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Alt Carbon Bags $12 Million Seed Round to Scale Carbon Removal.

  • May 22
  • 1 min read

Started by fourth-generation tea estate farmers Shrey Agarwal and Sparsh Agarwal, Alt Carbon raised $12M led by Lachy Groom to scale carbon removal in India using enhanced rock weathering on farmlands. The idea began in 2020 when they tried to save their bankrupt family tea estate in Darjeeling. Their solution now turns tea farms into climate action hubs.


Alt Carbon began by exploring carbon markets to revive their family tea estate, but soon shifted focus to enhanced rock weathering after finding most local carbon projects low-quality. In 2023, they piloted the method on 500 acres in Darjeeling, expanding to rice and bamboo farms across North Bengal. Now, they aim to scale to 500,000 hectares and remove 5 million tons of CO₂ by 2030, as reported in Tech Crunch.


Alt Carbon uses waste basalt dust from Eastern India’s Rajmahal Traps to perform enhanced rock weathering. Spread on farms, the dust reacts with rainwater and CO₂ to form bicarbonate ions, which eventually become calcium carbonate in oceans, locking away carbon for over 10,000 years. This process also enriches the soil, boosting fertility and crop yields.

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