44.01 wins Holcim and JERA Ventures as strategic backers for carbon mineralization

MUSCAT — 44.01, the Omani carbon-mineralization company, has added Holcim and JERA Ventures as strategic investors, Holcim announced. The amount was not disclosed. Existing backers ALIAD, Air Liquide's venture arm, and Climate Investment also added funding.

Holcim is not a stranger writing a cheque. Its MAQER Ventures arm invested after a live pilot at Holcim's Fujairah cement plant, running since July, capturing four to four and a half tonnes of CO2 a day by mineralizing it into rock. JERA Ventures, the investment arm of Japan's largest power generator, is 44.01's first power-sector backer.

Founded in Muscat in 2020 by Talal Hasan, Karan Khimji and Ehab Tasfai, 44.01 won the Earthshot Prize in 2022, raised a $37 million Series A in July 2024 co-led by Equinor Ventures and Shorooq Partners, and signed an $11.7 million Frontier offtake in October whose buyers include Google, H&M, Shopify and Stripe.

The read: carbon removal dies without industrial partners who own both the CO2 and the geology, and 44.01 is collecting them on both sides of the Indian Ocean. JERA's cheque matters beyond the money: Japan's utilities need durable removal credits, and Oman and Fujairah have the peridotite. Watch for a JERA-linked project announcement on Japanese soil next.