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Finnish sustainability-oriented firms receive funding
Panu Pasanen, CEO of One Click LCA, says the investment enables the startup to continue moving toward its goal of supporting one million users with global life-cycle assessment, environmental product declaration and other sustainability software.
One Click LCAOne Click LCA has secured an investment worth 40 million euros. Carbo Culture, in turn, has closed an 18-million-euro funding round.
Helsinki-based One Click LCA said it will use the investment to accelerate its global expansion, solutions delivery, research and development, and marketing and advertisement – all with a view to positioning itself as the definitive end-to-end sustainability software platform for construction and manufacturing.
The company intends to connect the entire construction value chain with a platform for science-based measuring, reporting and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The platform already support thousands of construction and manufacturing companies in more than 150 countries, including blue-chip companies such as AECOM, Foster+Partners, Saint Gobain and Skanska.
“With the global building stock set to double in the next 40 years, generating 230 gigatonnes of embodied carbon, we must critically scale up action to decarbonise construction and manufacturing,” said Panu Pasanen, CEO of One Click LCA.
The investment was received from PSG Equity and InfraVia Capital Partners.
Carbo Culture said the PSG Equity and InfraVia Capital Partners-led funding round will enable it to continue to commercialise and deploy its carbon removal technology. Based on plant-based photosynthesis and solar power, the technology leverages patented reactors to convert waste biomass into biochar, a solid and inert substance capable of serving as a long-term carbon storage.
Biochar has several applications in agriculture and construction. In agriculture, for example, it can be mixed with soil to boost the nutrient-retention and water-holding capabilities of agricultural land.
The Helsinki-based startup fundamentally utilises both nature and technology to produce biochar with “superior” carbon-sequestration capabilities, summarised Frederick Teo, CEO of GenZero. Its process, he told, locks a greater amount of carbon in each unit of biochar and stores it more durably than conventional production methods.
“This proprietary technology also avoids the production of bio-oil, resulting in higher yields of clean [synthesis gas] from waste biomass, which in turn can be used to generate renewable electricity and heat,” he noted.
Carbo Culture has already opened one of the largest carbon-removal plants in Europe, R3. The plant is expected to sequester 3 000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually, equivalent to the emissions of 1 500 combustion-engine cars.