Latest news with #XPrizeCarbonRemoval
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk's $100M Climate Gamble: Houston's Mati Carbon Wins $50M With Rock Dust Hack To Save 100M Farmers Across 3 Continents
Mati Carbon, a climate-tech startup based in Houston, just walked away with $50 million in prize money from the Elon Musk-backed XPrize Carbon Removal competition. The company announced the win, highlighting it as a major step toward scaling its carbon removal efforts globally. The funding positions Mati at the forefront of a massive shift in how carbon is removed from the atmosphere by spreading pulverized rock on farmland. Don't Miss: 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Founded in 2022, Mati Carbon's rock weathering method caught the attention of investors, scientists, and climate advocates alike. The startup's goal is to remove carbon dioxide from the air while boosting crop yields for smallholder farmers across India, Tanzania, and Zambia. Mati's process is simple. It grinds basalt rock into a fine dust and then applies it to agricultural land. As rainwater and natural weather conditions interact with the basalt, the rock binds with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and turns it into a stable form of carbon stored in the soil. As the basalt breaks down, it releases vital minerals that re-mineralize depleted soil. Farmers see yield increases and stronger crops without paying anything upfront. Mati provides the service at no cost. The startup is already on track to work with 30,000 farmers by the end of this year, and founder and CEO Shantanu Agarwal said in an interview with Time last week, the goal is to reach 100 million globally by 2040. In many cases, this method increases yields by 25% to 70%, depending on the condition of the soil, Agarwal told TechCrunch. Trending: Donald Trump just announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure deal — . The XPrize Foundation, funded by Musk's Musk Foundation, awarded Mati Carbon the $50 million prize as part of a broader $100 million initiative to accelerate carbon removal technologies. While the backing from Musk gives the award high-profile visibility, it also brings some scrutiny. Climate policy expert Wil Burns, who helped design the XPrize guidelines, expressed concern in an interview with Politico, saying Musk's funding of this prize while pushing for research cuts in other areas taints the credibility of the initiative. Still, the prize remains one of the largest ever awarded for climate innovation. Agarwal sees this win as validation. "Being named the grand prize winner of XPrize Carbon Removal is not just a validation of our approach to [carbon dioxide removal], it also represents a major catalyst to building out the science and infrastructure needed to deliver on our mission – generating climate resilience and economic empowerment for the more than 100 million smallholder farmers in developing economies worldwide," Agarwal said in a company's method is also being recognized for meeting all the core criteria of the XPrize competition: operational feasibility, long-term sustainability, and low cost per ton of carbon removed. Mati is already scaling its operations. With $50 million in hand, they plan to build out logistics, expand partnerships with farmers, and continue refining their carbon tracking software. The team uses a tech-forward system to monitor and verify carbon drawdown and soil improvement. This precision allows them to scale across vastly different geographies while maintaining impact integrity. Mati Carbon's win comes at a moment when many climate startups are struggling to prove effectiveness. By focusing on simplicity, scale, and farmer empowerment, the startup has done what few others have: created a system that benefits people and the planet. Read Next: Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary called Missing Ring his biggest mistake — Don't repeat history—Image: Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Elon Musk's $100M Climate Gamble: Houston's Mati Carbon Wins $50M With Rock Dust Hack To Save 100M Farmers Across 3 Continents originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Sign in to access your portfolio
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.
