Amid escalating global tensions and supply chain disruptions threatening the availability of critical raw materials for the battery value chain in the US and the EU, UP Catalyst’s breakthrough offers a sustainable solution to meet the growing global demand for battery-grade graphite and carbon nanomaterials. 

UP Catalyst, a pioneer in sustainable carbon material production directly from CO₂ emissions, has successfully closed a €2.36 million seed extension round. This follows the initial seed round raised last December which amounted to €4 million, bringing the total seed funding to €6.36 million.  

The funding round saw equal participation from Warsaw Equity Group, a leading private investment firm in Central and Eastern Europe, and Estonia’s state fund SmartCap, who also contributed to the previous seed round. Existing investors, including Extantia, Sunly, Little Green Fund, Scottish Baltic Invest, and UniTartu Ventures, continue to support UP Catalyst’s mission to scale its production capabilities.  

The funding will accelerate the construction of its first-of-a-kind industrial production unit, positioning UP Catalyst as the largest provider of CO₂-grown carbon materials globally.

“Supporting UP Catalyst aligns perfectly with Warsaw Equity Group’s mission to invest in ground-breaking technologies that combat climate change. Turning industrial CO₂ emissions into critical carbon-based raw materials that we are severely lacking in Europe is a game changer. We have been continually impressed by the strength and expertise of UP Catalyst’s team and look forward to this partnership,” stated Arvin Khanchandani, Investment Manager at Warsaw Equity Group.  

With this investment, the company is set to expedite the development of an industrial pilot reactor capable of processing 100 tons of CO₂ annually, yielding 27 tons of advanced carbon materials such as graphite and carbon nanotubes. The technology built on molten salt electrolysis not only aims to achieve price parity with traditional carbon sources but also significantly reduces the carbon footprint associated with raw material production. 

UP Catalyst’s production process has a carbon footprint of just 0.07 ton of CO2-eq per ton of graphite—20 times lower than conventional graphite production—and 0.7 ton of CO2-eq per ton of carbon nanotubes, an impressive 242 times lower than the emissions from the traditional Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method. 

UP Catalyst has also started to move into a new facility hosting the industrial production unit activities, located right next to the Tallinn waste incineration plant. This enables future direct access to hard-to-abate CO₂ emissions.  

“By 2030, the EU will require 3 million tons of carbon materials for electric vehicle batteries. Despite having the potential to utilise 11 million tons of CO₂ through existing technology, the EU currently invests in underground storage and imports fossil-based materials from China,” said Dr Gary Urb, CEO of UP Catalyst. “The technology is ready—we just need the investment to scale up as a crucial step toward utilising at least 200 thousand tons of CO₂ annually by 2030.”  

The new plant will boast a production capacity ten times larger than the current setup, marking a significant milestone towards the construction of a full-scale industrial reactor unit. This innovative approach not only alleviates the EU’s dependence on foreign fossil fuel imports but also offers industrial partners a pathway to utilise their CO₂ emissions, potentially reducing the need for purchasing allowances from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) or mitigating carbon tax burdens.  
 
SmartCap Green Fund is financed by the European Union NextGenerationEU