Breakout Ventures
Assembly Line
Copernic Catalysts Closes $8M Seed Prime Led by Breakout Ventures to Scale Its Transformational Catalyst for Sustainable Ammonia Production
Copernic Catalysts, a developer of novel catalysts for sustainable chemicals and e-fuels, today announced it has raised an oversubscribed $8 million Series Seed Prime round. Breakout Ventures led the round, with existing investors Future Ventures and Engine Ventures and new investors, including Innospark Ventures, New Climate Ventures, and Impact Science Ventures. Copernic will use the fresh capital to scale its ammonia synthesis catalyst to the kg-scale and to expand beyond that work with its exclusive research partner, Schrödinger, to develop a second catalyst target for the Fischer-Tropsch syngas-to-sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), thereby improving the carbon footprint of the aviation industry.
“To realize the potential of ammonia in global decarbonization efforts, ammonia’s own carbon intensity must be reduced. Copernic utilizes cutting-edge computational materials design to transform the production of commodity chemicals and e-fuels like ammonia for a low-carbon future,” said Dr. Jacob Grose, co-founder and CEO of Copernic. “Our first proprietary catalyst – already being tested by one of the world’s largest ammonia producers – can drop into existing manufacturing infrastructure and drastically reduce the temperatures and pressures required for ammonia synthesis, thereby enabling the economic production of reduced- and zero-carbon ammonia.”
The Copernic founding team brings decades of experience in the chemicals industry. Dr. Grose was previously an Investment Manager at BASF Venture Capital, and Dr. Aruna Ramkrishnan, co-founder and CTO, previously held technical leadership positions at ExxonMobil and Linde.
ZymoChem Closes $21M Series A Round Led by Breakout Ventures with Investments from lululemon and Toyota Ventures
ZymoChem, creators of the world’s most carbon-efficient bio-manufacturing platform, closed a $21 million Series A round. The investment is led by Breakout Ventures with participation from new investors including lululemon athletica, inc. and Toyota Ventures, and existing investors including GS Futures, KdT Ventures, and Cavallo Ventures. By pairing this financing with existing revenues from commercial partnerships and funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, ZymoChem will launch its first high-performance material and advance its first partnered product to commercial scale.