Equatic

Equatic's differentiator is a dual-output model few CDR companies can claim: its seawater-electrolysis process, invented at UCLA by Gaurav Sant and Xin Chen, permanently removes CO2 by locking it away as stable solid carbonate minerals and dissolved bicarbonate, while co-producing carbon-negative green hydrogen as a saleable product. That second revenue stream is the whole strategic bet — if the hydrogen sells, Equatic's removal economics improve dramatically versus single-output CDR, letting it undercut on cost per net tonne. The technology is advancing on efficiency: the company unveiled oxygen-selective anodes (produced in San Diego) to raise durability and performance at scale. The backing and demand signals are substantial for the category — Boeing has committed to purchasing carbon removal and hydrogen from future commercial plants, and Equatic has pursued the world's-largest ocean-CDR plant ambitions in Singapore plus a Boeing/SEDC Energy demonstration in Sarawak targeted for 2026. In August 2025 it closed an $11.6M Series A led by Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health (a Temasek Trust vehicle) and Kibo Invest, tapping sovereign-linked Singapore climate capital. As an Earthshot Prize finalist with a first commercial-scale deployment aiming to remove ~109,500 tonnes of CO2 and produce ~3,600 tonnes of hydrogen annually, Equatic pairs durable ocean removal with an industrial co-product — a hedge against the softness of pure carbon-credit markets.

Equatic is thinly capitalized for its ambitions — its August 2025 Series A was just $11.6M — and that gap between a sub-$12M raise and the plan to build "the world's largest ocean-based carbon removal plant" is the whole risk in miniature. The dual-output model that powers the bull case is also a double execution burden: Equatic must simultaneously prove durable, verifiable ocean carbon removal and produce cost-competitive green hydrogen, and green hydrogen is itself a brutally difficult, oversupplied, subsidy-dependent market where far better-funded electrolysis players are struggling to reach cost parity — so the co-product that is supposed to rescue the economics may itself be unprofitable. Equatic shares marine CDR's unsolved MRV and permitting challenges — quantifying diffuse ocean drawdown, winning approval to discharge altered seawater, and overcoming public wariness of ocean geoengineering. The Singapore and Sarawak projects are announced ambitions and MOUs on aggressive 2026 timelines, and Boeing's commitments are future-plant purchase agreements, not banked revenue. It competes with Ebb Carbon, Captura, and others for the same sites, buyers, and unsettled standards, from the smallest balance sheet among them. A clever two-for-one chemistry bet asked to solve two of climate tech's hardest problems — durable ocean removal and cheap green hydrogen — at once, on a Series A that barely funds a pilot.