JULY 2024
Investor update
In this update:
Kia ora, hello,
We’re pleased to bring you an update on what we’ve been up to and the progress we’re making on building a low carbon future, both here in Aotearoa New Zealand and around the world.
Tēnā koe, thank you for your continued support as an investor into Aspiring Materials. Your involvement enables us to keep moving ahead to bring to fruition an industrial-sized solution for carbon removal. We’re grateful to have you on board with us.
Ngā mihi nui, best regards
Mark, Chris and the team at Aspiring Materials
Making waves in the Asia Pacific region
We’ve had an active few months as awareness of our carbon removal tech gains traction across the Asia Pacific region.
Aspiring Materials represents NZ Cleantech in South Korea
In May, our CEO Mark Chadderton travelled to South Korea to showcase the potential Aspiring Materials offers one of the world’s largest manufacturing nations. Funded by Asia New Zealand Foundation, Mark joined six other leading NZ cleantech startups on a trip to learn directly from industrial manufacturers about the challenges they face as South Korea looks to decarbonise rapidly. The trip provided the forum to connect with those leading Korean businesses and foster potential collaboration that “advance sustainability efforts in both countries.”
"The NZ delegation comprised a broad range of decarbonising, transitional technologies, many of which are ripe for adoption in South Korea. I can see that what we have at Aspiring Materials could be a significant solution to removing carbon from industries reliant on energy from fossil fuels, like South Korea."
- Mark Chadderton, CEO & Co-Founder
Mark’s trip followed fast from the announcement in early May that Aspiring Materials had been named a Cleantech APAC25 for 2024. To be included in this list of who’s who in cleantech is an important accolade for us as it identifies the top startups across the Asia-Pacific region expected to make a “significant market impact over the next five years.” A Cleantech APAC25 badge adds valuable industry credibility to the stand-out solution we have developed.
Our Director of Operations Kathy Izumi and Chemical Processing Lead Megan Danczyk travelled to Singapore for the Cleantech Forum Asia to present more about what we’re doing and to be presented our award fromCleantech Group's CEO Richard Youngman.
“Scaling climate technology is really hard—long hours, lots of hard work, lots of sacrifices. And while it’s one thing to back yourselves (and we do!), it’s quite another to know that others back you as well and think what you’re doing has value. What a thrill for us, then, to receive this recognition from the Cleantech Group and an honour to be able to travel to Singapore and be in fellowship with our peers.”
Kathy Izumi, Chief Operating Officer at Aspiring Materials
In June, Director of Chemical Processing at Aspiring Materials Dr Matt Watson gave a short but sharp presentation at the Climate Tech Summit, organised and hosted by WellingtonNZ and Creative HQ. The afternoon event held at St James Theatre in Wellington brought together investors, supporters and doers involved in the Climate Tech scene across Aotearoa New Zealand. It was also an opportunity for government advisors (seen here in this photo) to connect with industry experts, like Matt, following the release of the NZ Cleantech Report 2024, which Aspiring Materials contributed to.
Developments in the global north
Advancing solutions for climate is a global team sport. While we love our base here in the beautiful South Island of New Zealand, it’s incredibly important to be active in the markets where climate tech innovation is enjoying exponential growth.
Breakthrough Energy Summit 2024 and an audience with Bill Gates
Mark Chadderton and Chief Scientist Dr Chris Oze travelled again to New York and then on to London in late June/ early July as part of their Breakthrough Energy Fellowship. New York offered Chris and Mark the chance to meet in person with business mentors at Breakthrough Energy and make new connections with people and businesses central to our strategic growth abroad (more on that below).
The pair then travelled across the pond to London for BESummit24, an invitation-only event that gave all current BE Fellows the opportunity to showcase how their technology can contribute to the globe’s goal of net zero by 2050.
Importantly, Aspiring Materials was invited to meet and present to Bill Gates. We were one of only four BE Fellow companies afford this exclusive opportunity, and it gave us a full 15 minutes to share with Bill what we’re doing, how we’re doing it, and what it offers the world.
“It was an amazing experience to present and talk with Bill Gates! We also had the opportunity to meet and talk with many other climate tech companies, big and small. At the end of the summit, I was convinced that Aspiring Materials is a rare company that can and will make a substantive change to the trajectory of global climate change.” - Chris Oze, Chief Geologist & Co-Founder
Dr Chris Oze, Bill Gates and Mark Chadderton at BESummit24
Mark and Chris grab an icecream with BE Mentors Jennifer Wagner, Jane Zhang and Guy Michlin
The Breakthrough Energy cohort 3 at BESummit24 in London
Dr Chris Oze, Bill Gates and Mark Chadderton at BESummit24
North American strategic partnership secured with exclusive rights to olivine
In an exciting step forward, we have signed a joint venture development agreement with a North American mining company that owns a large, accessible olivine deposit. We have signed an agreement that aims to develop a strategic partnership for exclusive supply of olivine as feedstock for our mineralisation process. This partnership places us in an ideal location to begin operations to service the North American industrial market. We’ll have more to share in the coming months on this partnership.
Aspiring Materials, now also a B-Corp US company
Finally, we’ve completed legalities to set up Aspiring Materials as a US incorporated company, with B-Corp status. Gaining B-Corp status is significant as it increases investment opportunities from the US and Europe. Incorporation of the company in the US also makes it easier to collaborate with US based entities and opens access to government funding streams, tech acceleration, and demonstration hubs across the climate tech industry.
Action in
Aotearoa
While we make headway overseas for future expansion, we’ve also made firm progress here on home soil.
Site confirmed for our first stage pilot plant
We’re pleased to announce we’ve signed the lease agreement for our new home base in NZ and the first of its kind mineralisation plant for Aotearoa New Zealand. Our new location sees us staying true to our roots and setting up here in Christchurch. The location we’ve selected is ideal for our operation, with room to grow as we scale.
Securing this location means we are now preparing to install equipment in readiness for commissioning the pilot plant and complete the full relocation of operations in the fourth quarter of this year. The opening of this plant for operation will be a milestone not just for Aspiring Materials but for Aotearoa and for carbon removal itself.
“It has been very busy and exciting times for the engineers on the team. Finding and securing the right location to build the pilot plant is a key step. We are all working hard towards getting the pilot plant built and running and basing out of the right spot sets us up for success.” - Megan Danczyk, Lead Chemical Process Engineer
Pre-commercial trial contract for point source capture finalised
We have also signed a contract with a well-known and loved multinational to conduct a point-source carbon capture trial at their New Zealand-based operation. We can’t share full details yet but suffice to say this is an exciting first trial that will provide a pathway towards significant point-source carbon capture across the globe.
Other noteworthy events
Aspiring Materials was recognised by HolonIQ, a global platform that identifies trends and companies powering the climate, education and healthcare markets. We were included in the 2024 Indo-Pacific Climate Tech 100, yet another proof point of our potential to be part of powering the clean economy revolution.
We were also finalists in the 2024 NZ Hi-Tech Awards, nominated for the Most Innovative Hi-Tech Solution for a More Sustainable Future. While we didn’t pick up the prize (a big congrats to NovoLabs), it was awesome to be nominated and sit alongside some of the country’s most dedicated and innovative hi-tech startups leading the change.
Keep in touch with our progress
As we grow, we’ll be increasing our communication across key platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook and our own website blog to share updates on what we’re doing and help grow understanding about carbon removal.
Building awareness and understanding about the new carbon economy is important to us, to provide vision, ambition and hope for people working in carbon intensive industries today and those looking ahead to their future careers.
Keep in touch with us on your favourite channel for updates.