Carbon Drawdown Initiative Carbdown

Carbon Drawdown Initiative Carbdown

Carbon Drawdown Initiative Carbdown was established in 2020 by Dirk Paessler — creator of the PRTG network monitoring software — as a purpose-built vehicle for advancing negative emissions technologies. Rather than building a generalist climate fund, Paessler channeled the proceeds from his tech exit into a highly specific thesis: accelerating the scientific and commercial viability of enhanced weathering, where crushed silicate rocks are spread on agricultural land to permanently bind atmospheric CO2. The firm operates from a German base with additional experimental and observational sites in regions including New South Wales, Australia and New York, United States. The firm's strategy combines direct startup investments with hands-on field research. Carbdown funds early-stage companies working on measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) for enhanced weathering, as well as companies producing or distributing rock dust amendments. Known portfolio engagements include the climate-tech company InPlanet, which operates rock weathering projects in Brazil, and supporting research collaborations with academic institutions running multi-year soil trials — including systematic greenhouse gas monitoring on test plots. Geographically, the firm focuses on deployment in Europe, Australia, and North America, favoring operational models that integrate with existing agricultural supply chains rather than novel industrial infrastructure. In September 2024, Carbdown published mid-term results from its four-year enhanced weathering field trial in Bavaria, demonstrating consistent removal rates across multiple basalt application plots — a milestone that aligns with the firm's emphasis on public data transparency to de-risk the sector (per the firm's official communications, 2024). The team remains deliberately small, reflecting a capital deployment pace tied to scientific milestones rather than fund-cycle pressure. The initiative's operational footprint includes assessment points in Furth, San Francisco, and Byron Bay, reflecting the global nature of its research collaborations and agricultural trial networks. The firm's structural differentiator lies in its founder-led, permanently capitalized architecture. By operating without external limited partners or a fixed fund life, Carbdown absorbs the multi-year latency of field trials — bridging the gap that venture timelines often cannot — and publishes open data from its own experiments to accelerate the broader field.