Enhanced rock weathering (ERW) startup Mati Carbon announced that it has secured a new blended finance facility from J.P. Morgan, with proceeds from the financing aimed at enabling the company to scale its carbon removal business globally.
The new financing follows a $50 million award to Mati Carbon as the grand prize winner of the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition. The competition, funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation, aimed to catalyze new carbon removal solutions with the ability to scale sustainably to gigatonne scale, and was joined by more than 1,300 teams from over 88 countries.
Founded in 2022, Houston-based Mati’s projects focus on applying finely crushed basalt over agricultural lands in India to accelerate a natural weathering process that permanently draws down atmospheric CO2. In addition to removing CO2, Mati’s solution also positively impacts smallholder farmers with increased income, in addition to benefits including improved crop productivity and soil replenishment. Mati’s current CDR credit buyers include Shopify and H&M.
The company also deploys a Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) framework, developed in partnership with IIT Kanpur and Yale University, for measuring key soil properties and quantifying carbon removal. The MRV system was a key factor in the XPRIZE award.
Mati said that the new financing will support the rapid expansion of its technology and operations across India and Sub-Saharan Africa, with the funds to be deployed to expand ERW deployments to new geographies, acquire world-class, high-tech regional laboratory facilities, and develop strategic partnerships to accelerate the global adoption of ERW. The company expects to partner with 30,000 smallholder farmers by the end of 2025 across the Global South, including India, Tanzania, and Zambia.
Shantanu Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Mati Carbon, said:
“This is a transformative development for climate technology and adaptation financing. With support from J.P. Morgan, we will be able to scale the impact and reach of Enhanced Rock Weathering to many more smallholder farmers and prove that high-integrity carbon removal is both financially viable and deeply impactful.”
Blended finance brings together public or philanthropic capital and private funding through a common investment structure, enabling investors to invest in certain types of investments that have high perceived risk profiles, such as new climate mitigation-related technologies.
The new blended facility by J.P. Morgan is backed by credit support from the Schmidt Family Foundation, created by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
Kelly Belcher, Head of Climate Tech at J.P. Morgan, said:
“J.P. Morgan is pleased to support Mati Carbon’s next phase of growth as they work to bring Enhanced Rock Weathering technology to communities around the world. This work is actively helping to decarbonize the globe, grow local economies and build a more sustainable future.”
Patrick McGrath from The Schmidt Family Foundation added:
“Mati’s approach to Enhanced Rock Weathering has the potential to scale into a major carbon removal solution, and partnerships like this are critical to unlocking that potential. Working together, we can accelerate the path to large-scale deployment while delivering meaningful co-benefits for smallholder farmers in the Global South. This collaboration demonstrates how innovative approaches – in technology and in finance – can drive both climate impact and economic opportunity.”
