Exclusive: A "really big proof point" for carbon removal
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The carbon removal company Vaulted Deep has secured up to $35 million in debt financing from the Italian bank Mediobanca to help expand its U.S. buildout.
Why it matters: This kind of financing has been rare in the carbon removal space to date.
- Vaulted Deep and other removal backers call it a milestone for Vaulted's method and performance — and for the industry more broadly.
- Contracts from tech giants and other big companies for removal credits — known as offtake deals — can give banks confidence to support the sector.
"It's a really big proof point for Vaulted to show that we can take these offtakes and really turn them into unlocking the financing to actually be able to go and get those new sites online and expand nationally," said Julia Reichelstein, Vaulted Deep's co-founder and CEO.
- "The bank has to believe that we can deliver, right? We only get paid on delivery," she said in an interview.
How it works: Vaulted collects organic waste — like farm waste and biosolids — and converts it into slurry that's injected deep underground for permanent storage.
- These materials can otherwise release CO2, methane, and other pollution when burned, landfilled or spread on land.
State of play: It has deals with Microsoft and buyers through Frontier, the group of corporate giants including Google that vets removal startups and shepherds deals between its members and these climate firms.
- Frontier's goal is to jump-start the wider removal market by helping create demand.
- Vaulted operates sites in Kansas and California, and is looking at developing other U.S. locations.
Zoom in: Vaulted has removed over 27,000 metric tons of CO2 on behalf of Frontier buyers in 2026, which is 39% more than it removed for those buyers in all of 2025.
- The Microsoft contract is much larger but at an earlier stage, with initial deliveries beginning earlier this year.
- Vaulted spun out of Advantek Waste Management in 2023 and uses tech developed there, and they still work together in Los Angeles.
Zoom out: Vaulted's business model isn't entirely dependent on the still-young carbon removal market.
- The company also gets paid to manage waste, a more established business with stable demand, and "then we can layer that on with the carbon credits," Reichelstein said.
- "You're ... protecting local environments and also locking away the carbon," she said.
Reality check: The new financing is a bright spot for an industry that has hit choppy waters, including Microsoft pausing new deals.
The bottom line: Frontier head Hannah Bebbington Valori said the group's "theory of change" is that demand via big multi-year offtake deals will enable removal companies to raise capital.
- "Vaulted raising institutional debt to expand their site development capabilities is a great example of this theory in practice," she said in a statement.
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