Slashing CO2Kelp as the new corn.
Big Picture
Kelp is the perfect industrial crop: convertible into a variety of high-value products without the ungodly amounts of land, chemicals, and fertilizers that corn or soy need. With only sunlight and seawater, kelp can produce abundant biomass while sucking up carbon, reducing ocean acidification, and providing habitat for marine life. But to get to corn-scale, kelp needs to compete on cost, quality, and quantity.
How it Works
Macro Oceans uses a single-step process to convert kelp into multiple valuable products. Their modular, zero-waste system feeds whole plants to a cocktail of microbes that gently extract bioactive compounds. These compounds can be converted into a range of all-natural, high-quality functional plant-based feedstocks like biopolymers, pharmaceuticals, sugars, and proteins.
Unfair Advantage
Their single-step process dramatically simplifies processing and reduces costs 7x over existing bioprocessing practices. These drop-in, plant-based ingredients offer a zero-waste feedstock for products that are generally derived from petroleum or industrial monocrops in some of the world’s largest, most pollutive industries like pharma, plastics, textiles, and animal protein.
10
Times faster
carbon removal from kelp than from trees
MATTHEW PERKINS CEO & FOUNDER
Matthew sold his previous agtech company, Yield Pop, to the Climate Corporation. He was also the first business hire at Inari Agriculture.
MOHAMMAD TAJPARAST FOUNDING ENGINEER
Mohammad was formerly at Google X, where he prototyped biorefining projects focused on macro algae.
Getting current on kelp processing with Macro Oceans
Climate Tech Venture Capital
Why this startup wants to help build a seaweed industry in Alaska
Fast Company
Seaweed recycling startups get funded
Axios