Carbon capture startup Captura announced it has raised an additional $21.5 million, expanding its Series A funding round, with proceeds aimed at commercializing its Direct Ocean Capture (DOC) technology that extracts CO2 directly from seawater to be permanently stored or reused.

Founded in 2021 at California Institute of Technology, Captura provides a solution to capture CO2 from the ocean, amplifying the ocean’s ability to draw down additional CO2 from the atmosphere. The company’s technology pulls in seawater from the ocean and softens it, and utilizes electrodialysis to separate the molecules into an acid and a base. The acid is added to the seawater, converting dissolved, inorganic carbon to CO2 which is filtered out and captured. The remaining seawater has the base added to it, to balance the pH, and is released back into the sea.

Captura has two operational pilot plants in California and is developing its third in partnership with Equinor. This plant has a capture capacity of 1000 tons of CO2 annually and is planned to be installed in Norway in Fall, 2024. Following this pilot, Captura plans to move into large-scale commercial deployments with early plants capturing tens of thousands of tons of CO2 or more annually.

Steve Oldham, CEO of Captura said:

“With our growing network of deployment partners and investors, and the success of our technology pilot program, Captura is now well-positioned to bring our technology to market and deliver climate solutions at meaningful scale.”

Captura raised an initial $12M in January 2023 and increased its Series A financing to reflect growing momentum as the company progresses its technology pilot program and begins design work for commercial plants.

New investors in the current financing round include Maersk Growth, Eni Next, and EDP Ventures joining existing investors including Future Planet Capital who led the expanded round, Equinor Ventures, Freeflow Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Aramco Ventures, mTerra Ventures, and EIC Rose Rock Venture Fund.

Ida Christine Brun, Head of External Innovation and Ecosystem Engagement at Maersk Growth said:

“Maersk Growth is actively looking for promising startups in the Energy Transition space who can enable and accelerate the journey towards net-zero shipping and logistics. Captura has developed a promising technology, and we are looking forward to joining forces with them.”