Carbelim secures $1.05M for microalgae carbon capture scale-up

By Daniel Okafor

Carbelim, a Kerala-based climate-tech startup, has secured $1.05 million from the IIT Madras Unicorn Frontier Fund to develop and scale its microalgae-based direct air capture system.

The capital will fund technology development and company growth, while Carbelim expects its planned operations to create more than 50 new jobs in India. The announcement discloses no capture-plant capacity, annual carbon-removal tonnage, cost per tonne or customer commitment.

That leaves the project at the funded development stage rather than a documented commercial removal network. Carbelim says it develops nature-based decarbonization solutions and has been recognized among India's top 11 climate-tech startups.

What does Carbelim's technology do?

Carbelim describes its carbon-capture and clean-air technology as drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide through a microalgae-based process and converting it to oxygen. The material focus is therefore biological: microalgae sits at the center of a system aimed at atmospheric carbon removal and cleaner air.

Co-founded by Dr. Karthika Gopi and Rahul Babu, the startup has filed 13 patents for the technology. Six filings are in India and seven are in the United States, giving the project a two-country patent position before the announced scale-up.

Gopi said: “Our technology delivers efficient carbon capture, clean air, sustainable resource production, and advanced Micro Algae Tree (Liquid Tree) solutions for climate-positive cities and industries.”

She added: “This investment will support our efforts to develop and scale our technology while also drawing attention to Kerala’s growing deep-tech startup ecosystem.”

The pitch links carbon capture, clean air and resource production, but the announcement supplies no measured capture rate or operating scale against which to test those claims. Carbelim's patent count shows development activity; it does not substitute for commercial performance data.

Who is providing the $1.05 million?

Carbelim is the fourth recipient selected for financial support through the IIT Madras Unicorn Frontier Fund. The fund is managed by Unicorn India Ventures (UIV), which the announcement describes as India's first strategic integration between a premier research institution and a venture capital fund.

Created as patient capital by IIT Madras, IIT Madras Research Park and UIV, the fund exists to back deep-tech startups in India. It launched in February 2026 with a goal of attracting ₹1,000 crore.

In its first phase, it raised ₹450 crore and deployed nearly ₹55 crore among the first four startups, including Carbelim. The $1.05 million award sits within a broader early-stage portfolio intended to move research-linked technologies toward development and growth.

Carbelim also receives support from Kerala Startup Mission. Its CEO, Anoop P. Ambika, called the investment “a major recognition for Kerala’s deep-tech startup sector.”

The backing combines a new national deep-tech fund with an existing Kerala startup-support program, giving Carbelim more than one route to technical and institutional support.

What must happen before scale claims are proven?

The immediate operating target is more than 50 new jobs as Carbelim develops and scales the microalgae system. That figure is a hiring expectation attached to the investment, not evidence of completed industrial deployment.

The company must still show what its process can remove from air, at what volume and cost, and whether the planned operations can run as intended. Those measures matter because direct air capture projects need repeatable performance data, not just laboratory development, patent filings or an announced workforce plan.

The next market milestone is a disclosed commercial deployment with capture capacity and carbon-removal output; until then, the $1.05 million marks Carbelim's move from 13 patent filings and a funded concept toward an operating microalgae carbon-removal business.