Counteract: Carbon Removal Venture Capital

The first fund, Counteract One, is an early-stage vehicle (often described around £35 million / about $42 million) structured as an EU Article 9 strategy. It invests globally at pre-seed and seed, with a stated ambition to help catalyze on the order of 5 gigatonnes of CO2e removal potential by 2050. That framing matters: the firm is underwriting additionality and scale pathways, not only short-term offset demand.

Portfolio work spans a wide removal stack. Direct air capture and mineralization sit alongside biomass pathways, ocean and coastal approaches, enhanced weathering, carbon-negative materials and fertilizers, and the measurement and verification software that keeps removal markets honest. The common thread is whether a solution expands durable removal capacity.

For founders, Counteract is one of the clearest specialist VCs to approach when the product is removal-native. For LPs and ecosystem partners, it fills a gap between generalist climate VC and project finance that arrives too late for first-of-a-kind technology.

Key benefits

Removal-only focus

Thesis stays narrow on greenhouse gas removal and enabling tools, which is useful for founders who get lost inside broad climate VC menus.

Pre-seed and seed capital

Meets teams when the science is still early and specialist partners matter more than brand-name generalists.

Gigaton-scale ambition

Fund strategy is framed around catalyzing multi-gigaton removal potential by mid-century, not only boutique pilot volume.

Expect a science-heavy process and comfort with hardware, novel chemistry, nature-linked engineered pathways, and MRV tools. Commercial path still matters. Buyers, offtake logic, and cost curves have to be plausible even when the technology is early.

Geography is global. Stage is early by design. If a company is primarily an emissions-avoidance or efficiency business with removal as a side narrative, it is usually a weaker fit than a removal-first product.

Frequently asked questions

What does Counteract fund?

Counteract is a London-based venture firm focused almost entirely on carbon removal. While many climate funds mix efficiency, electrification, consumer brands, and occasional removal bets, Counteract specializes in technologies and tools that take greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or lock them away for the long term. The first fund, Counteract One, is an early-stage vehicle (often described around £35 million / about $42 million) structured as an EU Article 9 strategy. It invests globally at pre-seed and seed, with a stated ambition to help catalyze on the order of 5 gigatonnes of CO2e removal potential by 2050. That framing matters: the firm is underwriting additionality and scale pathways, not only short-term offset demand. Portfolio work spans a wide removal stack. Direct air capture and mineralization sit alongside biomass pathways, ocean and coastal approaches, enhanced weathering, carbon-negative materials and fertilizers, and the measurement and verification software that keeps removal markets honest. The common thread is whether a solution expands durable removal capacity. For founders, Counteract is one of the clearest specialist VCs to approach when the product is removal-native. For LPs and ecosystem partners, it fills a gap between generalist climate VC and project finance that arrives too late for first-of-a-kind technology.

What is Counteract's check size?

Varies

What is Counteract's investment thesis?

Counteract backs pre-seed and seed companies innovating in greenhouse gas removal and the enabling infrastructure around it. The firm wants solutions that are additive to the removal ecosystem: new capacity, better permanence, lower cost, or trusted measurement, rather than reshuffled claims on existing offsets. Expect a science-heavy process and comfort with hardware, novel chemistry, nature-linked engineered pathways, and MRV tools. Commercial path still matters. Buyers, offtake logic, and cost curves have to be plausible even when the technology is early. Geography is global. Stage is early by design. If a company is primarily an emissions-avoidance or efficiency business with removal as a side narrative, it is usually a weaker fit than a removal-first product.

Which sectors does Counteract invest in?

Clean Energy, Climate Tech, Environment & Conservation