What do iconic Valley investors Zachary Bogue and Chris Sacca have in common? Both are trying to stop cows from belching methane. What gives?
With the conclusion of COP28, the global climate talks, methane is moving up the climate tech agenda for investors and startups.
Livestock emissions are the main source of agricultural methane, accounting for about a third of all methane emissions, and most of them aren’t from the part of the cow you’d expect. Actually, it’s from burping cow.
When cows process their food, they literally exhale methane gas as part of the rumination process, allowing them to digest grass and hay that other animals, including us, cannot digest.
And it’s these emissions that agritech and biotech companies are now starting to target. There is a lot of pressure to do this. Indeed, six of the biggest names in dairy recently bound to start disclosing their methane gas emissions and others are expected to join the system. And one of the biggest issues at the most recent COP meeting was the commitment to reduce methane emissions, which is is growing rapidly.
Methane gas is by far the worst of all greenhouse gases — much worse than CO2as methane traps more heat in the atmosphere per molecule from carbon dioxide.
The gas remains in the atmosphere for about 12 years – compared to hundreds of years for carbon dioxide – but has about 80 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide over 20 years and 27 times more over 100 years. according to the Expert Group on Methane for Animals 2023.
Therefore, its reduction is considered key to combating the climate crisis. Indeed, there is even a satellite-based “methane warning and response system” (MARS), was announced by the UN last year.
And a major UN report said “urgent measures” are needed to reduce methane if global warming is to be kept at wieldy limit.
Now a British company thinks it can tackle the issue.
UK biotech startup Mootral has raised $48.9 million to date. That number consists of an $11.2 million seed round from investors Lowercarbon Capital (the climate VC started by Chris Sacca), Earthshot Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Third Derivative, Climactic and Climate Capital. a $12.8 million Series A (led by King Philanthropies who invested $10 million); and a family office investment by Thomas Hafner and Carin Beumer of $24.9 million.
In a statement, Mootral says it plans to feed 300 million cows with its added feed by 2033 and claims it could potentially deliver up to 50% methane reductions by 2025 – that’s quite a claim.
Thomas Hafner, founder and CEO of Mootral, told me after a call that it aims to “deliver immediate, permanent reductions in methane emissions — and that’s happening on farms today.”
“The next generation of products must be at the millimeter scale. Our next generation will do even better. We are trying to achieve this reduction by up to 90%.”
Mootral also has a program called “CowCredits” whereby farmers can benefit from purchasing carbon credits as they reduce their herd’s methane emissions. ClimatePartner, a company that finances climate projects through carbon credits, has signed up to have Mootral in its portfolio of options for clients.
The company says its Enterix product (made in Wales) has been tested on UK farms and results are published in academic journals including Open Journal of Animal Science, Frontiers in Microbiology, The Journal of Animal Science and Translational Animal Science.
So how does it work? A dairy cow emits about 500 liters of methane per day, representing about 3.7 tons of CO2equivalents per year. Mootral says its current ruminant supplement can reduce methane emissions from dairy cows by up to 38% on commercial farms.
One of his competitors is CH4 Global, which raised $29 million in its most recent funding round. CH4 Global — which is backed by DCVC’s aforementioned Zachary Bogue — is hiring seaweed in cow feed to reduce methane emissions.
Steve Meller, CEO of CH4 Global, said via email that the company is leveraging this “aquaculture” to address the problem: “We have addressed the demand area through already announced commercial partnerships for South Korea with Lotte for 4 million cattle and soon to be announced global agriculture company to supply 9.5 million cattle. These two together add up to about 80 million tons of CO2reductions.’
It claimed that CH4 Global’s line of feed additives (called Methane Tamer) contains Asparagopsis, which the company claims can reduce methane emissions from cows by up to 90%.
Another player in the field is DSM, Dutch multinationalwhich recently said it would monitor the environmental footprint of foods containing animal proteins.
Whatever the case, it’s clear that the climate tech space is overlapping with agtech in unexpected ways to combat the climate crisis.
