AIR COMPANY SECURES $30MM IN SERIES A FUNDING TO FURTHER SCALE ITS CARBON CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY

Carbon Direct Capital Management Leads New Round of Financing to Accelerate Air Company's Consumer Products and Beginning Their Transition Into the Industrial Sector

NEW YORK, April 19, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Air Company, the world's leading carbon technology company that creates carbon-negative alcohols and consumer products from CO₂, has raised $30MM in Series A funding. Carbon Direct Capital Management led the round with participation from Toyota Ventures, JetBlue Technology Ventures, and Parley for the Oceans, bringing the company's total funding north of $40MM. Carbon Direct Capital Management will join the Air Company board.

Air Company made its debut in 2019 with the world's first alcoholic beverage made directly from carbon dioxide, Air Vodka. The brand has since released two additional CO₂-based consumer products: a hand sanitizer, Air Spray, and a fragrance, Air Eau de Parfum. The company's new growth capital will support the scaling of its consumer products in order to meet increasing demand while also setting the foundation for its expansion into the industrial and aerospace sectors.

"Our goal is to integrate our carbon utilization technology into every applicable sector to help combat the climate catastrophe. We'll achieve this mission by providing people with a highly attractive array of products made from captured carbon and working with businesses to integrate our technology into their industries, maximizing the amount of CO₂ we can utilize each year. If we can contribute to the protection of our planet through the advancement of technology and innovation, then we are doing our job," says Gregory Constantine, CEO and Co-founder of Air Company.

Air Company plans to rapidly ramp up their CO₂-derived alcohol production with the construction of the company's third facility. This state-of-the-art factory will be home to Air Company's newly designed commercial-scale carbon utilization system, its largest to date. This system will be dedicated to exponentially increasing their production of CO₂-derived ethanol and sustainable fuels. Together with NASA, Air Company has also demonstrated application of their technology for space exploration by creating sugars and proteins from their alcohols. As the proprietary technology can scale across many verticals, the company can potentially address up to 10.8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, which is over 4.6 billion tons of CO₂ annually.

The funding round has been led by Carbon Direct Capital Management, the growth equity firm dedicated to investing in the carbon management ecosystem. "Air Company is pioneering carbon utilization technology that has the potential to reshape consumer industries in the short term and fuels in the long term," states Jonathan Goldberg, CEO of Carbon Direct. "We are incredibly excited to support Gregory, Stafford and the entire Air Company team at this accelerating stage of the company's growth."

"This new growth capital will provide us with the resources to continue to bring our vision to life, ensuring we consistently deliver the highest quality products to meet our consumer demands while continually working with world-class talent on technology optimization on a pathway toward true scale," Constantine explains. 

Dr. Stafford Sheehan, Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder of Air Company, adds "Ultimately, we aim to truly have an impact toward addressing climate change by utilizing waste and atmospheric carbon dioxide to displace fossil fuels at-scale; replacing the carbon that we currently extract from the ground, with carbon removed from the air."

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ABOUT AIR COMPANY
Air Company is a carbon technology, engineering, and design company based in New York that ideates and creates products for the future, out of the air. Using proprietary technology, Air Company transforms carbon dioxide into impurity-free alcohols that can be used to create a variety of consumer goods. Launching initially with a carbon-negative vodka, Air Vodka, Air Company is now producing carbon-converted Air Spray hand sanitizer and Air Eau de Parfum, among other consumer innovations to come. Air Company's products are produced using their groundbreaking process to produce impurity-free ethyl alcohol from CO₂. The only three inputs that are required are air (carbon dioxide), water, and sun (renewable electricity). The brand has won awards including TIME Best Inventions, Fast Company World Changing Ideas, Pentawards Diamond, and the NASA CO₂ Conversion Challenge, among others. Air Company exists to enable new possibilities and redefine the border of what is possible. Working to combat one of the most vexing problems facing humanity today, anthropogenic climate change, the company's primary goal is to utilize as much carbon dioxide as possible, creating a climate-positive impact.

ABOUT CARBON DIRECT
Carbon Direct combines scientific expertise, technology and financial capital to scale carbon management into a global industry. Our investment business - Carbon Direct Capital Management LLC - makes direct investments into leading carbon management companies. Our advisory business - Carbon Direct Inc. - helps corporate clients with carbon management solutions. Carbon Direct's team of world-renowned carbon scientists has a critical understanding of the risks and opportunities of carbon technologies. The firm has offices in New York City and Seattle. To learn more, visit www.carbon-direct.com.

SOURCE Air Company