Cemvita Factory

The firm is led by sibling co-founders Moji Karimi (CEO) and Tara Karimi (CTO). Moji holds a PhD in petroleum engineering and previously led subsurface technology at a major energy company. Tara holds a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, with extensive synthetic biology research experience. Strategic investment decisions are made in partnership with key corporate backers, notably Oxy Low Carbon Ventures and United Airlines Ventures.

The firm engineers microorganisms — bacteria and algae — to consume carbon dioxide and convert it into organic compounds through natural metabolic pathways. Its platform includes microbial electrosynthesis, which uses renewable electricity to drive CO₂-to-lipid conversion. The output streams can be refined into sustainable aviation fuel precursors, ethylene, or specialty chemicals, depending on the host microbe and process conditions.

Cemvita Factory operates as a technology company, not a fund or family office. It develops industrial bioprocesses in-house and commercializes them through joint ventures and licensing agreements with large industrial partners. The firm raised venture backing rather than managing outside LP capital, and its investors are primarily corporate strategics seeking offtake or technology access.

Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, the venture arm of Occidental Petroleum, is a leading partner and co-funder of the firm's CO₂-to-ethylene pilot. United Airlines Ventures invested directly to secure access to sustainable aviation fuel pathways. Additional disclosed collaborators include major energy and industrial firms evaluating microbial carbon conversion at their operating sites.

The firm's engineered microbes are classified as contained industrial organisms, subject to EPA and USDA biotechnology regulations in the United States. Its commercial model depends heavily on US carbon-capture incentives, including the 45Q tax credit for CO₂ utilization, which provides up to $60 per metric ton of CO₂ permanently stored or converted into qualifying products.

The firm has disclosed over $80 million in total equity funding through multiple venture rounds. Key investors include Oxy Low Carbon Ventures, United Airlines Ventures, and other corporate venture arms aligned with industrial decarbonization. It does not disclose a traditional AUM figure, as it is an operating company deploying project capital rather than a fund manager.

Most biomanufacturing startups are either pure R&D shops or asset-light licensors. Cemvita Factory combines in-house microbe design with its own pilot-scale electrosynthesis plant, giving it direct operational data that informs technology licensing terms. It also targets immediate industrial co-location at emission sources — a deployment model designed to shorten the commercialization timeline by using existing CO₂ pipeline infrastructure on the Gulf Coast.