Launching the Terraset Revolving Fund
A flywheel for carbon removal, anchored by the Schmidt Family Foundation.
Terraset is launching the first philanthropic revolving fund focused on carbon removal—designed to accelerate deployment and demand for high-quality, early-stage CDR.
We’re putting capital to work now, pre-purchasing high-quality carbon removal credits from innovative, early-stage suppliers for 2026-2027 delivery. Once the credits are delivered, we’ll resell them to corporate buyers and reinvest the proceeds in more pre-purchases, creating a self-sustaining engine to scale the carbon removal sector.
Because our goal isn't just to fund individual removal projects. It’s to build a market that can scale.
A new financial mechanism at a critical moment.
Scaling carbon removal isn’t just a technical challenge—it’s also a financing one. Carbon removal suppliers face persistent funding gaps. In our recent survey of more than 50 carbon removal suppliers, 92% told us they struggle to secure consistent corporate funding, and 62% cited weak demand signals as a key barrier to growth.
Buyers want to help, but many can’t take delivery risk on early-stage technologies. And investors are still cautious. This leaves a capital gap that long-term contracts and offtakes don’t solve.
All types of capital have a role to play in scaling this market, and philanthropic capital is no different. Philanthropy can do what others can’t: show up early, absorb risk, and recycle capital to keep projects moving.
How the Terraset Revolving Fund works.
We see this revolving fund as a philanthropic flywheel. Once it starts, it keeps spinning—reinvesting in future projects, building momentum over time, and multiplying the impact of every dollar invested.
Here’s how it might play out with a particular project:
Pre-purchase — Terraset uses donations to pre-purchase 1,000 tons of future carbon removal from Project A.
Deploy — Project A uses the funds to advance their work in capturing and storing CO₂ from the atmosphere.
Deliver — Project A delivers 1,000 tons of verified carbon removal credits to Terraset.
Resell — Terraset sells those credits to a corporate buyer, giving them a path to achieve their company climate goals.
Recycle — Revenue from these credits flows straight back into the fund for the next round of pre-purchases.
The same dollars keep working, creating a reusable pool of capital that funds early-stage projects and helps them get to scale quickly. Equally important, it also builds a sustainable market.
Turning early capital into market momentum.
Every reinvestment doesn’t just maximize the impact of a dollar—it accelerates carbon removal solutions and builds a viable market.
For suppliers, it unlocks upfront capital to build, scale, and prove their approaches. For buyers, it sends a strong demand signal for early-stage carbon removal and offers trusted, high-quality credits without taking on delivery risk. And for funders, it amplifies impact by recycling every dollar to move more tons, more quickly.
The result is shared infrastructure the market can build on: a replicable model that attracts follow-on investment, funds innovation, and helps carbon removal scale. Not just as a method, but as a market.
Putting the fund to work.
The Schmidt Family Foundation is providing the anchor grant for the Terraset Revolving Fund. But it was built to grow. It’s a movement, not a one-off investment.
So we’re looking for more partners to scale it. Those who support this initiative in its early days will play a critical role in making CDR a success for the long term. If you’re a funder or buyer interested in getting involved, send us a note.
Launching the fund is a signal to suppliers, buyers, and other funders that carbon removal isn’t a fringe issue. It’s a core climate solution. And philanthropy has an active role to play in helping it scale.
We’ll make the fund’s first round of pre-purchases from a vetted group of early-stage carbon removal suppliers this summer, with delivery expected in 2026–2027.
If you’re a supplier interested in joining the Terraset portfolio, fill out our intake form.