Alt Carbon accelerates natural carbon dioxide removal through Enhanced Rock Weathering on agricultural lands in Darjeeling, India. The company spreads a proprietary blend of organic inputs and silicate-rich rock dust on tea estates, which both sequesters atmospheric CO₂ permanently and improves crop yields. Its first project, the Darjeeling Revival Project, has secured a $500,000 prepurchase agreement from Frontier, an advance market commitment backed by Stripe, Shopify, Google, and others.
Funding
Funding not disclosed
Founders
Product
Problem
Atmospheric CO₂ levels continue to rise, and emissions reductions alone are insufficient to meet global climate targets. The IPCC emphasizes that removing historic CO₂ is necessary, yet existing carbon removal solutions are often costly, low-quality, or lack durability and traceability, undermining buyer confidence in the voluntary carbon market.
Solution
Alt Carbon accelerates Enhanced Rock Weathering by spreading Hari Mati, a proprietary combination of organic inputs and silicate-rich amendments, on agricultural land in Darjeeling's tea estates. The hot, humid climate speeds the natural reaction between crushed basalt rock and rainwater, pulling CO₂ from the atmosphere and mineralizing it in soil for over 10,000 years. This process simultaneously improves crop yields for struggling tea estates, reviving the region's heritage tea industry while generating high-quality, durable carbon credits. The company employs an in-house measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) system, along with a proprietary data platform called Atlas, to precisely quantify carbon removal across land and water. Alt Carbon's science team, including PhDs from the Indian Institute of Science, and its Darjeeling Climate Action Lab (D-CAL) support rigorous research and development. The company has secured a $500,000 prepurchase agreement from Frontier, an advance market commitment founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, Shopify, and McKinsey Sustainability, marking the first Indian company to join its portfolio.
Target Audience
Primary customers are multinational corporations with net-zero targets seeking high-quality, durable, and traceable carbon removal credits, as well as climate finance platforms and advance market commitments like Frontier.
Features
- Proprietary Hari Mati blend combining organic inputs and silicate-rich rock dust for optimized carbon mineralization
- High-resolution MRV technology tracking soil chemistry, mineralogy, groundwater dynamics, and stream quality across 80,000 acres
- Atlas, a proprietary data platform creating longitudinal environmental records across Eastern India
- Darjeeling Climate Action Lab (D-CAL) processing up to 100,000 samples annually by 2026
- Durable carbon removal with storage times exceeding 10,000 years, verified through in-house scientific analysis
- Integration with tea estate agriculture, providing dual benefits of carbon sequestration and crop yield improvement