Chicago-based LanzaTech has landed a large round of funding for its climate change-fighting solution that turns pollution into jet fuel and other reusable materials.
LanzaTech announced Tuesday that it has raised $72 million in a Series E round from Novo Holdings, a Danish investment firm that backs life science companies. The round brings LanzaTech's total funding to more than $300 million since it was founded in 2005.
Launched by Richard Forster and Sean Simpson, LanzaTech has built a platform that recycles carbon pollution and turns it into ethanol that can be used to fuel jets. Its technology also turns waste into chemical feedstock and other chemicals that can be used to build plastics.
LanzaTech's technology is currently being used at a steel mill in China, where it's making ethanol out of the plant's emissions. It's also doing the same with unrecycled household waste in Japan.
"This (investment) comes at a critical time for the health of our planet," LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren said in a statement. "We no longer need to debate whether climate change is real. We need to mobilize all sustainable solutions to create a future free of carbon pollution. Novo Holdings’ investment and experience in the industrial biotechnology space, will allow LanzaTech to continue to create a Carbon Smart world, with clean blue skies and blue oceans for all."
LanzaTech has twice landed on CNBC's list of most disruptive companies, and was named to Fast Company's annual list of most innovative companies.
Located just outside of Chicago in suburban Skokie, LanzaTech has grown its staff to more than 160 employees.
LanzaTech isn't the only Chicago-area biotech company turning waste into fuel---in fact, it's the second such company to raise at least $70 million in the last two weeks.
Chicago startup AMP Americas raised $75 million last month for its solution that turns cow waste into renewable natural gas for trucking fleets. AMP has raised more than $130 million to date.
