Our Investment in a Profitable Solution for Carbon Emissions – Twelve, Secures $130 Million in Series B
ByBrent MacDonald – Principal at Rising Tide
Twelve, formerly Opus 12, headquartered in Berkeley, California, has developed a device that recycles carbon dioxide (CO2) into cost-competitive chemicals and fuels. The Company's technology bolts onto any source of CO2 emissions, and with only water and electricity as inputs, transforms that CO2 into some of the world's most critical chemical and energy products. Compared to existing solutions, the approach has up to 10x lower cost and lower greenhouse gas emissions – and also the potential to offset over 1.5 billion tons of CO2 emissions annually.
Twelve was born from breakthrough discoveries by Dr. Etosha Cave and Dr. Kendra Kuhl at the world-renowned Jaramillo Group at Stanford University, a recognized world leader in CO2 electrocatalysis. There, they developed carbon transformation technology. In 2015, Dr. Cave and Dr. Kuhl were ready to take their fundamental discoveries from the lab and translate them into a commercial solution to revolutionize the way we reduce emissions by making the world's most critical chemicals from CO2 instead of fossil fuels. They co-founded Twelve with fellow Stanford graduate and clean tech entrepreneur, Nicholas Flanders.
The Company currently has four major product lines in development: carbon dioxide to carbon monoxide; carbon dioxide to ethylene; carbon dioxide to methane; and carbon dioxide to synthetic gas. Twelve’s first product line, which converts carbon dioxide to carbon, serves a $2B market. The Company is partnering today with automotive, household, apparel industries and other brands, including Mercedes-Benz, Procter & Gamble, US Air Force, and NASA, all of which use Twelve’s technology to reduce emissions. More recently, Twelve, Alaska Air Group (Alaska Airlines), and Microsoft signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on advancing the market for sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) to include fuels derived from recaptured CO2 and renewable energy and working toward the first commercial demonstration flight in the United States powered by Twelve's E-Jet®. SAF is a core part of Alaska Airlines’ five-part pathway to net zero by 2040.
The Series B $130 Million funding will now scale the Company’s engineering, manufacturing, and deployment of its industrial-scale carbon transformation technology for the creation of a wide range of products with a lower carbon footprint.
Why We Are Excited:
Nearly all products and systems we rely on daily use carbon as a resource: from what we wear, to how we live and how we move. Twelve is addressing climate change by using carbon emissions to create products traditionally derived from fossil fuels by sourcing carbon from waste CO2, rather than from fossil fuels. With this vision, the world can reverse emissions while making useful products that drive the global economy. Twelve’s tested electrochemical process has achieved consistent performance outputs in key metrics when matched to the historical performance of others in the field. At scale, Twelve’s technology has the same C02-reducing power as 120 billion trees. The Company is partnering with industry leaders to implement its carbon transformation technology at scale. With its own purpose-built R&D facilities and access to the world-class resources of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, Twelve has the tools and partnerships to scale its solution.
See the Company video ‘The Element of Change is in the Air’ found here.
See funding press release, link here.
Rising Tide Fund Managers, LLC and its affiliates (“Rising Tide” or “We”) is a United States venture capital firm investing primarily in the information technology and healthcare/life sciences markets. Over the last 35 years, we have partnered with family funds, high-impact investors, and strategic partners to help launch and expand startups in a variety of industries across three continents. We are dedicated to cooperating with our entrepreneurs at all stages: from financing to leveraging our international networks to facilitating exits by design. For more information, visit www.rtf.vc.The portfolio companies described herein do not represent all the portfolio companies purchased, sold or recommended for portfolios advised by Rising Tide. The reader should not assume that an investment in the portfolio companies identified were or will be profitable. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Investors should be aware that a loss of investment is possible.