Latest news with #ShantanuAgarwal
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Startup awarded $50 million for volcanic rock technique with potential to address growing crisis: 'This … is going to go a long way'
What if fighting the changing climate was as easy as spreading dust on a field? Mati Carbon, a startup using crushed volcanic rock to pull carbon from the air and strengthen soil, just won the $50 million Xprize for Carbon Removal, TechCrunch reported. The win is turning heads across the climate tech world. Mati's technology is based on a naturally occurring process called enhanced rock weathering. The company grinds up basalt, a volcanic rock, into fine dust, which is then spread across farmland. As the rock weathers, it reacts with CO2 in the air and locks it away in mineral form for thousands of years, all while enriching soil and improving crop yields. "This material is the difference between having a crop and having no crop," Mati founder and CEO Shantanu Agarwal said. "We've seen that in Zambia this year. There were farmers who put this in half of the field — and half of the field was like normal — and there was no crop [in the] normal half because everything died because there was a drought." While the idea sounds low-tech, that's exactly its advantage. Enhanced rock weathering doesn't require fancy machinery or rare minerals. Basalt is widely available, often as a byproduct of construction, and the process itself has been happening in nature for millions of years. Mati's innovation is that the company found a way to scale it for modern agriculture. Mati provides the basalt dust to farmers at no cost, funding the program through carbon credit sales and grant funding. "You deploy that into carbon removal, you get more than a gigaton of removal every year while increasing income of these farmers who are extremely poor," Agarwal said. By Mati's estimates, around 200 million smallholder farms across low-income countries (covering nearly 900 million acres) could benefit from this soil-boosting, carbon-sequestering dust. The company's approach is especially appealing because it solves multiple problems at once, pulling carbon from the air, reviving degraded farmland, improving water retention, and boosting productivity — up to 70% in struggling soils. All this could also mean more income and food security for farmers in places such as Zambia, India, and Tanzania, where Mati is already operating. To scale faster, Mati is offering free licenses to its enterprise platform for any organization willing to share at least 50% of profits with the farmers they serve. "I want to build a market mechanism and scale a nonprofit to global scale, which allows for a large portion of the value to accrue [to] the farmer," Agarwal said. "This Xprize is going to go a long way to push us in that direction." By the early 2030s, Mati hopes to sell carbon credits for under $100 per ton — a competitive price point in the carbon removal market. In the long run, it wants to go even lower. The startup expects to deliver up to 6,000 tons' worth of credits in 2025. And with fresh funding from the Xprize, Mati is one big step closer to turning farmland into one of the most powerful climate action tools. Do you think America has a plastic waste problem? Definitely Only in some areas Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mati Carbon, AirMiners Launchpad Accelerator Graduate, Wins $50M Carbon Removal Grand Prize
SAN FRANCISCO, April 25, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This week, XPRIZE announced that Mati Carbon, a graduate of the AirMiners Launchpad accelerator program, as the winner of the $50M grand prize in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, the largest single incentive ever offered for climate innovation. The prize recognizes Mati Carbon's enhanced rock weathering process, which converts atmospheric carbon dioxide into stable minerals while improving smallholder farmers' yields and enhancing their livelihoods. Mati Carbon sources basalt dust from aggregate quarries and applies it to cropland. As the basalt weathers, it releases nutrients that raise farm productivity on average by 20 percent and improves soil water retention capacity. Mati Carbon is one of more than 200 carbon removal startups alumni from AirMiners Launchpad accelerator. AirMiners alumni have raised more than $250M of venture funding, grants, and prizes, and secured more than $100M in carbon removal offtakes. "Mati's success sends a clear signal to carbon removal entrepreneurs everywhere. Join a strong community, test fast, learn faster, and you can move the needle on climate," said Tito Jankowski, CEO of AirMiners."AirMiners is proud to have played a part in this journey, and we cannot wait to see Mati scale their carbon removal technology worldwide," he said. "We're incredibly proud of all the teams whose work contributed to significantly advancing the carbon removal industry. The collaboration between XPRIZE and AirMiners shows that strong networks turn bold ideas into real impact. Mati is living proof, and we are excited to see how this momentum accelerates the entire field," said Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director of XPRIZE. "As a proud graduate of AirMiners accelerator, Mati team was able to connect with a community of doers and benefited from the camaraderie. AirMiners structured incubation was also very helpful allowing early stage startups to gain important insights on business building. We are thankful to the whole AirMiners team and the community for being part of our story," said Shantanu Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer of Mati Carbon. As part of its vision for reversing climate change, AirMiners provides innovators with the support to rapidly scale their businesses through networking, education and investment, with the ultimate goal of enabling the removal of one billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2030. AirMiners is hosting an online overview of Mati Carbon with CEO Shantanu Agarwal at 2 PM PST on Thursday, May 1st. To attend, register here. After the event, watch the recording here. ABOUT AIRMINERS AirMiners provides the catalytic infrastructure for innovators working to remove a billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2030. To learn more visit follow on Twitter @airminers and LinkedIn. ABOUT MATI CARBON The Mati Carbon project is supported by a US 501(c)(3) non-profit, Swaniti Initiative. Mati accelerates the natural process of rock weathering (ERW) by applying pulverized basalt to croplands of partnered smallholder farmers free of charge. As the pulverized basalt weathers, it removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Meanwhile, the weathering process releases nutrients from the rock which acts to re-mineralize depleted agricultural soils. This increases crop yields and thus smallholder farmers' incomes. At present, the company is on pace to work with 30,000 farmers in India, Tanzania, and Zambia by the end of 2025. Mati is set on a planetary-scale mission to make ERW a common agricultural practice in order to benefit 100 million smallholder farmers in developing economies over the next 20 years. ABOUT XPRIZE XPRIZE is the recognized global leader in designing and executing large-scale competitions to solve humanity's greatest challenges. For over 30 years, our unique model has democratized crowd-sourced innovation and scientifically scalable solutions that accelerate a more equitable and abundant future. Donate, learn more, and co-architect a world of abundance with us at View source version on Contacts FOR MORE INFORMATION:Marie Domingomarie@ (650) 888-5642for AirMiners Stacy (970) 819-0839for AirMiners Sign in to access your portfolio
Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Mati Carbon, winner of $50million XPRIZE, has been helping smallholder farmers leading fight against climate change
Mati Carbon, an Indian-led climate initiative has secured the $50 million grand prize in the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition, outshining over 1,300 teams from 112 countries. Their model seems simple, but is quite complex. Mati Carbon uses an Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) model, which captures carbon dioxide (CO2) while boosting crop yields for smallholder farmers. This offers a rare synergy of environmental and social impact. Mati operates in India, Tanzania, and Zambia, and has partnered with over 16,000 farmers since 2022. They aim to reach 30,000 by year-end, with a bold vision to impact 100 million by 2045. As India grapples with climate-induced agricultural stress and a nascent carbon market, scaling this solution faces formidable hurdles. In an exclusive interview with The Indian Express, Shantanu Agarwal, Mati Carbon's founder and CEO, and Jake Jordan, chief science officer, outlined their mission. 'This XPRIZE win validates our science and commitment to smallholder farmers who bear the brunt of climate change,' Agarwal said. 'But scaling in India, with its fragmented landholdings and uneven infrastructure, is a massive challenge.' How enhanced rock weathering works Mati's ERW process involves spreading pulverised basalt—a volcanic rock—on farmlands, accelerating a natural weathering process that captures atmospheric CO2 and stores it as bicarbonate in groundwater and oceans for over 10,000 years. 'The process forms a weak acid from rainwater and CO2, breaking down the rock faster than natural weathering,' Jordan explained. 'It's like dissolving powdered sugar versus a sugar cube.' The basalt also releases nutrients, enhances soil fertility and results in healthier crops and better yield. The rigorous Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) framework, developed with IIT Kanpur, Yale University, and the University of Sheffield, ensures precise carbon quantification, earning trust from buyers like Shopify, Stripe, and H&M. Empowering India's smallholder farmers Smallholder farmers, cultivating 47 per cent of India's farmland, are uniquely vulnerable to climate change. The 2024 Monsoon Report by the India Meteorological Department noted eight per cent above-average rainfall, yet flooding and crop losses disproportionately affected smallholders. Mati's model addresses this by improving soil health and incomes. Agarwal shared the story of a Chhattisgarh farmer with two acres whose rice yield surged from 2,500 to 3,500 kilos—a 70 per cent increase—after basalt application. 'He paid off debts because it's free. We deliver and spread the basalt; he farms as usual,' Agarwal said. Mati targets climate-vulnerable regions like northern Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jharkhand, often hours from airports. 'We focus on small farmers in backward areas,' Agarwal explained. 'We analyse crop types, soil compatibility, and basalt composition to ensure viability.' The Deccan Traps' vast basalt supply—capable of removing all anthropogenic CO2 with just one per cent of its reserves—makes India an ideal hub. Mati piggybacks on existing rock-crushing for construction, minimizing environmental impact. Farmers also report a 65 per cent reduction in pesticide use, as nutrient-rich soils yield healthier, disease-resistant crops. 'It's like humans eating vitamins for better immunity,' Agarwal said. 'Healthy plants don't get sick.' This organic, nature-driven approach aligns with India's push for sustainable agriculture under the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture. Scaling challenges: Trust, logistics, and markets Mati's ambition to reach 100 million farmers by 2045 is daunting. 'Farmers dependent on a few acres are risk-averse,' Agarwal noted. 'Explaining that we remove invisible CO2 for distant buyers sounds dubious.' Mati overcomes this through demonstration: trials in the first season, 10-20 per cent adoption in the second, and overwhelming demand by the third. 'They see yield increases and lower pesticide needs with their own eyes,' he said. Logistics in remote areas pose another hurdle. Transporting basalt to villages and training farmers across India's diverse agro-climatic zones is costly. Mati's proprietary platform, matiC, uses AI to streamline operations, from farmer engagement to carbon verification, but scaling to millions requires more. 'Our tech stack enables farmer-entrepreneur partners to deliver our model regionally,' Agarwal said, emphasizing a franchise-like approach to achieve the 'unreasonable' 100-million-farmer goal. The carbon market, where Mati sells credits to fund its free basalt applications, is another challenge. Currently priced at $300-$400 per ton, credits are bought by net-zero-focused firms like Shopify, Stripe, and H&M. 'These buyers support our scaling to hit $100 per ton in five to seven years,' Agarwal said. However, India's carbon market is nascent, with prices volatile ($10-$30/ton globally in 2024, per the World Bank). Convincing Indian unicorns to buy removal credits as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) requires education. 'Indian companies with net-zero goals should include removal in their portfolios to mitigate past emissions,' Agarwal urged. The role of Government Mati has garnered local support from district magistrates, agriculture officers, and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs). 'They love our technology and collaborate closely,' Agarwal said. Studies with government universities, like IIT Kanpur, provide years of data to prove ERW's efficacy. Yet, national-level adoption could unlock greater impact. 'Subsidies for basalt transport or carbon credit incentives would accelerate scaling,' Agarwal suggested, aligning with India's net-zero-by-2070 goal. Jordan emphasized ERW's fit for India's agriculture-heavy economy. 'Governments serve farmers, a key constituency. Our yield increases and climate benefits are a strong match for national priorities,' he said. However, policy inertia and the need for extensive proof points slow progress. 'We're building scientific momentum with Indian research to convince policymakers,' Agarwal said. A broader climate context Mati's focus on removal doesn't negate the need for emissions reduction. 'We need both,' Jordan stressed. 'Reduction stops new CO2; removal balances unavoidable emissions, like agriculture's residual CO2.' India, the world's third-largest emitter, relies heavily on coal, complicating its net-zero path. Mati's ERW, with its permanence, offers a robust tool, but it's not a panacea. The Global South's degraded soils make it ideal for ERW, unlike chemically optimized farms in the US. 'Skeptics in the West question small farms' scalability, but their yield gains drive adoption,' Jordan said. This economic incentive positions India as a leader in inclusive climate solutions. Looking ahead Mati's XPRIZE win and $50 million prize provide a springboard to scale its smallholder-focused model, sustained by carbon credit sales. Its partnerships with IIT Kanpur, Yale, and the University of Sheffield ensure scientific rigor, while local collaborations amplify reach. Yet, success hinges on overcoming logistical, market, and policy barriers. As India navigates climate change and food security for 1.4 billion people, Mati's model—rooted in nature and farmer empowerment—offers a blueprint. Whether it can scale to 100 million farmers remains a test of innovation, collaboration, and political will. 'For us, the farmer is the only stakeholder,' Agarwal concluded. 'If we help them, society helps us back.'
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How XPrize Winner Mati Carbon Is Tackling Climate Change
Shoots in the field in spring. Credit - Getty Images—Copyright 2019 Sergey Ryumin Mati Carbon has an ambitious goal: remove 100 million metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2040—and help 100 million farmers in the Global South along the way. The company, which currently operates on farms in India, and is looking to expand to Zambia and Tanzania, just got one step closer to achieving its goal. After competing in a four-year global competition that invited teams to come up with—and show a pathway to scale—a carbon removal solution, Mati was awarded the XPrize Carbon Removal, a $50 million award that will help the company scale its operation, which was announced onstage at the TIME100 Summit on April 23. 'The prize itself is really trying to develop new solutions that can complement other climate solutions,' says Nikki Batchelor, XPRIZE Carbon Removal's executive director. 'So we also always state, first and foremost, that we need to reduce emissions as dramatically as possible… but the science now shows us that we also will need to remove carbon alongside that, [and] we need to be developing and maturing those technologies and solutions now in order to have them ready by 2050 when the world will need to be operating at gigaton scale.' TIME spoke with Shantanu Agarwal and Jake Jordan, Mati's CEO and chief science officer, about how the technology they use, known as enhanced rock weathering, could provide a scalable carbon removal practice—while improving soil health and providing life changing support for farmers around the world. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. TIME: What is Mati Carbon aiming to do? Shantanu Agarwal: Mati Carbon has developed a revolutionary technology to scale gigaton carbon removal that builds climate resilience and provides economic empowerment to potentially more than 100 million smaller farmers in the developing economies of the world using a natural process called enhanced rock weathering. What is enhanced rock weathering and how does it fit into the broader climate fight? Jake Jordan: Rock weathering happens on Earth all the time. Rocks break down when rain and water wash over them. So what we're doing is we're pulverizing volcanic rock, we're putting it on the fields of our partnered small holder farmers. When that pulverized rock comes into contact with water and gas, it starts to break down. And unfortunately, the level of CO2 in our atmosphere is ever rising, so a lot of the gas that this rock is in contact with when it gets wet and is being broken down is CO2. When that rock interacts with that water and that CO2 at the same time, the CO2 can actually be reorganized chemically into a dissolved phase of carbon called bicarbonate, which stays in the water in the field and eventually drains into rivers, aquifers or oceans, where it can be stored for millennia. That makes it what we call durable carbon dioxide removal. And an added bonus—when those rocks break down in the field, they're releasing all of the little goodies and nutrients that are contained in those minerals, and they end up in the farmers field, which is why, not only does our climate solution durably remove carbon dioxide, but it actually [helps] some of the most vulnerable farmers who are the most affected by climate change and the least responsible for it. So we see that as sort of a double win for us. Part of the X Prize competition involved showing that the work could be scaled to remove gigatons of carbon a year. How would Mati Carbon do this? Agarwal: For Mati carbon, that means thousands and thousands of locations, which we call 'bases.' Each base is serving five to 10,000 farmers, and we want to replicate these bases across the planet, serving millions and millions of farmers. So as we have showcased in our demonstration to XPRIZE, [there are] three fully commercial bases which we have in India. And they came and diligenced one of those bases to see how the operating procedures were, how we actually serve the farmers, what the farmer effect was. We have validated and showed them [our] standard unit of scaling, how it operates, the cost, and how it can be copied and pasted across the world. How can carbon capture stand to benefit smallhold farmers? Agarwal: The net result [is] that the farmer is getting increased productivity. In typical well-fertilized soils, we're seeing about 20-25% in increased productivity for these farmers. And in degraded soils, we're seeing 50-70% increased productivity… So there's a huge impact for them, directly in terms of their incomes by the increased productivity, but also their ability to use less pesticide. That's game changing for these people who are living from crop to crop. Suddenly having 30% or 50% increased income means that they can pay off their debt. They can suddenly get more irrigation equipment, or better seeds. It's life changing. What comes next for Mati Carbon? Agarwal: Our company is founded on the basis of [being] farmer-first. And to that extent, we essentially structured our company as a nonprofit, and we chose not to take any equity from venture capital funds. We are essentially dependent on grants and philanthropy to really scale, and that has limited us to not being able to spread out as fast and as much as we would like to. This XPRIZE essentially gives us the wings to dream now… and really run after and achieve the full mission of being able to touch 100 million farmers in the next 15 to 20 years. What do you hope people will take away from the work you're doing? Agarwal: I hope this prize and what we're trying to do gives people hope and gives people direction. There are pathways possible, which help the planet and help smaller farmers and are economically viable for market driven mechanisms. I think Mati Carbon has proven that we can build a viable business with our unique business model, with our unique technology, and compete with the best of the best in the world and come out strong. I want to give that hope to the world, hope to other other competitors, other companies, other folks that we really need to solve the problems which are in front of us and can't just be denying them. Write to Simmone Shah at
Time Magazine
23-04-2025
- Business
- Time Magazine
How XPrize Winner Mati Carbon Is Helping Farmers—And the Planet
Mati Carbon has an ambitious goal: remove 100 million metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2040—and help 100 million farmers in the Global South along the way. The company, which currently operates on farms in India, and is looking to expand to Zambia and Tanzania, just got one step closer to achieving its goal. After competing in a four-year global competition that invited teams to come up with—and show a pathway to scale—a carbon removal solution, Mati was awarded the XPrize Carbon Removal, a $50 million award that will help the company scale its operation, which was announced onstage at the TIME100 Summit on April 23. 'The prize itself is really trying to develop new solutions that can complement other climate solutions,' says Nikki Batchelor, XPRIZE Carbon Removal's executive director. 'So we also always state, first and foremost, that we need to reduce emissions as dramatically as possible… but the science now shows us that we also will need to remove carbon alongside that, [and] we need to be developing and maturing those technologies and solutions now in order to have them ready by 2050 when the world will need to be operating at gigaton scale.' TIME spoke with Shantanu Agarwal and Jake Jordan, Mati's CEO and chief science officer, about how the technology they use, known as enhanced rock weathering, could provide a scalable carbon removal practice—while improving soil health and providing life changing support for farmers around the world. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. TIME: What is Mati Carbon aiming to do? Shantanu Agarwal: Mati Carbon has developed a revolutionary technology to scale gigaton carbon removal that builds climate resilience and provides economic empowerment to potentially more than 100 million smaller farmers in the developing economies of the world using a natural process called enhanced rock weathering. What is enhanced rock weathering and how does it fit into the broader climate fight? Jake Jordan: Rock weathering happens on Earth all the time. Rocks break down when rain and water wash over them. So what we're doing is we're pulverizing volcanic rock, we're putting it on the fields of our partnered small holder farmers. When that pulverized rock comes into contact with water and gas, it starts to break down. And unfortunately, the level of CO2 in our atmosphere is ever rising, so a lot of the gas that this rock is in contact with when it gets wet and is being broken down is CO2. When that rock interacts with that water and that CO2 at the same time, the CO2 can actually be reorganized chemically into a dissolved phase of carbon called bicarbonate, which stays in the water in the field and eventually drains into rivers, aquifers or oceans, where it can be stored for millennia. That makes it what we call durable carbon dioxide removal. And an added bonus—when those rocks break down in the field, they're releasing all of the little goodies and nutrients that are contained in those minerals, and they end up in the farmers field, which is why, not only does our climate solution durably remove carbon dioxide, but it actually [helps] some of the most vulnerable farmers who are the most affected by climate change and the least responsible for it. So we see that as sort of a double win for us. Part of the X Prize competition involved showing that the work could be scaled to remove gigatons of carbon a year. How would Mati Carbon do this? Agarwal: For Mati carbon, that means thousands and thousands of locations, which we call 'bases.' Each base is serving five to 10,000 farmers, and we want to replicate these bases across the planet, serving millions and millions of farmers. So as we have showcased in our demonstration to XPRIZE, [there are] three fully commercial bases which we have in India. And they came and diligenced one of those bases to see how the operating procedures were, how we actually serve the farmers, what the farmer effect was. We have validated and showed them [our] standard unit of scaling, how it operates, the cost, and how it can be copied and pasted across the world. How can carbon capture stand to benefit smallhold farmers? Agarwal: The net result [is] that the farmer is getting increased productivity. In typical well-fertilized soils, we're seeing about 20-25% in increased productivity for these farmers. And in degraded soils, we're seeing 50-70% increased productivity… So there's a huge impact for them, directly in terms of their incomes by the increased productivity, but also their ability to use less pesticide. That's game changing for these people who are living from crop to crop. Suddenly having 30% or 50% increased income means that they can pay off their debt. They can suddenly get more irrigation equipment, or better seeds. It's life changing. What comes next for Mati Carbon? Agarwal: Our company is founded on the basis of [being] farmer-first. And to that extent, we essentially structured our company as a nonprofit, and we chose not to take any equity from venture capital funds. We are essentially dependent on grants and philanthropy to really scale, and that has limited us to not being able to spread out as fast and as much as we would like to. This XPRIZE essentially gives us the wings to dream now… and really run after and achieve the full mission of being able to touch 100 million farmers in the next 15 to 20 years. What do you hope people will take away from the work you're doing? Agarwal: I hope this prize and what we're trying to do gives people hope and gives people direction. There are pathways possible, which help the planet and help smaller farmers and are economically viable for market driven mechanisms. I think Mati Carbon has proven that we can build a viable business with our unique business model, with our unique technology, and compete with the best of the best in the world and come out strong. I want to give that hope to the world, hope to other other competitors, other companies, other folks that we really need to solve the problems which are in front of us and can't just be denying them.
