vaulted with capital

Houston company's sustainable spinoff launches with $8M in seed funding

Vaulted Deep, which diverts sludgy organic waste from landfills or waterways and captures and stores carbon emissions generated, is getting off the ground with $8 million from investors. Photo via Getty Images

Houston-based Advantek Waste Management Services, which specializes in deep-injection wells that minimize the impact of land, air, and water waste, has launched a carbon removal and storage company.

The spinoff, Vaulted Deep, is getting off the ground with $8 million in seed funding.

Vaulted diverts sludgy organic waste, such as agricultural and livestock waste, before it’s dumped in a landfill or waterway or simply left on land to decompose. It then captures and stores carbon emissions generated by the organic waste.

A study published earlier this year by Louisiana State University ecologist Brian Snyder estimated that organic waste generates five gigatons of carbon dioxide per year. A gigaton equals one billion metric tons.

Vaulted is already off to an impressive start. For one thing, the startup has raised an $8 million seed round led by New York City-based carbon removal fund Lowercarbon Capital. Other investors include Advantek and San Francisco-based climatech VC fund Earthshot Ventures.

In addition, Vaulted has already nailed down purchase commitments from Frontier, a marketplace for buyers and sellers of carbon removal credits. Ryan Orbuch, a partner at Lowercarbon, is one of Frontier’s strategic advisers.

“Vaulted is literally cleaning up the planet, scaling field-proven injection terminology to safely dispose of harmful wastes like biosolids while permanently storing away millions of tons of CO2,” Orbuch says in a Vaulted news release.

While injection sequestration sites often take years to gain permits and start operating, Vaulted already boasts two permitted sites that are up and running. Vaulted offers carbon removal for $300 per ton, compared with more than $500 per ton charged by some competitors.

Advantek founder Omar Abou-Sayed is switching from CEO to chairman of Advantek, which launched in 1999, and will serve as executive chairman of Vaulted. Julia Reichelstein, a former investor at San Francisco-based climatech VC fund Piva Capital, has been tapped as CEO of Vaulted.

“Unlike many carbon removal technologies still in R&D, Vaulted’s technology and sites can safely and permanently store carbon underground, at scale, today,” says Abou-Sayed. “The early removals we will deliver are pivotal to keeping the window open to hold our planet’s warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

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A View From HETI

Drake Plastics opened its new headquarters last month. Photo via LinkedIn

Ultra-high-performance plastics company Drake Plastics officially opened its new state-of-the-art, 140,000-square-foot manufacturing center and corporate office in Cypress last month.

Dubbed “Drake HQ, ” the new facility was built to align with Harris County’s clean energy goals and features a 1.3-megawatt solar generation plant designed to offset 50 percent of the plant’s power consumption.

The facility is designed as a “factory ranch,” and is intended to blend in with its natural surroundings. With the expanded campus, Drake says it looks to serve existing and new customers in the semiconductor, aerospace, energy and defense industries.

The new headquarters is designed as a "factory ranch" and features a solar generation plant to offset half of its power consumption. Photo via LinkedIn

“We are thrilled to open the doors of our new headquarters in the area where it all began,” Drake Plastics President Steven Quance said in a news release. “We are honored to have reinvested in the community that has supported our growth and success over the past three decades.”

Drake Plastics cut the ribbon on March 26 at the new facility, which also marked the company’s 30th anniversary in the Cypress area. The company launched in 1996 with four employees and has grown to employ more than 100 staff members, according to a LinkedIn post.

Drake Plastics is a globally recognized leader in ultra-high-performance polymer manufacturing and specializes in extrusion, injection molding, precision machining, machine building, engineering and distribution. According to the company, its new Cypress facilty is one of the largest in the world that processes these high-performance polymers.

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