Climeworks

Switzerland-based Climeworks specializes in direct air capture (DAC) operations. In 2018, Climeworks stated that its gross cost of capture is around USD 600 per metric ton, but is expected to fall below USD 100 per metric ton in 5–10 years as operations scale up.

Climeworks operates 18 DAC facilities across Switzerland, Iceland, and Italy. Climeworks scaled up its DAC technology from Capricorn to gigaton scale with the launch of Orca , the world’s first DAC+S plant in September 2021. The company also announced the launch of Mammoth , the world’s largest DAC+S plant, to permanently remove CO2 in June 2022. Mammoth is nearly 10 times the size of Orca, and construction is expected to last nearly 18–24 months, prior to operationalization.

Climeworks’ DAC technology is already commercialized through a subscription model, allowing users to subscribe to the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) that they would like to offset. These subscription packages range from EUR 7–49 per month to remove 85–600 kilograms of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The effective annual price of an offset is around USD 1,075 per ton. 

Key customers and partnerships

Once subscribed, Climeworks builds the necessary CO2 capture plants at its sequestration sites, operates them, and transfers the CO2 collected to its partner Carbfix for permanent underground storage; it expects this process to take around five years. Climeworks has signed multiple carbon removal agreements with Microsoft , Stripe, Shopify, Swiss Re , Square , Ocado Retail , Audi, Zendesk , Rothesay , LGT , BCG , Swarovski , La Prairie , UBS , PwC Switzerland , Zurich Insurance and H&M Group , Crypto.com , JPMorgan Chase , SWISS , and LEGO Group . As of December 2021, Climeworks claimed that it had around 10,700 customers onboard across 56 countries, although most of this is likely to be individual customers. 

Climeworks has also partnered with 1) Northern Lights, a carbon transport and storage joint venture between Equinor, Shell, and Total, to explore opportunities to develop a full-chain carbon removal project in Norway, 2) 44.01, an Omani carbon mineralization startup, to explore potential DAC and storage projects in Oman, 3) Gulf Coast Sequestration , to develop the first DAC and carbon storage hub in Louisiana and 4) Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) of University of North Dakota, for the deployment of the Prairie Compass DAC hub in North Dakota.

Funding and Financials

The company’s most recent funding was in April 2022, when it raised CHF 600 million (USD 650 million) in an equity funding round co-led by Partners Group and GIC. In July 2020, Climeworks raised a CHF 100 million (USD 113 million) funding round led by Zürcher Kantonal Bank. The proceeds are expected to help expand the company’s operations and improve its technology.