What the business is
Sells permanent carbon removal by turning biomass into bio-oil and injecting it underground, paid for through carbon-removal purchases.
The bet
That converting biomass into liquid bio-oil and pumping it underground gives permanent, scalable carbon removal.
Starting capital
Confirmed an A round; PitchBook reported over $25M raised, which Reinhardt disputed
How it started
Peter Reinhardt co-founded Charm Industrial in 2018 while running Segment, which he sold to Twilio for $3.2B. Charm's chief scientist Shaun Meehan had two breakthroughs: converting biomass into liquid and pumping it underground to put oil back where it came from.
What happened
Charm's business began to accelerate in 2021. Stripe became its first customer after a carbon removal RFP, buying a couple hundred tons of permanent removal; Shopify, Zendesk, Block and Microsoft also bought in.
How it ended up
On 7 January 2022 Reinhardt announced he was leaving Twilio to be Charm's full-time CEO; Steve Davito took over Twilio Segment.
What has to be true
Reinhardt said two breakthroughs by his co-founder made the business accelerate in 2021, so he wanted to devote his energy to it fully.
Making biomass into a liquid solved the economics and logistics of reaching and moving biomass.
Stripe's carbon dioxide removal RFP created a first paying customer for permanent removal.
What can be applied
When a side project hits a technical breakthrough and early buyers appear, a founder with a successful exit may be the scarcest resource it needs: his full-time attention.
Aftermath
As of 7 January 2022, Charm had removed 5,400 tons, according to its own figures, and had customers including Stripe, Shopify, Zendesk, Block and Microsoft. Reinhardt wrote that billions of tons of carbon dioxide removal per year would be needed and multiple methods scaling at breakneck speed.
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