* Company unveils the most cost-efficient DAC system to commercialize carbon removal for e-fuels and CO2 sequestration operators

* The modular, mass-manufacturable unit cuts energy costs by 50%, while helping unlock $4B in frozen carbon credits

* Early investors include early Discord investor Peter Relan, Silver Lake Partners co-founder Dave Roux, and Jane Woodward of WovenEarth Ventures

PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- DACLab, a climate-tech startup developing the lowest-energy direct air capture (DAC) system to date, today emerged from stealth with a $3 million seed round and the launch of its first commercial product at their flagship "Ctrl+Alt+DAC" event. The round was led by Peter Relan, founder of YouWeb Incubator and early investor in Discord, with participation from Silver Lake co-founder Dave Roux, Jane Woodward of Woven Earth Ventures, and other prominent climate and deeptech investors.

"When I saw how many direct air capture solutions were making bold but unrealistic claims, I set out to back a system that could scale technically and economically," said Peter Relan, founder of YouWeb Incubator and lead investor in DACLab. "By pairing low-temperature TVSA chemistry with affordable, mass-manufacturable hardware, DACLab is raising the bar for carbon removal. Their system can deliver capture at $500/tonne today at 10,000-tonne scale, with a path to $250/tonne at the hundreds of thousands scale… all without subsidies. It is a practical, market-ready solution for developers in the e-fuels space or for developers aiming for large-scale sequestration, and selling into both voluntary and compliance carbon markets."

Unlocking Billions of Dollars in Carbon Credits Through Clean Energy Innovation

An estimated $4 billion in voluntary carbon credits are currently stalled due to the lack of scalable DAC technologies. At the same time, the carbon removal market is projected to grow to $125 billion annually by 2035, as e-fuels present another major growth opportunity (projected to reach $66B by 2030), driven by increasing demand for sustainable energy solutions. With the current U.S. administration's focus on affordable and reliable energy supply, DACLab's innovation is well poised to address the bottleneck of current solutions.

DACLab's team brings decades of experience, having used the same materials in a point source capture project in collaboration with an international oil and gas firm (Shell). DACLab's unique "moving‑bed" design physically decouples adsorption and desorption phases. This parallel, sorbent‑transport approach maximizes both phases independently, ensuring minimal pressure drop during capture and uniform heating during regeneration. This process leads to the lowest proven total energy demands in the DAC industry, well below 1800 kwh per tonne of CO2 captured from the atmosphere.

"Our modular series of products named 'Kelvin' plug right in, and create new revenue streams, whether for SAF production, feedstock for carbon utilization pathways, or even pure sequestration," said Aditya Bhandari, co-founder and CEO of DACLab. "By focusing on process engineering and iterating over multiple different prototypes we were finally able to develop a breakthrough DAC architecture that decouples adsorption and regeneration processes to capture CO₂. This helped us achieve incredible efficiencies and reduce energy needs by almost 50 percent when compared to conventional DAC systems."

Key features of DACLab's system include:

• The patented process has been tested for more than 2000 hours on two 100-tonne per year pilots.
• Operates at temperatures as low as 70°C, enabling usage of low-grade industrial waste heat
• The process also focuses on protecting adsorbent lifetime, thereby reducing operating costs.
• Modular, mass-producible units offer a near drop-in solution for operators looking at a faster path to profit with rapid deployment and scaling

Commercial Traction and Early Successful Pilots

DACLab's patent-pending process uses a Temperature Vacuum Swing Adsorption (TVSA) cycle that regenerates sorbents at far lower temperatures than typical DAC systems that need over 100 °C, opening new paths for integration into existing energy infrastructure.

After four years of engineering and research development, the company was awarded a grant to deliver a "Kelvin Pod"(100 tons per year system). The company has now set its sights on securing programs with a leading CO2 sequestration operator and an aviation fuel producer to deliver "Kelvin Modules" (1000 ton per year systems).

"This development represents a significant step forward for direct air capture. With its ultra-low-temperature regeneration, low-energy requirements, and a design that scales, DACLab has addressed most of the major hurdles. This innovation is timely as the market transitions from costly pilots to industrial-scale deployment," said Klaus Lackner, DACLab advisor and founding director of the Center for Negative Carbon Emissions.

"We've solved the energy puzzle with one of the world's most efficient DAC systems," said Samip Bhavsar, co-founder and COO. "Now, working alongside our product design and manufacturing partners we are ramping up our focus to solve the next puzzle to optimize CapEx. Our goal is to deploy the most economical DAC units at scale, making cost-effective carbon removal accessible and profitable to every project developer worldwide."

About DACLab
DACLab is revolutionizing direct air capture with the industry's lowest temperature and energy requirements. Its asset-light business model, cost effective patent pending technology, scalable modular unit design and experienced team enable rapid deployment at large scale carbon utilization sequestration projects globally. To learn more, visit https://www.daclab.us.

Eric Gonzalez
Media Contact
VSC for DACLab
daclab@vsc.co

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SOURCE DACLab