Charm Industrial

Charm Industrial is a carbon dioxide removal company. It collects agricultural and forestry residue, such as corn stover, and heats it through pyrolysis into bio-oil, a mix of hydrocarbons that it injects into regulated deep wells, including former oil wells, for long-term storage. Its buyers are companies purchasing durable carbon removal. Canary Media reports the company was founded in early 2018 in San Francisco by CEO Peter Reinhardt, Shaun Meehan and two other engineers; Charm's own team page says the founders met through Planet and began working on sequestration in 2017, and credits Meehan, its chief scientist, with two 2020 breakthroughs that made the bio-oil approach economically viable.

Charm's early revenue came from removal purchases rather than a disclosed venture round. In May 2020 Stripe selected it for its carbon removal program, paying about $250,000 for 416 metric tons. On June 6, 2023 Charm announced a $100 million Series B led by General Catalyst, with Lowercarbon Capital, Exor Ventures, Kinnevik, Thrive Capital and Elad Gil participating. General Catalyst lists Hemant Taneja and Paul Kwan as its investors and dates the relationship to 2023. Earlier rounds and any post-money valuation have not been disclosed in the sources reviewed.

The company is active and private. At the Series B it reported more than 6,200 tons delivered since its first injection in 2021, a fivefold rise in weekly deliveries during 2023, and 140,000 tons of new commitments from Frontier and JPMorgan Chase. The Frontier offtake, about $53 million for 112,000 tons by 2030, averaged roughly $470 per ton against a cost Canary Media put near $600, with a stated target of $50. Later contracts include a second Google agreement in January 2025 for 100,000 tonnes of biochar removals through 2030, a 100,000 ton agreement with Boeing reported by TechCrunch in November 2025, a 44,000 tonne offtake with TD Bank and a 16,500 ton deal with Capgemini. Charm opened a second office in Fort Lupton, Colorado, in November 2022 and has added storage capacity in Louisiana.

For investors, Charm shows how pre-purchase contracts from climate buyers can fund a hardware company ahead of equity. Stripe and Frontier buyers paid for tons before the company had scaled, and that contracted demand preceded the General Catalyst led round. The model ties the business to the price buyers will pay per ton of durable removal, so the gap between current cost and the $50 target is the variable to watch. There has been no liquidity event, and returns for the Series B investors remain unrealized.