UP Catalyst secures €2.3M to scale battery material production from CO2 emissions

This follows the initial seed round raised last December which amounted to €4 million, bringing the total seed funding to €6.36 million. The funding round saw equal participation from Warsaw Equity Group, a leading private investment firm in Central and Eastern Europe, and Estonia's state fund SmartCap, who also contributed to the previous seed round. Existing investors, including Extantia, Sunly, Little Green Fund, Scottish Baltic Invest, and UniTartu Ventures, continue to support UP Catalyst’s mission to scale its production capabilities.

The funding will accelerate the construction of its first-of-a-kind industrial production unit, positioning UP Catalyst as the largest provider of CO2-grown carbon materials globally.    “Supporting UP Catalyst aligns perfectly with Warsaw Equity Group's mission to invest in groundbreaking technologies that combat climate change. Turning industrial CO2 emissions into critical carbon-based raw materials that we are severely lacking in Europe is a game changer. We have been continually impressed by the strength and expertise of UP Catalyst's team and look forward to this partnership,” stated Arvin Khanchandani, Investment Manager at Warsaw Equity Group.

With this investment, the company is set to expedite the development of an industrial pilot reactor capable of processing 100 tons of CO2 annually, yielding 27 tons of advanced carbon materials such as graphite and carbon nanotubes. The technology built on molten salt electrolysis not only aims to achieve price parity with traditional carbon sources but also significantly reduces the carbon footprint associated with raw material production. 

UP Catalyst's production process has a carbon footprint of just 0.07 ton of CO2-eq per ton of graphite – 20 times lower than conventional graphite production – and 0.7 ton of CO2-eq per ton of carbon nanotubes, 242 times lower than the emissions from the traditional Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method. 

“By 2030, the EU will require three million tons of carbon materials for electric vehicle batteries. Despite having the potential to utilise 11 million tons of CO2 through existing technology, the EU currently invests in underground storage and imports fossil-based materials from China,” said Dr Gary Urb, CEO of UP Catalyst. “The technology is ready – we just need the investment to scale up as a crucial step toward utilising at least 200 thousand tons of CO2 annually by 2030.”

UP Catalyst has also started to move into a new facility hosting the industrial production unit activities, located right next to the Tallinn waste incineration plant. This enables future direct access to hard-to-abate CO2 emissions.

The new plant will boast a production capacity ten times larger than the current setup, marking a significant milestone towards the construction of a full-scale industrial reactor unit. This innovative approach not only alleviates the EU's dependence on foreign fossil fuel imports but also offers industrial partners a pathway to utilise their CO2 emissions, potentially reducing the need for purchasing allowances from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) or mitigating carbon tax burdens.   SmartCap Green Fund is financed by the European Union NextGenerationEU.