Calgary’s Carbon Upcycling Technologies has raised $10M from ATEL Ventures to bring its carbon capture cement technology to commercial scale, with its first facility set to open later this year.
Carbon Upcycling Technologies, a Calgary-based carbon capture cement company, has secured up to $10 million in financing from ATEL Ventures. The deal will support Carbon 1 Mississauga, its first commercial facility, currently under construction in Ontario. The company expects the facility to begin operations in the second half of 2026.
How Carbon Upcycling’s carbon capture cement technology works
Carbon Upcycling builds systems that capture CO₂ directly from cement kilns. The company then combines that captured carbon with industrial byproducts, such as steel slag, a waste material from nearby steel plants, to produce supplementary cementitious materials, or SCMs.
SCMs are powders that partially replace traditional cement in concrete. To understand why that matters, it helps to know how cement emissions work. Conventional cement production releases CO₂ not just from burning fuel, but from heating limestone itself, a chemical reaction that cannot be avoided with renewable energy alone. As a result, using less cement in a concrete mix directly cuts emissions at the source.
The company says its process can reduce cement-related emissions by up to 40 per cent. Once operational, Carbon 1 Mississauga will produce up to 30,000 tonnes of SCMs annually.
About the deal
ATEL Ventures provides asset-backed financing to venture-stage companies. Under this agreement, ATEL secures the loan against Carbon Upcycling’s physical assets rather than taking equity. ATEL also receives an option to make a future equity investment in the company.
“Our partnership with ATEL signals Carbon Upcycling’s technology is entering a new phase of commercial readiness. Capital discipline is vital to building the next generation of clean, competitive industrial infrastructure. This agreement aligns the right financing with the right assets, helping us advance our first commercial project while laying the groundwork for repeatable growth.”
Suzy Taherian, CFO of Carbon Upcycling
“Carbon Upcycling exemplifies the kind of breakthrough technology we seek to support in venture-backed companies. Their platform converts industrial byproducts and captured CO₂ into valuable cement materials, improving economics for producers while onshoring critical construction supply chains. We’re pleased to support the company’s first commercial deployment and look forward to seeing this technology scale across industrial infrastructure globally.”
Sam Cash, VP & Director at ATEL Ventures
Why this financing structure matters for industrial startups
Most early-stage cleantech companies raise venture equity. However, equity financing dilutes founders and early investors over successive rounds. Asset-backed debt works differently. It requires tangible collateral, in this case, real infrastructure at a working cement plant, but it preserves equity and lowers the cost of capital over time.
For industrial startups, accessing this type of financing is a meaningful step forward. It signals that a lender views the technology as credible enough to secure a loan against. Moreover, it helps future investors assess whether the company can replicate its model beyond a single project. That progression, from equity-funded prototype to debt-financed commercial asset, is one of the harder transitions in industrial climate tech.
Canada’s growing investment in carbon capture cement
Carbon Upcycling has already attracted significant public funding alongside private capital. Specifically, Carbon 1 Mississauga received up to $10 million in federal support through three programs: Next Generation Manufacturing Canada’s Sustainable Manufacturing Program, Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Low Carbon Economy Fund, and the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program.
The company’s investor base also includes three of the world’s largest cement manufacturers: CRH Ventures, Cemex Ventures, and TITAN Group. Additional backers include the Business Development Bank of Canada, Builders Vision, Climate Investment, Oxy Low-Carbon Ventures, Amplify Capital, and Clean Energy Ventures.
Canada is also backing larger carbon capture cement projects. Heidelberg Materials North America, for instance, has received a federal commitment toward its Edmonton facility, targeting what would be the world’s first full-scale carbon capture system in the cement sector, aiming to capture more than one million metric tons of CO₂ annually. The Government of Canada signed a letter of intent in 2023 to contribute $275 million toward the Edmonton project.
Furthermore, in March 2026, Ottawa announced an additional $28.9 million across 12 clean energy projects. Several of these focus on CO₂ utilization for industrial materials, including cement.
Why is carbon capture in cement so difficult to solve
Cement production accounts for roughly 1.5 per cent of Canada’s emissions and up to eight per cent globally.
Unlike electricity generation, the industry cannot decarbonize simply by switching to renewables. A large share of emissions comes from the chemical reaction that occurs when limestone is heated, not from the energy source alone. That makes cement structurally difficult to clean up.
The International Energy Agency estimates that achieving net-zero by 2050 will require capturing over 1.2 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually by 2030. Currently, the world captures approximately 50 million tonnes per year. The gap is significant.
As a result, technologies that work within existing cement plant infrastructure are gaining attention. They avoid the need to rebuild facilities from scratch, which lowers both cost and deployment time. That practical advantage is a key reason why both private investors and government funders have backed Carbon Upcycling’s approach.
Still, the sector faces scrutiny. Research from the International Institute for Sustainable Development has raised concerns that carbon capture and utilization is too expensive and slow to meaningfully contribute to 2030 climate targets. Pilot data from Carbon 1 Mississauga, once available, will be an important reference point in that ongoing debate.
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