Rishi Masalia readily admits St. Louis at first glance could seem like an odd choice for an office for Portland, Maine-based startup Running Tide.
Running Tide's business is focused on the ocean, and St. Louis is hundreds of miles away from the nearest ocean. But despite any oceanfront property in the region, Masalia, Running Tide’s vice president of biotechnology, says St. Louis provides a key offering for the company: It’s expertise in plant science.
“The joke with plant scientists is that at some point in every plant scientist’s career, you come through St. Louis because there’s so many things (here),” Masalia said.
Founded in 2017, Running Tide is developing technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through the ocean through a process that uses buoys to store carbon. The buoys are designed to sink to the ocean floor, where they would store the removed carbon. In addition to its carbon renewal initiatives, Running Tide is seeking to develop technologies to enhance ocean health and restoration. The startup announced last month it raised $54 million in a Series B funding round.
St. Louis has become a major hub for Running Tide, housing its agronomy and genetics laboratory.
Running Tide has its headquarters in Portland, Maine, plus another operation in Iceland. Masalia joined the company in late 2021 and has led its expansion into St. Louis, where it began work last year. It has six employees locally and since February has worked from the BRDG Park facility on the campus of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in Creve Coeur.
Masalia said St. Louis was chosen because of its strengths in agriculture technology and its access to resources and talent. He said BRDG Park was chosen to house Running Tide’s St. Louis locations because it had laboratory facilities that were already built out, allowing the company to quickly begin operations there.
The local office's work so far is focused on research and development around macroalgae, or seaweed, which naturally pulls carbon from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The company said its carbon buoys are seeded with macroalgae, which grows on the buoys and can capture carbon.
Running Tide in July was named to the latest cohort of the agtech track of the Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator, a program staged in partnership with the Danforth Center. As part of the incubator program, Running Tide receives up to $250,000 in non-dilutive funding that can be used for technical support and field trial projects. It is also paired with Danforth Center scientists who provide research assistance.
Running Tide’s expansion into St. Louis comes as it advances its carbon removal technology. It has conducted observational experiments with its carbon removal buoys in Casco Bay, Maine, and the continental shelf of Iceland. Its technology is designed to generate revenue from carbon credits purchased by customers to counterbalance the environmental impacts of their own operations.
Running Tide in August said it provided its first carbon removal credits, with 100 credits for e-commerce company Shopify, its first customer. Running Tide said it has several customers, including payments company Stripe, who have purchased carbon credits “as part of their recognition of the importance of carbon removal, with the goal of catalyzing and advancing the market around this key industry,” a spokesperson said.
