The world’s most abundant resource – the ocean – does for free what startups in 2024 raised $200 million to do: remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Yet this vast body of water – covering nearly three-quarters of Earth – could be the key to solving two of the largest environmental challenges the world faces: weaning off fossil fuels in favor of green energy sources on top of absorbing existing carbon emissions from the air.

At least, that’s what Equatic is banking on for the future.

The Santa Monica-based clean energy company announced in mid-August it raised $11.6 million in series A funding. The round was led by Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health, a division of Singapore-based Temasek Trust, and climate-focused private investment firm Kibo Invest.

“Truly innovative carbon management technologies are needed to mitigate climate change before the consequences become irreversible,” John Browne, the chairman of Equatic’s advisory board, said in a statement.

“By removing carbon dioxide and simultaneously generating green hydrogen, Equatic’s solution provides unique advantages in terms of cost and scalability,” said Browne, who is also the former chief executive of British Petroleum and a founder of venture firm BeyondNetZero,

Equatic’s proprietary platform captures carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and in turn produces green hydrogen using one single process that can be scaled. The process is meant to boost the ocean’s natural ability to draw in copious levels of carbon, store it permanently and in turn produce hydrogen. Not to minimize the ocean’s competence, but Equatic says its commercial plants can absorb carbon 99,000 times faster than the ocean, which covers 71% of the globe. The process works by pumping seawater and splitting it, isolating the hydrogen, oxygen, acid and base using renewable electricity.

“Truly scalable climate solutions must work with nature,” Equatic’s website states. “The power of the ocean is in its chemistry. This chemistry endows the ocean with an unrivaled capacity to drawdown and permanently store anthropogenic carbon.”

A technology revival

While the ocean is an efficient – not to mention free – carbon sink, it disappointingly cannot scale or provide proprietary data insights the way many of these startups do. Equatic’s on-land plants are designed to accurately measure how much carbon dioxide is being removed from the atmosphere, a key metric for buyers that need to follow various government regulations on improving their carbon footprint.

As the likes of South Africa, the European Union, China, Kenya and Australia develop strict carbon footprint regulations, the need for carbon measuring and carbon removal technology has only grown. As of August, the sector has raised more than $373 million in venture funding – nearly double of what was raised in the entirety of 2024, according to PitchBook. Culver City-based Clairity Technology, an air capture carbon dioxide removal startup, raised nearly $6.8 million in seed funding in February. Carbon Ridge, a Santa Monica-based maritime carbon removal startup, announced in August it deployed the industry’s first centrifugal-based onboard carbon capture system on a shipping vessel. This was months after the International Maritime Organization voted to adopt a global policy regulation that would require ship owners to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 65% in 2040.

“There’s now an effective stick, essentially, that is requiring vessel owners and operators to reduce their emissions,” said Chase Dwyer, the chief executive of Carbon Ridge. “And so now they’re looking at: what is the lowest cost way for us to do that, and the most environmentally impactful?”