Who are the top investors in carbon capture?
In our CCUS market deck, you will find everything you need to understand the market
SUMMARY
Climate Investment, Chevron and Lowercarbon Capital are the top investors in carbon capture today, with Equinor Ventures, Aramco Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Carbon Direct Capital close behind.
The ranking splits naturally by investor type. Climate Investment has the strongest specialist case, Chevron is the most powerful industrial strategic, and Lowercarbon is the clearest pure-VC leader in engineered carbon removal.
Raw deal count is a weak way to judge this market. A small seed portfolio can look busy, but the real test is whether an investor keeps showing up when a company needs tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to reach deployment.
That is why follow-on behavior carries so much weight here. Chevron stayed with Svante and Carbon Clean into very large rounds, Lowercarbon returned for Heirloom, and Climate Investment kept backing Carbon Upcycling as it moved toward industrial scale.
Corporate investors have a structural advantage once projects leave the lab. Equinor, Chevron and Aramco can offer operating sites, engineering knowledge, storage infrastructure, procurement relationships and technology qualification work that a conventional VC usually cannot.
Equinor Ventures has the strongest recent momentum among the oil majors. Its Captura Series B, leadership of 44.01's Series A and current carbon-management portfolio make it much more than a side bet inside a large energy company.
Direct air capture is becoming a different financing market from early-stage carbon tech. Climeworks, Heirloom and CarbonCapture show that institutional investors, strategic financiers and large corporate buyers increasingly matter alongside venture funds.
Carbon-removal buyers such as Microsoft and Frontier should not be mixed into an equity-investor ranking, but they can be just as important financially. Long-term purchase commitments give startups revenue visibility that can unlock later equity and project finance.
The market is still funded, but the easy-money phase has faded. Deal count remains healthy while early-stage capital and investor participation have fallen, which is concentrating money around teams with pilots, customers and a believable path to deployment.
The practical answer depends on what a founder is building. Climate Investment is the best overall specialist, Chevron is the strongest choice for industrial point-source capture, Lowercarbon is the first-call pure VC for engineered removal, and Equinor currently has the hottest corporate momentum.
This market map, featured in our CCUS market deck, highlights top companies and startups in the CCUS market
Who Are the Top Investors in Carbon Capture?
What should “top carbon capture investor” actually mean?
The top carbon capture investors today are the ones that repeatedly back serious companies, keep funding them as projects get expensive, and can help those companies reach real deployment.
Simply counting deals gives us a strange ranking. Carbon capture covers industrial point-source capture, direct air capture, direct ocean capture, mineralization and several other carbon-removal methods. A fund with six tiny seed bets can look more active than an investor that puts hundreds of millions into one company reaching commercial scale.
We therefore give the most weight to how often an investor appears across credible companies, whether it returns in later rounds, how much capital it can deploy, and whether it brings something useful beyond money.
That produces different kinds of winners. Climate Investment looks strongest as a dedicated CCUS investor. Chevron has the most convincing combination of capital and industrial leverage. Lowercarbon stands out among pure venture funds focused on carbon removal.
Is carbon capture still getting serious money right now?
Yes, carbon capture is still getting serious money, although investors are becoming much pickier about which companies deserve it.
CDR.fyi's 2026 review counted about $3.6 billion of private investment in durable carbon-removal startups between 2021 and 2025. Direct air capture and storage absorbed roughly $2.2 billion, or 61% of that total, across 37 companies and 51 deals.
The recent trajectory is less euphoric. Private CDR deal count climbed from 10 in 2021 to 47 in 2024, then slipped to 37 in 2025. Early-stage capital fell from roughly $571 million in 2024 to around $292 million in 2025. Still, 37 deals was about 9% more than in 2023.
Fresh activity supports that reading. Captura raised a $12.5 million first close of its Series B in June 2026, led by Equinor Ventures. Around the same period, Frontier's buyers committed another $915 million to future carbon-removal purchases, taking Frontier's total commitment to $1.8 billion.
Funding is still available, but it is concentrating around companies that can show pilots, customers, manufacturing progress or a believable path toward large projects.
As this chart shows, and as featured in our CCUS market deck, search interest in carbon credits has grown significantly
Are VCs still funding most carbon capture companies?
VCs still fund a large share of young carbon capture companies, but traditional venture capital becomes much less useful once these companies need to build serious infrastructure.
CDR.fyi found that seed and Series A rounds still make up most durable carbon-removal deals, while Series B and growth rounds remain relatively rare. Average round size rises from about $6.2 million at seed to $24.5 million at Series A and $52 million at Series B.
Investor participation has also collapsed. The average financing round had 11.3 investors in 2022 and only 3.5 in 2025. Fewer investors are willing to stay involved once technical risk, construction risk and long development timelines become obvious.
Companies then start mixing capital sources. Climeworks has brought in institutional investors such as Partners Group and GIC. Heirloom combines venture investors with industrial groups and government-backed project support. Carbon Upcycling followed its equity funding with $10 million of financing from ATEL Ventures in 2026 as it moved toward industrial production.
Which investors keep showing up in the strongest carbon capture companies?
Climate Investment, Lowercarbon Capital, Chevron, Aramco Ventures, Equinor Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Carbon Direct Capital show the strongest repeated exposure across serious carbon capture and removal companies.
Lowercarbon has backed Heirloom, Charm, Verdox, Noya, Arca and other removal companies. Breakthrough Energy's portfolio includes Heirloom, 44.01, Verdox, Graphyte, Mission Zero and CarbonCure. Equinor's current carbon-management portfolio includes Carbon Clean, Captura, 44.01, RepAir and Inherit Carbon Solutions.
Corporate portfolios are getting broader too. Aramco Ventures has appeared around Carbon Clean, CarbonCapture, Captura and several other removal technologies. Climate Investment has spread its exposure across industrial capture, mineralization and carbon utilization, while continuing to support companies such as Carbon Upcycling in later financings.
| Investor | Representative companies | Where the investor looks strongest | Current read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Climate Investment | Svante, 44.01, Carbon Upcycling | Industrial CCUS and carbon management | Broad specialist |
| Chevron | Svante, Carbon Clean, Carbon Engineering | Point-source capture | Strongest industrial strategic |
| Lowercarbon Capital | Heirloom, Charm, Verdox, Noya, Arca | Engineered carbon removal | Strongest pure VC |
| Equinor Ventures | Carbon Clean, Captura, 44.01, RepAir | Capture, ocean removal and storage | Rising quickly |
| Aramco Ventures | Carbon Clean, CarbonCapture, Captura, Spiritus | Multiple engineered removal routes | Broad corporate portfolio |
| Breakthrough Energy Ventures | Heirloom, 44.01, Verdox, Graphyte, Mission Zero | Early technical bets | Elite technology selector |
| Carbon Direct Capital | Heirloom, ION Clean Energy, Graphyte | Capture and durable removal | Deep specialist expertise |
This chart, included in our CCUS market deck, illustrates yearly VC funding for CCUS startups
Is Climate Investment really the top carbon capture specialist?
Yes. Climate Investment still has the strongest claim to being the top dedicated carbon capture and CCUS specialist overall.
Climate Investment was built around industrial decarbonization rather than adding carbon capture as one theme inside a huge generalist portfolio. Its historical CCUS investments include Svante, while its current carbon-management exposure reaches mineralization through 44.01 and carbon utilization through Carbon Upcycling. OGCI previously reported 11 investments across carbon capture, utilization and storage.
The portfolio has also kept moving. Climate Investment joined 44.01's $37 million Series A alongside Equinor Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund and others. In 2025, it returned for Carbon Upcycling's $18 million financing while that company was preparing its first industrial-scale project at Ash Grove's Mississauga cement plant.
Lowercarbon is stronger in pure carbon removal and Chevron has greater industrial power. Climate Investment wins our specialist ranking because its carbon-management portfolio is broader and more sustained.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest CCUS market report.
Is Chevron the most powerful corporate investor in carbon capture?
Chevron remains the most powerful strategic investor in industrial carbon capture, even though its recent venture pace looks quieter than some newer corporate competitors.
Svante shows why Chevron still ranks so highly. Chevron Technology Ventures first backed the company years before eventually leading its $318 million Series E. The relationship also included testing Svante's capture technology at Chevron's Kern River operations.
Carbon Clean gives us a second large case. Chevron led the company's $150 million Series C, alongside investors including CEMEX Ventures, Marubeni, AXA IM Alts, Samsung Ventures, Aramco and TC Energy. At the time, it was the largest funding round announced by a point-source carbon capture company.
Those two investments carry more weight than a long list of tiny venture bets because both companies are trying to sell capture systems into the kinds of industrial operations Chevron already understands.
This chart, included in our CCUS market deck, shows why CarbonCure stands out in CCUS
Who is investing hardest now: Chevron, Aramco or Equinor?
Equinor Ventures currently has the strongest fresh momentum, Chevron still has the deepest large-scale track record, and Aramco Ventures has built the broadest experimental portfolio of the three.
Equinor's recent Captura investment is particularly convincing. In June 2026, Equinor Ventures led the first $12.5 million close of Captura's Series B after the two companies had jointly developed a 1,000-ton-per-year direct ocean capture pilot and completed a technology qualification program. Aramco Ventures, Eni Next, Hitachi Ventures, Maersk Growth and National Grid Partners also participated.
That followed Equinor's leadership of 44.01's $37 million Series A and its investment in Carbon Clean. Its current portfolio now lists Carbon Clean, Captura, 44.01, RepAir and Inherit Carbon Solutions under carbon management.
Aramco is taking a wider technology approach, with investments spanning industrial capture, modular DAC, direct ocean capture and other removal methods. Chevron has placed fewer recent bets, but the $318 million Svante round and $150 million Carbon Clean round remain much larger demonstrations of conviction.
If we were choosing the corporate investor with the strongest current momentum, we would pick Equinor Ventures. For proven scale-up capital, Chevron still has the edge.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest CCUS market report.
Is Lowercarbon Capital the best pure VC for carbon removal?
Yes. Lowercarbon Capital is currently the strongest pure venture-capital name in engineered carbon removal.
Lowercarbon created a $350 million fund dedicated specifically to carbon removal and built a portfolio across very different technical approaches. Its companies include Heirloom's limestone-based DAC, Verdox's electrochemical capture, Charm Industrial's biomass-to-bio-oil removal, Arca's mineralization work and Noya's DAC technology.
The diversity is important. Heirloom, Verdox and Charm represent fundamentally different bets on how atmospheric carbon removal might become cheap enough to scale.
Lowercarbon has also returned to companies rather than constantly chasing new names. It co-led Heirloom's $150 million Series B with Future Positive after participating earlier in the company's development.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures comes close on technical quality and Carbon Direct comes close on specialization. Lowercarbon gets our edge because carbon removal is unusually central to the fund's identity and the portfolio is both broad and technically diverse.
This chart, included in our CCUS market deck, illustrates yearly funding for CCUS startups
Is Carbon Direct Capital still one of the smartest carbon removal investors?
Carbon Direct Capital still belongs near the top, although its recent disclosed carbon-removal investing has been quieter than Lowercarbon's.
The portfolio quality is hard to dismiss. Carbon Direct Capital backed Heirloom, invested in ION Clean Energy's point-source capture technology, supported Graphyte's biomass carbon removal and has exposure to CO₂ utilization through companies such as Twelve and AIR COMPANY.
Its advantage comes from specialization. Carbon Direct's broader organization works on carbon science, project evaluation and corporate carbon procurement, so the investment team operates close to people judging whether removal methods are measurable, durable and commercially credible.
We place Carbon Direct below Lowercarbon today because its recent publicly disclosed equity activity has been less aggressive.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest CCUS market report.
Does Breakthrough Energy Ventures deserve its carbon capture reputation?
Yes. Breakthrough Energy Ventures deserves its reputation as one of the best early technology selectors in carbon capture and removal.
The current portfolio contains an unusually strong cluster: Heirloom, 44.01, Graphyte, Mission Zero, Verdox and CarbonCure. Those companies attack the carbon problem through DAC, mineralization, biomass storage, electrochemistry and concrete.
Several bets were made well before commercial scale looked obvious. Breakthrough co-led Heirloom's $53 million Series A with Carbon Direct Capital and Ahren Innovation Capital. It backed 44.01 early and participated again when the mineralization company raised its $37 million Series A. Mission Zero and Verdox added more exposure to alternative capture architectures.
Breakthrough ranks below the leaders overall because the largest later-stage financings have usually been led by other investors.
This chart, included in our CCUS market deck, compares the main business model options for carbon capture project developers
Who is actually financing direct air capture at scale today?
Direct air capture is increasingly financed by a mix of specialist VCs, corporate investors and large institutional capital, with Partners Group standing out once the checks reach infrastructure scale.
CDR.fyi calculated that DAC and permanent storage attracted roughly $2.2 billion of private capital between 2021 and 2025, about 61% of all durable carbon-removal investment in its dataset.
Climeworks explains a large part of that concentration. Its earlier $650 million round brought in Partners Group, GIC, Baillie Gifford, M&G and Swiss Re. The company then raised another $162 million in 2025, taking total funding above $1 billion.
Heirloom followed a different path, with Lowercarbon and Future Positive leading its $150 million Series B while industrial investors such as Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Japan Airlines and Siemens Financial Services joined. CarbonCapture provides a third model: Prime Movers Lab led its $80 million Series A, with Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, Aramco Ventures and Siemens Financial Services also participating.
| Investor | Main DAC exposure | Role | Why it stands out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Partners Group | Climeworks | Growth capital | One of the largest concentrated DAC bets |
| Lowercarbon Capital | Heirloom, Verdox, Noya | Venture and follow-on capital | Broad DAC technology exposure |
| Breakthrough Energy Ventures | Heirloom, Verdox, Mission Zero | Early-stage technology | Strong technical selection |
| Prime Movers Lab | CarbonCapture | Lead venture investor | High-conviction modular DAC bet |
| Aramco Ventures | CarbonCapture and other removal technologies | Strategic capital | Broad corporate experimentation |
| Siemens Financial Services | CarbonCapture, Heirloom and related CDR investments | Strategic financing | Capital plus industrial expertise |
Who leads investment in industrial carbon capture?
Chevron and Climate Investment still lead industrial point-source carbon capture, with Equinor Ventures and Aramco Ventures forming a strong second group.
Chevron's two flagship relationships give it the strongest case. Svante builds solid-sorbent capture systems for industrial emissions, while Carbon Clean sells modular capture technology into sectors such as cement, refining and chemicals. Chevron eventually led huge financings in both companies after earlier involvement.
Climate Investment has greater breadth. Its carbon-management history stretches through Svante, Carbon Upcycling and other CCUS businesses, giving it exposure to capture equipment, utilization and permanent storage.
Equinor deserves more attention here than it usually gets. Its current carbon-management portfolio includes Carbon Clean alongside 44.01, Captura, RepAir and Inherit Carbon Solutions. Aramco combines its Carbon Clean investment with a wider set of removal bets.
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest CCUS market report.
This chart, featured in our CCUS market deck, illustrates revenue distribution by customer segment in the CCUS market
Which carbon capture investors actually stick around and help companies deploy?
Chevron, Lowercarbon, Climate Investment and Equinor stand out because their involvement often continues after the first venture round and, in several cases, extends into real deployment.
Chevron's Svante relationship stretched across years before the company eventually led the $318 million Series E, and it followed a similar path with Carbon Clean before leading the $150 million Series C. Lowercarbon backed Heirloom early and later co-led its $150 million Series B, while Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Carbon Direct Capital also returned.
Climate Investment has shown the same patience with Carbon Upcycling. It participated earlier and returned in the company's $18 million 2025 financing as Carbon Upcycling prepared its first industrial-scale cement project. The company then added $10 million of equipment-oriented financing from ATEL Ventures in 2026.
Equinor's Captura deal adds a different kind of evidence. Equinor Ventures led Captura's 2026 Series B after the companies had already worked together on a 1,000-ton-per-year pilot and completed a commercial technology qualification program.
Other strategic investors can provide similar leverage. Carbon Upcycling has CRH Ventures, CEMEX and TITAN in its cap table, while Siemens Financial Services has invested in CarbonCapture and Neustark and can pair capital with industrial engineering and financing expertise.
Do Microsoft and Frontier count as carbon capture investors?
Microsoft and Frontier should be treated as major carbon removal capital providers, even though most of their money reaches companies through purchases rather than equity.
Frontier's buyers committed another $915 million for carbon removal in June 2026, lifting the total Frontier commitment to $1.8 billion. Stripe, Google, Shopify, Salesforce, H&M Group, McKinsey, Workday and Anthropic participate in the program.
Microsoft operates on an even larger scale as an individual buyer. CDR.fyi's current leaderboard shows more than 37 million tonnes of durable carbon removal purchased by Microsoft, compared with about 1.84 million tonnes attributed to Frontier buyers and roughly 1.15 million tonnes to Google.
Those contracts can materially improve a startup's financing prospects because long-term offtake gives investors and lenders future revenue to underwrite.
We therefore leave Microsoft and Frontier outside the equity-investor ranking while treating them as two of the most powerful financial actors in carbon removal.
This chart, included in our CCUS market deck, shows how carbon removal marketplace technology has evolved over time
Who are the top carbon capture investors right now?
Climate Investment and Chevron still sit at the top of our carbon capture investor ranking, with Lowercarbon Capital, Equinor Ventures and Aramco Ventures forming the strongest group immediately behind them.
We rank Climate Investment first because carbon management has been a core investment category for years and the portfolio spans industrial capture, utilization and permanent storage. The firm has also kept backing companies after their first rounds.
Chevron comes second and could reasonably be first for an industrial capture founder. Few investors can match its combination of large checks, operational sites, engineering knowledge and potential storage infrastructure. The Svante and Carbon Clean relationships remain two of the strongest examples of corporate venture capital actually helping a carbon capture company move toward commercial scale.
Lowercarbon takes third because we think it is the best pure venture investor in engineered carbon removal. Equinor moves up to fourth after its recent Captura financing, its leadership of 44.01's Series A and a current carbon-management portfolio that is deeper than most oil-major venture arms. Aramco sits just behind it with perhaps the broadest spread of experimental capture and removal technologies.
Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Carbon Direct Capital remain extremely strong technology investors. Partners Group ranks highly because very few investors have shown comparable willingness to put institutional-scale equity into DAC. Siemens Financial Services and Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund round out the group.
If we had to choose one name overall today, Climate Investment has the best combination of specialization, breadth and staying power. For industrial capture specifically, we would choose Chevron. For an early carbon-removal startup, Lowercarbon Capital would probably be our first call.
| Rank | Investor | Where it is strongest | Our judgment today |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Climate Investment | Industrial CCUS, utilization, storage | Best overall specialist |
| 2 | Chevron | Point-source industrial capture | Most powerful strategic investor |
| 3 | Lowercarbon Capital | Engineered carbon removal | Best pure VC |
| 4 | Equinor Ventures | Capture, ocean removal, mineralization | Strongest fresh corporate momentum |
| 5 | Aramco Ventures | DAC, ocean capture, industrial capture | Broadest corporate technology spread |
| 6 | Breakthrough Energy Ventures | Early technical innovation | Elite technology selector |
| 7 | Carbon Direct Capital | Capture and durable removal | Deep specialist expertise after the leaders |
| 8 | Partners Group | Large-scale DAC | Major institutional growth investor |
| 9 | Siemens Financial Services | DAC and mineralization | Strong strategic financing partner |
| 10 | Amazon Climate Pledge Fund | DAC and mineralization | Useful combination of equity and buyer leverage |
If you want more recent data on this point, please see our latest CCUS market report.
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis ranks carbon capture investors by the evidence of what they are doing in the market today, rather than by reputation or raw deal count. We looked at portfolio quality and breadth, repeat and follow-on backing, capacity to fund scale-up, involvement beyond the initial check, and recent investment momentum.
We kept current momentum separate from accumulated track record. A recent run of deals can show which investors are pushing hardest now, while years of follow-on financing, pilots and deployment support tell us more about staying power. We also treated equity investment separately from carbon-removal purchase commitments, since both provide capital but play different roles.
We gave extra weight to investors that stayed involved as companies became more capital-intensive. Large later-stage rounds, repeat participation, technology qualification, industrial pilots and deployment partnerships generally count for more here than a long list of small seed investments.
Key market data came from CDR.fyi's 2026 Investment Landscape in Carbon Removal and the CDR.fyi carbon removal leaderboards. We also used Frontier's June 2026 commitment announcement to separate large purchase commitments from equity investing.
For company and investor activity, we prioritized first-hand disclosures including Captura's Series B announcement, Equinor Ventures' portfolio, Equinor's 44.01 investment, Chevron's Svante financing, Carbon Clean's $150 million Series C, Heirloom's $150 million Series B, and Climeworks' 2025 financing.
We also used first-hand disclosures from CarbonCapture, Carbon Upcycling, Breakthrough Energy, and Aramco Ventures to check portfolio exposure, follow-on behavior and scale-up activity.
The final ranking is an evidence-based editorial assessment rather than a mechanical score. We did not assign fixed numerical weights; we compared the evidence across dimensions and gave more weight to repeated conviction, scale and practical involvement in getting carbon capture technologies deployed.
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