Microsoft has signed a three-year settlement to purchase practically 37,000 tons of carbon removing credit from Indian startup All Carbonmarking the tech large’s first enhanced-rock weathering deal in Asia.
Underneath the settlement, Alt Carbon will ship 36,920 metric tons of carbon dioxide removing credit by 2029 from its Darjeeling Revival Venture in japanese India. Microsoft additionally has an choice to buy further volumes if the startup meets supply and verification milestones.
The deal follows reviews that suggested Microsoft — the world’s largest purchaser of carbon-removal credit — had paused elements of its carbon-removal procurement program. The corporate rejected those claimssaying it remained dedicated to its local weather targets even because it refined its sustainability technique.
The settlement is a possible boon for Alt Carbon, a Bengaluru-based startup based in 2023 that’s targeted on carbon removing tasks, together with enhanced rock weathering. This system entails spreading crushed basalt and different silicate rocks on farmland to hurry up pure chemical reactions that assist retailer carbon dioxide. Alt Carbon sources basalt from the Rajmahal Traps in japanese India and deploys it throughout farmland in West Bengal, the place the rock reacts with rainwater and atmospheric carbon dioxide to type secure bicarbonates.
Discussions with Microsoft started in early 2025 and culminated greater than a 12 months later after intensive scientific evaluate, due diligence, and contract negotiations, Alt Carbon co-founder and President Sparsh Agarwal instructed TechCrunch. Microsoft additionally required further monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) measures past registry necessities, together with expanded data-sharing and carbon quantification protocols, he mentioned.
The deal comes as consumers more and more search for confirmed carbon-removal tasks in a market the place verified provide stays scarce. A whole lot of startups have emerged promising to take away carbon dioxide from the environment. Nevertheless, solely a small fraction have delivered verified credit at industrial scale.
“The issue that exists proper now could be that there are lots of suppliers, however there are only a few verified deliveries on the market,” Agarwal mentioned. “When firms are capable of ship, everybody needs to make sure that they get part of the availability.”
Alt Carbon has issued nearly 10,000 carbon-removal credits by means of enhanced rock weathering to this point, making it the world’s largest issuance of such credit, in line with Agarwal. The startup expects to challenge one other 15,000 credit by the top of the 12 months.
Alt Carbon operates two carbon-removal tasks in North Bengal, together with one devoted to Japanese delivery large Mitsui OSK Strains and a bigger program from which Microsoft’s credit will probably be sourced, Agarwal mentioned. The startup has expanded past tea estates into rice-growing areas and now works with greater than 35,000 farmers throughout about 80,000 acres.
Credit underneath the Microsoft settlement will probably be issued by means of Isometric, a carbon-removal registry that developed an enhanced rock-weathering methodology.
The deal additionally displays the rising function of emerging-market suppliers in carbon removing. Builders from the International South now account for about 26% of carbon-removal credit score issuances, up from roughly 2% in 2022, Agarwal mentioned. He added that worldwide consumers have been typically skeptical of Indian carbon tasks when Alt Carbon launched over two years in the past, however rising issuance volumes and stricter verification requirements have helped enhance confidence available in the market.
The Alt Carbon settlement shouldn’t be Microsoft’s first carbon-removal funding in India. In January, the corporate signed an agreement with another Indian startup, Varahato buy greater than 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide removing credit generated by means of biochar over three years.
Microsoft joins a roster of consumers of Alt Carbon’s credit that features procurement coalitions akin to Frontierwhose members embody Google, Stripe and Shopify, and NextGenbacked by firms together with UBS, Swiss Re, and Boston Consulting Group, in line with registry information.
Agarwal mentioned Alt Carbon plans to increase its deployment footprint roughly fivefold over the subsequent 4 to 5 years from about 80,000 acres at present, as demand for verified carbon-removal credit grows.
Alt Carbon, which final 12 months raised $12 million in a seed funding spherical led by tech investor Lachy Groom, has constructed its personal MRV infrastructure, together with laboratories in Bengaluru and Darjeeling that it makes use of to research soil and water samples and quantify carbon removing. Agarwal mentioned enhancing verification capabilities and reducing measurement prices will probably be essential to scaling enhanced rock weathering tasks in India and past.
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