Cotierra Raises $3M for Decentralised Biochar
Cotierra raises new funding to place biochar production closer to farms and agricultural waste streams.
Cotierra is trying to solve a practical bottleneck in carbon removal: agricultural waste is distributed, while most industrial processing infrastructure is centralised.
What happened
The Zurich-based company raised $3 million, taking total funding to $4.75 million. PINC and Carbon Removal Partners co-led the round.
Cotierra combines decentralised biochar reactors with software for operating, monitoring and verifying production. The approach lets agricultural residues be processed close to where they are generated.
The company started with coffee and is expanding into crops including cocoa, cotton and citrus.
Why it matters
Transporting low-value biomass over long distances can make centralised biochar plants uneconomic. Smaller distributed systems could reduce logistics costs while creating value directly within agricultural supply chains.
The software layer also matters because buyers of carbon-removal credits need evidence that the material was produced correctly and that carbon storage can be measured.
The bigger picture
Carbon removal is becoming an infrastructure problem rather than simply a carbon-credit story.
Projects that connect climate benefits with existing industries may have stronger economics than standalone removal facilities. Cotierra's model links waste management, soil improvement and carbon accounting in one agricultural workflow.