africa, the company is developing a cluster at a 1.8km-deep carbon storage well, with funding from its government and the World Bank.<\/p>\n

In Europe, revenue opportunities may emerge around initial adjacent use cases. Producing CO2 for beer production, as well as in greenhouse operations, can be cheaper than existing methods.<\/p>\n

There are cross-disciplinary opportunities for universities and businesses here to work with Carbon Collect \u2013 particularly in the areas of advanced materials, data analytics, and chemical engineering, building IP and developing the supply chain, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cClimate tech isn\u2019t just about the environment; it\u2019s about reshaping manufacturing, materials science and how we approach industrial chemistry.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ms Keeling \u2013 the former CEO of the eponymous family-owned fruit and veg producer Keelings \u2013 was an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,442,18,440,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-195966","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115598993324093763","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}