CPE News (7.3.2024) – CO2Brew Inc. has raised $800,000 in pre-seed funding led by Avatar Innovations’ Avatar Leadership Fund I and private investors.
Founded by Kent Swanlund, Mark Christensen, Karen Ngo, Rajy Kappagantula, Calgary based CO2Brew is a Canadian-based company that offers an engineered carbon dioxide (CO₂) recovery system specially designed for smaller, craft-sized breweries to reduce their GHG emissions, while ensuring a self-sufficient supply of beverage-grade CO2.
CO2Brew will use the funds to build and operate its pilot with Cold Garden Beverage Company, bring its first commercial unit to market and extend their market presence across North America.
CO2Brew was spun out of the 2022 Avatar Studio.
Toronto/Calgary based Avatar Innovations is Canada’s first corporate venture studio focused on decarbonization.
Anchored by a $750k lead investment from Cenovus Energy Inc. and catalyzed by several prominent family offices and high net-worth individuals from Calgary and Toronto, Avatar Leadership Fund I represents a nation-building investment solving for the lack of risk capital available for early-stage energy technologies and supercharging the country’s leadership in the decarbonization of energy and industry.
photo credit: CO2Brew
News Release
Avatar Leadership Fund leads $800K pre-seed round in CO2Brew to catalyze sustainability and supply-chain resiliency in the brewing industry
Toronto, ON and Calgary, AB, July 3rd, 2024: Avatar Leadership Fund (“Avatar Fund”) is proud to announce its first investment and role as lead investor in a $800K pre-seed funding round for CO2Brew, an innovative Calgary-based startup that is transforming the brewing industry by unlocking cost and emission reductions, while bolstering supply chain resiliency and tapping (no pun intended) into new revenue streams. Avatar was joined by numerous Canadian angel investors in CO2Brew’s pre-seed round.
CO2Brew was spun out of the 2022 Avatar Studio, and they have been working relentlessly to build a strong business and sales pipeline. They are on the pathway to commercializing their proprietary technology, an engineered CO2capture and scrubber system that will recover high purity liquid CO2 from the fermentation process and reuse it in the brewery carbonation process. By ensuring a self-sufficient supply of beverage-grade CO2, brewers will be able to offset the purchase of industrial food-grade CO2 (derived from hydrocarbons). CO2Brew sees expanded opportunities once the technology has been derisked within the brewing industry, and will expand into the winery, distillery and food processing industry, unlocking incremental revenue streams for their clients from the sale of excess CO2.
CO2Brew’s pre-seed round comes on the back of recent ecosystem success, having won the Inventures 2024 “Earth Tech: Building Everything Better” pitch competition and being named a finalist for “Venture of the Year” in Foresight Canada’s 2024 Alberta Cleantech Awards.
“We are thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Avatar,” said Kent Swanlund, P.Eng, CEO and co-founder of CO2Brew. “Having formed CO2Brew within Avatar’s Studio, we have benefited from Avatar’s hands-on leadership, expertise and strategic support as we bring our innovative technology to market. We are honoured to be Avatar’s fund first investment and are empowered by Avatar’s passion for decreasing industrial emissions”.
“CO2Brew is an impressive representation of the innovation that can be unlocked by working within industry to create solutions for real problems” said Bryan Trudel, Partner of Avatar’s Fund and CFO and Co-Founder of Avatar Innovations Inc.. “We are inspired by team’s passion and dedication, and thrilled to lead this transaction and fill a critical gap in the clean-tech ecosystem by providing CO2Brew with necessary early-stage risk capital to pursue their business strategy and growth.”
CO2Brew will use the funds from this round to build and operate its pilot with Cold Garden Beverage Company, bring its first commercial unit to market and extend their market presence across North America. We are confident in CO2Brew’s ability to execute on its milestones and drive meaningful emissions reductions and supply chain resiliency.
For more information about CO2Brew’s innovation solutions, please visit www.co2brew.com.
About the Avatar Leadership Fund
Anchored by a $750k lead investment from Cenovus Energy Inc. and catalyzed by several prominent family offices and high net-worth individuals from Calgary and Toronto, the Fund represents a nation-building investment solving for the lack of risk capital available for early-stage energy technologies and supercharging the country’s leadership in the decarbonization of energy and industry. The Fund ($2.5MM) will provide early-stage risk capital to the most promising energy transition technologies and companies that have graduated from the Avatar Studio to Avatar Ventures.
With capital in hand, Avatar’s portfolio of breakthrough emissions reduction technologies built inside heavy industry will now be able to scale and generate superior returns through its proven and transformational innovation model. By working with the customer from inception, partnering with academia in new ways and professionalizing the start-up development process, Avatar now stands as the new model for global industrial decarbonization in the largest economic opportunity of this generation.
Avatar’s Fund is led by Bryan Trudel, a capital markets veteran and Co-Founder of Avatar Innovations, and David Pratt, MPAcc, CPA, CBV, an M&A practitioner with experiencing growing and selling a clean-tech company.
About Avatar Innovations
Avatar is Canada’s first corporate venture studio focused on decarbonization. Avatar fills a critical gap in the energy innovation ecosystem by working with large industrial firms to champion solutions from within by engaging their staff. It creates a safe “third space” for energy companies and academia to collaborate and unlock new business opportunities.
For more information about Avatar’s unique model, please visit www.avatarinnovations.energy.