Phlair (formerly Carbon Atlantis), a company developing a hydrolyzer-based Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology which enables scalable and low-cost CO2 capture from ambient air, raised a €14.5 million seed round.
The financing round is led by Extantia Capital, with participation from Planet A and Verve Ventures and includes a €2.5 million grant from the EIC accelerator. Existing investors Atlantic Labs, Counteract, and UnternehmerTUM Funding for Innovators also participated in the oversubscribed round. The funding will be used to bring its first-of-a-kind Direct Air Capture plants online in 2025, delivering to a roster of early customers such as Shopify, Stripe, Klarna, and Deep Sky.
Founded in 2022 by Malte Feucht, Paul Teufel, and Steffen Garbe, Phlair’s innovative solution allows the use of off-the-shelf components and is perfectly suited to the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources. The result is a simple yet novel DAC technology that is both affordable and scalable. To do so, Phlair’s system employs a pH-swing mechanism powered solely by electricity for efficient CO₂ capture and release.
The captured CO2 is used by partners for permanent storage or to manufacture CO2-negative chemicals. Building on existing and proven low-capex components from Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells and water electrolysis, Phlair’s solution allows for rapid scalability with high durability. The system also includes a built-in energy storage mechanism, eliminating the need for additional expensive battery storage.
“Our DAC system is purposefully designed for mass manufacturing,” said Founder & CEO Malte Feucht. “Combining our manufacturability with rapid execution, we are able to start addressing the world’s urgent need for scalable DAC solutions and deliver meaningful volumes. All of this while driving costs down toward our long-term goal of sub $100/tCO2, putting us in a great position to lead this industry.”
The company has already built a working ton-scale demonstrator of its technology and has experienced significant commercial traction only 18 months after inception. It serves customers, such as Shopify, Stripe, Klarna, and Deep Sky, to deliver permanent carbon removal. The raise will accelerate the development of two 260 t-CO2/year FOAK plants, Electra 01 and Electra 02. The round also lays the foundation for its first large >20,000 t-CO2/year commercial plant, Dawn, scheduled to come online in 2026.
“Scaling DAC while aggressively driving down the costs is no small feat. We are convinced Phlair is uniquely positioned to lead the third wave of DAC companies (DAC 3.0), as they place emphasis not just on price but also on manufacturability,” added Torben Schreiter, Partner at Extantia Capital. “The team is nothing short of outstanding, and we are impressed by their speed of execution.”
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2024/09/munich-based-phlair-raises-e14-5-million-to-scale-hydrolyzer-based-dac-tech/
