CREW Carbon, a company focused on carbon removal through enhanced weathering technology, has raised $5.3 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round led by Counteract, with participation from ReGen Ventures, ANIMO, Connecticut Innovations, Ponderosa Ventures, Newlab, Echo River Capital, and the Carbon Drawdown Initiative.
Targeting the biogenic CO2 produced in wastewater treatment facilities, CREW's approach leverages the natural properties of minerals within the water cycle to capture and store carbon, aiming to make wastewater plants integral to climate mitigation efforts.
To meet global climate targets, it’s estimated that 10 gigatons of CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere annually by 2050.
Dr. Joachim Katchinoff, CREW’s co-founder and CEO, highlighted that wastewater plants provide "one of the best locations for rapid carbon removal." He emphasized that CREW's technology works easily within these established systems, saying, "We can work with utility and industrial partners to measurably remove CO2 at scale while enabling safe and efficient wastewater treatment.”
CREW's technology, developed through years of research at Yale University, enhances natural mineral reactions to treat wastewater while permanently storing CO2. By doing so, the company contributes to carbon reduction and also reduces operational costs and improves pH and alkalinity management, replacing caustic chemicals in the treatment process.
Chris Morrison, an industry expert and CREW adviser, called it "a paradigm shift for the industry," noting the benefits for both wastewater management and climate efforts: "The technology transforms wastewater treatment plants into climate hubs."
The new funding will fuel CREW's growth, allowing it to deploy systems in additional wastewater facilities, further scale carbon removal, and enhance its carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) systems. Counteract Partner Andy Bonsall, who led the funding round, remarked that CREW’s solution is "a win for municipalities, industry, and our journey to net-zero," pointing to the potential for cost-effective, measurable carbon removal at a gigaton scale.
CREW is already operating in multiple plants and expects to expand to thousands of tons of CO2 removal in the coming year, bringing the wastewater sector closer to a sustainable, climate-positive future.
