Berlin-based CleanTech startup C1 Green Chemicals AG has successfully secured €20 million in fresh capital to bring its innovative green methanol catalysis technology to market.
Of the total capital raised, €15 million come from a capital increase involving investors, led by denkapparat, the family office of think-cell founders Markus Hannebauer and Arno Schödl. Planet A Ventures, Maersk Growth, SquareOne, Prof. Wolfgang Reitzle (former CEO of Linde) and Jim Hagemann Snabe (Chairman of Siemens) also took part in the funding round. The remaining €5 million come from approved research grants.
“Two ingredients are crucial for the successful commercialisation of scientific innovation: talent and capital. We are delighted that we at C1 have excellent access to both ingredients”, comments Christian Vollmann, CEO of C1 Green Chemicals AG.
Founded in 2022, C1 develops climate-friendly chemical production processes by addressing chemical reactions from the atomic level all the way up to production scale. The first innovation to spin out of their quantum-chemistry platform is a novel, proprietary methanol catalysis.
This technology disrupts a “century old chemical production process” and enables them to unlock non-fossil feedstocks for the production of green methanol.
C1 believes that green methanol will play a pivotal role in the defossilisation of the carbon-based chemical industry and is poised to become the alternative fuel of choice for net-zero shipping.
According to C1, the market for green methanol is expected to grow to approximately €183 billion per year by 2050. The resulting CO2 saving potential of green methanol is several gigatons per year (several percentage points of current global CO2 emissions).
Green methanol can be used to defossilise three key industries: shipping, aviation and carbon-based chemical production. At the same time, the use of this circular raw material significantly reduces dependence on foreign resources and strengthens the industry’s resilience.
“At C1, everything comes together perfectly: Cutting-edge research targeting an ecologically and commercially significant problem, pragmatic founders with a clear vision, and a team boasting impressive technological and commercial expertise. This is exactly the profile we are looking for as entrepreneurial investors. It was immediately clear that we would take the lead in this round”, says Markus Hannebauer from denkapparat.
C1 will use the capital raised to build the “world’s first demonstration plant for homogeneously catalysed methanol“. Preparations for this are already underway, with construction slated to start this year.
C1 has also recently recruited experienced chemists, chemical engineers and project managers from established companies such as Linde, BASF, Clariant, Shell and Tesla.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/03/c1-green-chemicals-ag-secures-e20-million-to-defossilise-the-carbon-based-chemical-industry/
