Zurich-based climate technology company Cotierra has raised $3 million in new funding to scale its technology and move from successful field projects to wider commercial use. The company has now raised $4.75 million in total since it was founded.
In tropical farming regions, large amounts of agricultural waste are often left unused. At the same time, poor soil health, extreme weather, and climate change are making farming more difficult. Food and beverage companies are also looking for ways to reduce emissions from their supply chains.
Cotierra is addressing these challenges by developing technology that makes it easier to produce biochar locally and use it in tropical agriculture. Biochar is a carbon-rich material made from plant and agricultural waste that can be added to soil.
The company combines small-scale reactor technology with a digital platform that helps businesses operate, monitor, and verify biochar production. This allows agricultural companies to turn farm waste into biochar close to where it is produced, return carbon to the soil, and track the results.
For farmers, the technology can help improve soil health, productivity, and resilience. For food and beverage companies, it can help reduce supply-chain emissions and support carbon removal.
Cotierra has already tested its technology in the coffee industry. The company is now working to turn these successful field projects into a complete hardware and software solution that can be deployed at a larger scale.
The latest funding round was led by PINC, the venture arm of food and beverage company Paulig, and Carbon Removal Partners. Other investors included Zürcher Kantonalbank, Carbon Drawdown Initiative, better ventures, GOTA Ventures, Hungry4Impact, and Triple Impact Ventures, along with climate and impact-focused angel investors.
Thomas Käslin, CEO and Co-Founder, Cotierra said: “We have shown that decentralised biochar offers a highly effective pathway to decarbonise and strengthen tropical agricultural value chains where biomass is widely dispersed. Now we are making it simple, reliable and scalable. Our ambition is to make it the standard solution for agricultural companies to strengthen farmer productivity and resilience while reducing emissions and removing carbon across their supply chains.”
Cotierra started by focusing on the coffee industry and is now expanding its technology to other tropical crops, including cocoa, cotton, and citrus fruits.
