OCOchem lands $5M in seed funding for its CO2 conversion platform

In Washington state, carbon conversion startup OCOchem has raised $5 million in Seed funding from lead investor TO VC. INPEX Corp., the LCY Lee Family Office, and MIH Capital Management also participated in the round. These investors join Halliburton Labs, Halliburton Company’s energy and climate tech accelerator, which has been supporting OCOchem’s scaling since 2021.

Using its proprietary technology, the Richland, Wash.-based company is commercializing a new way to make highly versatile carbon-neutral platform molecules by electrochemically converting recycled carbon dioxide (CO2), water and clean electricity into formic acid and formate chemicals. A wide variety of essential chemicals, materials, and fuels that are conventionally made from fossil fuel-based hydrocarbons can now be made more sustainably and more affordably using this building block molecule.

OCOchem will use the newly raised funds to scale its modular carbon conversion technology to industrial proportions and build a pilot plant for commercial demonstration operations. Industry, energy, and agricultural producers can purchase formic and formates made using OCOchem’s technology to reduce the carbon intensity of everyday products from feed and fibers to fuels and fertilizers — at the same or lower cost as similar products made from petrochemicals.