sequestra, a Vienna-based ClimateTech startup, has secured a €3 million Seed investment to accelerate the industrial scale-up of its CO2 mineralisation technology.
The round was led by VSE Beteiligungs-GmbH, supported by the Dr Rudolf Fries Familien-Privatstiftung, a major Austrian industrial investment group. Additionally, Sequestra benefits from multiple federal research and innovation grants from the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and Austria Wirtschaftsservice (aws).
Together with existing grants, the company now has around €5 million in total funding
available, enabling the expansion of its analytical data laboratory and the scale-up of its industrial technology.
“This fresh capital enables us to enter the next stage of sequestra’s technology development, in which we leverage our analytical data-assets to scale up our industrial process to 1 ton per hour and deploy our containerised carbonation systems in industrial projects,” said Roberto Lerche, co-founder and Co-CEO of sequestra.
Founded in 2024 by Lerche, Lukas Höber, and Gero Schwarz, sequestra is on a mission to pioneer adaptable processes empowered by machine learning, ensuring cost-optimised carbonation for diverse materials. The company’s technology platform comprises material analysis, advanced data interpretation, and industrial carbonation plants equipped with in-house MRV. This unique platform combines to form a one-stop shop for CO₂ carbonation solutions.
Mineralisation is a nature-inspired process that converts carbon dioxide into stable, rock-like minerals. Although this reaction typically takes thousands of years, Sequestra claims that its technology speeds it up to hours, permanently capturing up to 300 kg of CO2 per tonne of feedstock in stable carbonates.
The company states that mineralisation can generate value through both long-term carbon storage and enhanced material properties, allowing industrial residues to be reused in applications such as building materials.
Using mineral residues from industries like metallurgy, energy, and construction, the technology enables carbon removal and material circularity by transforming industrial waste into valuable inputs for new materials.
A central part of sequestra’s infrastructure is an integrated laboratory dedicated to quickly testing mineral materials for their CO2 absorption capabilities and feasible economic uses. This facility enables industrial partners to determine if mineral residues can be repurposed from waste streams into valuable inputs for carbon-utilisation processes.
Sequestra has so far carried out over 250 carbonation trials on various industrial materials, building an expanding dataset on material properties and carbonation efficiency under different process conditions.
The company claims that these insights feed directly into the design and optimisation of its industrial carbonation processes, helping identify promising combinations of input materials, process conditions, and output applications.
Over time, this data-driven approach enables sequestra to reduce development cycles, progressing from initial material screening to optimised industrial deployment much quicker than traditional process development.
With the new funding, wequestra aims to deploy its first modular, container-sized mineralisation unit by the end of 2027, allowing industrial partners to convert CO2 emissions and industrial residues into stable carbonates right at the source.
The technology is designed for biomass ash producers, waste incineration facilities, steel producers, and other industries generating industrial by-products, as well as companies with biogenic or industrial CO2 streams. The system has a compact and modular design and can be integrated into existing sites, turning previously underutilised residues and CO2 emissions into valuable mineral products.
Last year, in February, the company closed a €1.1 million pre-Seed funding round. The company has expanded to a 15-person interdisciplinary team working across Vienna and Upper Austria. Its facilities integrate engineering, laboratory research, and pilot-scale testing to rapidly assess mineral feedstocks and validate performance under industrial conditions.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2026/03/austrias-sequestra-secures-e3-million-seed-to-scale-its-co2-mineralisation-technology-for-industrial-use/
