Aramco Ventures Joins Ucaneo’s Seed Funding Round to Build Germany’s Largest Direct Air Capture

Berlin, March 11, 2025 –  Ucaneo is excited to announce that Aramco Ventures, the venture capital arm of Aramco—one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemicals companies—has joined its esteemed group of leading hardware and energy investors. This investment follows Ucaneo’s €6.75 million Seed funding round, which was announced in September 2024.

This not only highlights Ucaneo’s cutting-edge Direct Air Capture technology but also emphasizes its crucial role in helping industries transition to net zero. Ucaneo positions itself as a key enabler, helping both emerging and traditional industries to manage their CO₂ footprint by providing a robust and reliable solution to remove CO₂ from ambient air. Ucaneo just launched its first industrial pilot at its premises, with a capacity of up to 30-50 tons of CO₂ per year—already making it one of the largest industrial DAC pilots in Germany.

Aramco Ventures’ investment will accelerate Ucaneo to build Germany’s largest DAC demonstration plant, set to be commissioned in the first half of 2026. Beyond financial support, the investment also paves the way for potential joint deployments of future commercial plants.

Florian Tiller, Ucaneo co-founder and CEO, stated: "We are thrilled to welcome Aramco Ventures as one of our investors. For us, it was essential to find a partner who not only supports our scaling efforts but is also deeply committed to playing a leading role in the energy transition. Only through impactful scale and strong partnerships can innovative technology developers like Ucaneo enable the world to build a real net-zero economy."

Bruce Niven, Executive Managing Director at Aramco Ventures, added: "Direct Air Capture, if achievable at a competitive cost, could play a crucial role in global decarbonization. Ucaneo’s approach, leveraging novel solvents and renewable energy-driven electrochemistry, has the potential to deliver a cost-effective and highly efficient solution. We are excited to partner with Ucaneo’s innovative team to advance this technology toward large-scale adoption.”

Innovative Technology Inspired by Nature

Ucaneo's state-of-the-art electrochemical DAC technology mimics the lung’s natural ability to manage CO₂. Using electricity and a specialized biomimetic solvent, Ucaneo’s system removes atmospheric CO₂ at room temperature with continuous regeneration, delivering pure, industrial-grade CO₂ for various applications.

Designed for high energy efficiency, Ucaneo’s technology seamlessly integrates with variable renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, enabling cost-effective, on-demand CO₂ removal. This flexibility allows operators to leverage energy price arbitrage, making it particularly attractive for high-grid-electricity price regions and remote renewable-powered deployments.

A Pathway to Germany’s Largest Direct Air Capture Demonstration Plant

Ucaneo’s industrial pilot—one of Germany’s largest DAC projects—will provide critical operational data to validate its technology under real-world conditions. These insights will inform the development of Germany’s largest DAC demonstration plant, planned for launch in the first half of 2026.

Supported by a Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) and an independent third-party feasibility study, Ucaneo’s DAC technology has the potential to achieve costs below €300 per ton of CO₂ in the near future—making it one of the most cost-competitive DAC solutions globally. The demonstration plant will serve as a key milestone in proving this cost-effectiveness at scale.

With this project, Ucaneo is strengthening Berlin’s and Germany’s position as a global leader in innovative climate technology solutions—paving the way for a more scalable and affordable approach to carbon removal.

About Ucaneo

Ucaneo, headquartered in Berlin, specializes in developing cutting-edge technologies for direct CO₂ removal from the atmosphere. Its patented solutions leverage renewable energy to efficiently capture CO₂, helping to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions while also providing a sustainable source of CO₂ for industrial applications—closing the carbon cycle. As the need to lower atmospheric CO₂ levels intensifies, Ucaneo’s technology enables companies to meet regulatory requirements and achieve their sustainability targets.

For more information, please visit www.ucaneo.com

About Aramco Ventures

Aramco Ventures is the corporate venturing arm of Aramco, the world’s leading fully integrated energy and chemical enterprise. Headquartered in Dhahran with offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Aramco Ventures’ strategic venturing programs invest globally in start-up and high growth companies with technologies of strategic importance to its parent company, Aramco, primarily supporting its operational decarbonization, new lower-carbon fuels businesses, and digital transformation initiatives. Aramco Ventures also operates Prosperity7, the company’s disruptive technologies investment program.

For more information, please visit www.aramcoventures.com

Media Contact

Florian Tiller
Co-Founder & CEO
press@ucaneo.com

Ucaneo Biotech GmbH

Schwarze-Pumpe-Weg 16
12681 Berlin

About IBB Ventures

IBB Ventures (www.ibbventures.de) has been providing venture capital to innovative Berlin-based companies since 1997 and has established itself as the market leader in early-stage financing in Berlin. The funds are primarily used for the development and market launch of innovative products or services as well as for business concepts in the creative industries.

In addition to our two VC funds for Berlin-based technology and creative industries startups with a combined volume of EUR 90 million, our impact VC fund with a volume of EUR 30 million has been in the investing stage since 2022. All our funds are backed by Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), administered by the State of Berlin.

IBB Ventures has already invested in more than 260 Berlin-based creative and technology companies; in consortia with partners, the start-ups received more than € 1.8 billion, of which IBB Ventures invested more than € 275 million as lead, co-lead or co-investor. IBB Ventures is the parent brand for the VC activities of IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft. 

Contact Person

Marvin Martsch
IBB Ventures
Bundesallee 210
10719 Berlin

Tel: +49 (0)30 2125 3201
Mail: info@ibbventures.de