ImpactAlpha, March 7 – Natural diamonds are nothing more than crystallized carbon. New York-based Aether is using the surplus of atmospheric carbon to make diamonds in a lab.
The company, which relies on direct-air capture of carbon, claims its process produces gems that are “among the top 2% of all diamonds on the planet.”
The company’s $18 million Series A round was led by Helena and TRIREC, with backing from Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Social Impact Capital. Nonprofit Helena invested to help carbon capture reach “truly global scale,” said Helena’s Henry Elkus. “This can only happen if we move beyond underground sequestration and create viable commercial use cases for captured carbon.”
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Aether’s conflict-free diamonds solve both environmental and social problems. The B Corp says every one-carat diamond removes 20 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere, “enough to offset the average American’s carbon footprint by more than a year.”
It sources its carbon from Swiss direct-air capture tech venture ClimeWorks.
