Deep Sky, a Montreal-based carbon removal company, has received $75 million in Series A funding to assist in planning a commercial-scale carbon removal facility in Quebec and support further research in the emerging field.

The funding comes from $57.5 million in new capital co-led by Brightspark Ventures and Whitecap Venture Partners, and a conversion of Deep Sky’s $17.7-million seed note.

Investissement Québec, OMERS Ventures and Business Development Bank of Canada’s Climate Tech Fund are among other participants in the funding round.

“Never before have I seen an industry in its infancy with so many tailwinds, capital infusions and Fortune 500 and government buy-in,” Damien Steel, Deep Sky’s CEO, said in an announcement.

“Our capital raise is about advancing the multi-trillion-dollar carbon removal industry and providing a platform everyone can benefit from. We’re committed to making Canada the carbon removal capital of the world and offering the highest-quality carbon emission offsets.”

Plans for the funding

Deep Sky has set out to remove gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO2) through industrial-scale carbon removal facilities and sell the service as carbon removal credits. By testing out a variety of direct air capture and direct ocean capture technologies at its Alpha research centre, Deep Sky aims to discover the best options for use at its planned commercial facility in Quebec.

The Series A funding fully covers the cost of the Alpha research centre. It also enables planning for the construction of its first commercial plant, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, Steel wrote in an email exchange with Sustainable Biz Canada.

Steel said the funding will allow for Deep Sky to nearly double its workforce over the next six months from its current 15 full-time employees, hiring across engineering, capture, sequestration, software, communications and finance departments.

The expanded software team would work on a software and data collection layer to “track every molecule of CO2 from capture to storage,” Steel said, bolstering the transparency of its carbon removal credits.

“At Whitecap, we invest in fast-growing startups led by exceptional founders with tremendous potential,” Shayn Diamond, partner at Whitecap Venture Partners, said in the announcement. “In searching for Canada’s next big bet and upon learning about Deep Sky, it became clear that this is a team and a technology worth supporting.

"Climate change is the biggest challenge of our lifetime, and we need to back founders tackling the problem head-on.”

Steel said Deep Sky is already planning for future funding and growth. "Given strong investor interest, we’ve already started filling our Series B round of funding," he said.

New board members

Along with the funding, Deep Sky is adding two new board members:

• Sam Duboc, the president and CEO of investment firm Elkland Capital Inc. He is also a co-founder EdgeStone Capital Partners, which he led as CEO, and served as a managing director at CIBC Capital Partners.
• Annesley Wallace, the executive vice-president of strategy and corporate development at TC Energy. Wallace was also the executive vice-president and global head of infrastructure at OMERS.