Clairity raises $6.75 million to scale low-cost direct air capture technology

Climate tech startup Clairity Technology raised $6.75 million in a seed round to scale its Direct Air Capture carbon removal solution, which captures dilute carbon dioxide using less infrastructure and energy than purity-focused DAC. As the IPCC identifies carbon dioxide removal scaling to billions of tonnes annually for 1.5C scenarios, the development is relevant to Indian companies exploring durable carbon removal pathways.

Clairity Technology raised $6.75 million in a seed round to scale its Direct Air Capture (DAC) carbon removal solution. The IEA lists DAC as a significant carbon removal option in the transition to a net-zero energy system. The IPCC's climate change mitigation report found that scenarios limiting warming to 1.5C include carbon dioxide removal scaling to billions of tonnes annually over coming decades. Founded in 2022 by Glen Meyerowitz, California-based Clairity captures dilute carbon dioxide using far less infrastructure and energy than purity-focused DAC.

Clairity's solution uses a solid sorbent method with honeycomb monoliths of carbonate salts that bind carbon dioxide into the salts' crystalline structure, and its reactors use conventional, cost-effective building materials, avoiding the large amounts of concrete and steel needed for high-purity systems. The company created a process with Carbon Built, whose technology leverages atmospheric carbon dioxide to make concrete products aiming to cut embodied carbon by 70% to 100%, permanently sequestering captured CO2 in finished concrete. Concrete producers and carbon-removal buyers are key affected parties.

Companies evaluating durable carbon removal and concrete decarbonisation should monitor Clairity's scaling progress following the seed round. The integration with Carbon Built, where captured carbon dioxide reacts with a low-carbon binder to become permanently sequestered in concrete, offers a model for embodied-carbon reduction in construction materials. Stakeholders should track how low-infrastructure DAC compares on cost and energy efficiency against high-purity systems as the technology moves toward broader deployment.

Key figure — Seed funding raised: $6.75 million