Techstart Ventures is joined in the seed investment round by Old College Capital, the University’s venture fund, and private investors.

Carbogenics takes low-value paper waste and turns it into CreChar®, a proprietary carbon-rich porous material. The company’s first application of its product adds CreChar to the feed material of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants.

This significantly increases the plant’s output and can reduce feedstock costs. At the end of its life, CreChar is returned to the soil to work as fertiliser and lock away carbon for hundreds of years, offering significant carbon savings.

Variants of CreChar targeted at other applications will be launched in 2020.

The fundraising supports the first phase of an ambitious growth plan. Carbogenics will build a pilot production facility in Perthshire, seek to prove its first product in industrial AD plants, and expand its team.

Dr Jan Mumme, Carbonics co-founder and CEO, said: “The seed investment is a major milestone for Carbogenics. We will now accelerate our progress towards launching CreChar on the anaerobic digestion market and we look forward to growing our team and product range over the next year.

“There are billions of tonnes of waste out there that our technology can turn into new sustainable carbon products to create value for our clients and the environment.”

Robert Richmond, investment director, Techstart Ventures, added: “Carbogenics’ ambition is to be the market leader in carbon upcycling and we’re delighted to support the company with this investment. We’re excited about the scale of this opportunity and have enjoyed working with the Carbogenics team, the University, Edinburgh Innovations, Old College Capital and the other investors at this round.”

Dr George Baxter, CEO, Edinburgh Innovations, said: “We’re delighted to join this investment, which is the first time we’ve worked alongside Techstart. The investment shows our joint confidence that Carbogenics holds great promise for carbon sequestration and green power generation, and is the latest affirmation of the credibility of the innovations pipeline from the University of Edinburgh.”