Swiss climate-tech company Cotierra has raised $3 million after demonstrating its decentralised biochar technology in coffee supply chains, AgNavigator reports. The round, which brings its total funding to about $4.75 million, was co-led by PINC, the venture arm of food and beverage company Paulig, and Carbon Removal Partners, with Zürcher Kantonalbank, Carbon Drawdown Initiative, better ventures, GOTA Ventures, Hungry4Impact, Triple Impact Ventures and angel investors joining.
Tropical farming produces large amounts of crop residue scattered over wide areas, while farmers face declining soil health and more extreme weather. Rather than relying on big central plants, Cotierra processes residues close to where they arise, using small biochar reactors linked to a digital platform that operates, monitors and verifies production. The biochar goes back into farm soils; the company says this benefits farmer productivity and resilience, cuts supply-chain emissions and removes carbon.
The new money will turn its field deployments into a repeatable, integrated hardware and software product. Cotierra says it has a strong order backlog and is expanding into cocoa, cotton and citrus. "We have shown that decentralised biochar offers a highly effective pathway to decarbonise and strengthen tropical agricultural value chains where biomass is widely dispersed," said chief executive and co-founder Thomas Käslin. "Now we are making it simple, reliable and scalable."
Investors pointed to its commercial traction with coffee traders. Karl Swensson, investment director at PINC, said the solution "delivers value for farmers, traders and coffee companies alike". Max Zeller of Carbon Removal Partners, a returning investor, said Cotierra has moved from a strong technical concept to proven field results with some of the world's largest coffee producers.
Photo: Klaeren / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: AgNavigator
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