Google- and Microsoft-backed Terradot acquires carbon-removal competitor

Carbon-removal startup Terradot is acquiring competitor Eion, the two companies announced on Tuesday. The deal was primarily driven by pressure from major investors, including sovereign wealth funds, which increasingly prefer to work with companies capable of executing large-scale contracts. Eion was not big enough to meet those expectations, Eion CEO Anastasia Pavlovic Hans told The Wall Street Journal.

Both Terradot and Eion focus on spreading finely ground rocks over agricultural land to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The approach, known as enhanced rock weathering (EWR), accelerates a naturally occurring chemical process. While EWR has the potential to become a relatively low-cost carbon removal method, it depends on operating at a significant scale and across widely distributed locations. According to a survey conducted by CDR.fyi, there remains a substantial gap between the prices EWR companies hope to charge and what buyers are currently willing to pay.

Terradot, which is based in California, primarily operates in Brazil, where it uses basalt as its preferred mineral for carbon capture. Eion, by contrast, operates in the United States and relies on olivine as its core material.

Terradot’s investors include Gigascale Capital, Google, Kleiner Perkins, and Microsoft. Eion’s backers include AgFunder, Mercator Partners, and Overture.