- Houston-based Mati Carbon wins $50M grand prize for enhanced rock weathering across smallholder farms in India.
- Over 1,300 teams from 88 countries competed to remove at least 1,000 tonnes of CO₂ annually and scale toward gigaton capacity.
- Runners-up included biochar, BiCRS, ocean-based, and direct air capture startups receiving a combined $50M.
XPRIZE Awards Largest Climate Incentive in History
XPRIZE has announced the winners of its $100 million Carbon Removal competition, a four-year global challenge backed by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation to accelerate scalable CO₂ removal solutions. Launched in 2021, the contest attracted over 1,300 teams from 88 countries, each working toward technologies that can remove gigatonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere or oceans by mid-century.
To win, teams had to demonstrate a solution capable of removing 1,000 net tonnes of CO₂ per year, model the cost to scale to a million tonnes per year, and outline a viable path to gigatonne scale.
Mati Carbon Wins $50M Grand Prize
The $50 million grand prize was awarded to Mati Carbon, a Houston-based startup founded in 2022. The company accelerates a natural carbon removal process known as enhanced rock weathering by applying finely crushed basalt across agricultural lands in India. This solution not only sequesters carbon but improves soil health and crop productivity for smallholder farmers.
Anousheh Ansari, CEO of XPRIZE, said:
“At this critical turning point for our planet, the technologies developed by these winning teams represent hope with a broad range of approaches that are suitable for different geographies and can help the world reach net zero and ultimately reverse climate change. We cannot stabilize our climate without sustainably and safely extracting carbon from our atmosphere and oceans at large scales. I’m incredibly proud of the ways this XPRIZE competition catalyzed and fostered the innovation and collaboration necessary to build this critical new industry that was missing prior to our competition.”
Mati’s win was based on robust monitoring and verification, sustainability metrics, cost efficiency, and long-term scalability. The team has already removed 20,000 tonnes of CO₂, with impact expected to grow.
Shantanu Agarwal, Founder and CEO of Mati Carbon, said:
“Being named the grand prize winner of XPRIZE Carbon Removal is not just a validation of our approach to CDR, it also represents a major catalyst to building out the science and infrastructure needed to deliver on our mission – generating climate resilience and economic empowerment for the more than 100 million smallholder farmers in developing economies worldwide. I am very proud of our Mati Carbon team and the thousands of smallholder farmers who have partnered with us in India, Tanzania, and Zambia.”
He added that Mati is controlled by a nonprofit:
“So we could stay true to our mission of actually choosing the regions where the need was the highest rather than profits.”
In 2023 alone, the startup generated $1 million in additional income for farmers and expects that number to quadruple in 2024.
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$50M More Awarded to Carbon Tech Runners-Up
The remaining $50 million in awards was distributed among high-potential startups:
- $15M to NetZero, a French biochar company operating in Brazil
- $8M to Vaulted Deep, a U.S.-based biomass carbon removal and storage (BiCRS) company
- $5M to UNDO Carbon, a London-based ERW firm active in Scotland and Canada
- $1M each to ocean carbon removal firm Planetary (Canada) and DAC startup Project Hajar (UAE)
During the competition, XPRIZE also issued $5 million to student teams and $15 million in Milestone Awards to encourage early demonstrations of CDR solutions.
David Babson, EVP of Climate & Energy at XPRIZE, said:
“The vast potential of the carbon removal solutions coming out of this competition highlight the profound impact incentive competitions have in accelerating innovation. We’re proud to serve as a powerful catalyst for transformative solutions to tackle the most pressing global climate challenges.”
Kickstarting a Nascent Industry
The XPRIZE competition arrives as carbon removal technologies face limited government support and slow corporate uptake. In 2024, fewer than 320,000 tonnes of carbon removals were delivered, according to CDR.fyi. Meanwhile, IPCC estimates that the world will need to remove 10 gigatonnes per year by 2050 to meet climate targets.
Companies like Microsoft, Stripe, and Alphabet have begun investing in carbon removal services, but costs remain high, often hundreds of dollars per tonne.
Nikki Batchelor, Executive Director of XPRIZE Carbon Removal, said:
“A prize could really help move the needle on a new emerging area of climate tech. It needed to be bold and ambitious and have a lot of money on the line to really get people moving.”
For more details and a full list of winners, visit the XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition page.
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