Solidia closes $78 million funding as carbon removal popularity grows

Solidia Technologies, a firm with tech that absorbs CO2 in the concrete curing process, has raised another $78 million from some heavy-hitting VC players.

Why it matters: The funding is the latest sign of interest — and optimism — around various types of carbon removal technologies.

In addition to curing concrete with CO2 instead of water, New Jersey-based Solidia also uses a lower emissions cement manufacturing process.

Driving the news: The financing round is led by Imperative Ventures and Zero Carbon Partners, and new investors include Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

• Existing backers providing new funds include BP, John Doerr and OGCI Climate Investments, which is the VC arm of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, a consortium of multinational oil giants.
• Solidia also named Bryan Kalbfleisch, a building materials industry veteran, as CEO.

The big picture: Cement production is a very large and high emissions industrial sector, accounting for an estimated 7% of global CO2.

• That helps explain the interest in cutting those emissions and opportunities for absorbing CO2 in the production process.
• CarbonCure, another firm that embeds CO2 in concrete, has backers including Amazon and Microsoft.