Leading Agricultural Carbon Removal Company Eion Closes $12 Million Series A to Scale Production of CarbonLock™ Technology
PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Eion, a permanent carbon removal technology company, today announced the close of a Series A funding round exceeding $12 million. The round was co-led by AgFunder and Ridgeline, along with participation from a broad coalition of strategic climate, ag tech, financial and impact investors, as well as upstream mineral supplier Sibelco. New and returning investors also include Carbon Removal Partners, Mercator Partners, Orion, Overture, SLVC and Trailhead Capital.
This funding round will enable Eion to continue to build out its distribution partnerships and expand availability of its patented CarbonLock™, a nature-based soil amendment that removes atmospheric carbon dioxide, permanently and verifiably, through enhanced rock weathering on agricultural soils. The company will also use the funds to attract high-impact talent to build out its financial, commercial and science teams.
"Eion's technology enables permanent carbon removal on agricultural soils, but our vision is so much broader. Eion seeks to leverage carbon removal as a tool to diversify agriculture and sustain land productivity, improve margins for farmers, support the bedrock American businesses in our supply chain, and boost rural vitality," said Adam Wolf, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Eion. "It takes a broad tent to face challenges of this magnitude. We're grateful to be engaged with a coalition of investors and partners who recognize the potential and opportunity for our carbon removal technology to leverage American capabilities to decarbonize our economy while bringing new opportunities to rural areas."
In addition to offering a permanent carbon removal solution, CarbonLock™ fits seamlessly into current farming practices. CarbonLock™ is processed to achieve a fast carbon absorption rate, allowing it to efficiently sequester carbon. CarbonLock™ can be applied using existing aglime spreading equipment at a prescribed agronomic rate to maximize carbon capture. The product removes about one ton of CO2 per ton of rock applied. Eion measures the carbon captured through its patented mineral fingerprinting approach, verifying and monitoring the application of rock, as well as the weathering rate, to determine the final amount of carbon removed. For farmers, this process simply entails collecting and sharing soil samples, a familiar part of almost any agronomic approach.
Since its founding in 2020, Eion has achieved several key milestones including:
Creating an upstream supply chain that provides immediate access to mineral resources representing millions of tons of annual CO2 removal.
Establishing commercial relationships with distribution partners across the South, Mid-South and Midwest that provide access to millions of U.S. acres under management.
CarbonLock™ is comparable to the cost of aglime. In addition to the carbon removal benefits, current data suggest that Eion's technology may increase yield as well as nitrogen utilization and efficiency. Once applied and weathered, farms using CarbonLock™ will receive audited proof of permanent carbon removal, which can be used to generate high-quality, verifiable carbon credits that add value to the acre and revenue for the farmer.
In 2021, Stripe Climate entered into a Carbon Removal Purchase Agreement with Eion, noting CarbonLock™ as a new technology with "high potential to scale."
Alongside the company's aglime substitute development, Eion has conducted extensive field trials to validate its approach for verification of mineral weathering rates and carbon removal, complemented by mechanistic lab and greenhouse studies with partner universities and governmental agencies.
Eion continues to build a team of professionals from a wide range of backgrounds including agronomy, soil geochemistry, plant science, carbon capture and removal, mineral processing, and operations, finance and policy. Eion Founder and CEO Adam Wolf is a serial entrepreneur, having previously founded leading field intelligence company Arable Labs, and holds a PhD in Biology from Stanford University.
"Eion's CarbonLock™ solution offers farmers a low-disruption way to help reduce carbon in the atmosphere," said Tom Shields, Partner at AgFunder. "We are excited to work with Eion to accelerate the use of carbon removal as a crucial part of addressing climate change."
"Public corporations and governments will increasingly seek permanent, scalable carbon removal to meet their ESG goals and mandates," said Brandon Harris, Principal at Ridgeline. "Eion's rare combination of strong agricultural co-benefits for farmers and high capacity for verifiable carbon removal positions the company to be a leader in carbon markets going forward."
"As a material solutions company, environmental responsibility and long-term resource management are central to Sibelco's day-to-day business. Our investment in Eion aligns well with our ambitious global sustainability and biodiversity targets," said Ian Sedgman, Chief Strategy & Business Development Officer at Sibelco, an upstream partner to Eion. "We are excited to support Eion and its talented team as they continue to expand low-cost enhanced rock weathering to more farmers across the U.S. and enable additional permanent carbon removal at scale."
"Reaching the scale of carbon removal necessary to hit our climate targets requires new, innovative technologies like Eion's," said Joanna Klitzke, Procurement and Ecosystem Strategy lead at Frontier Climate, the carbon removal consortium funded by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, McKinsey and tens of thousands of businesses using Stripe Climate, which purchased carbon removals from Eion in 2021. "We're excited about the potential of Eion's solution to be deployed quickly, at low cost and high volumes."
"CarbonLock™'s unique market fit as an aglime replacement means participation isn't disruptive to current fertility practices. The product allows many farmers who are already being good environmental stewards to capitalize on the opportunity to permanently remove carbon in a sustainable way with rock solid assurance," said Cam Smith, CEO at AGRIgate, an agricultural channel partner to Eion. "Eion's simple apply, remove and calculate approach is one of a kind. AGRIgate is excited to partner and scale this amazing technology with Eion."
About Eion
Eion is a carbon removal technology company that offers a scientifically proven, permanent, cost-effective, scalable and nature-based solution for carbon removal and provides a simple way for farmers to capture and permanently remove carbon. Using pulverized minerals to absorb carbon dioxide from ambient air, Eion's CarbonLock™ technology can be deployed to agricultural lands and provides a shovel-ready climate-smart solution for U.S. agriculture and its farmers. To learn more, visit eioncarbon.com.
About AgFunder
AgFunder is one of the world's most active foodtech and agtech VCs. Through its media platform AFN, it has built a global ecosystem of over 90,000 subscribers, giving it a powerful network to help build impactful companies that can positively transform the world's food system. Founded in 2013, AgFunder manages a portfolio of over 50 companies across four funds from offices in Silicon Valley and Singapore.
About Ridgeline
Ridgeline is a Memphis-based venture capital firm investing in both software and hardware businesses that have the potential to transform the largest enterprises. Ridgeline was founded by partners Ryan Clinton, Ben Walker, and Andrew McMahon. The firm leverages its expertise and deep network to surround founders with the resources and relationships they need to navigate the fraught terrain between product potential and product market fit.