Captura's $12.5M Raise Reveals a Lithium Play in Pasadena

Captura's new $12.5 million round is not really about carbon removal. It funds a membrane factory in Pasadena that makes acid and base from salt water, a process with paying customers in lithium extraction, water treatment, and energy storage, none of which need a ton of CO2 to exist.

The Series B, announced June 26, 2026, was led by Equinor Ventures, with Aramco Ventures, EDP Ventures, Eni Next, Freeflow Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, the Japan Airlines and TransLink Innovation Fund, Maersk Growth, mTerra Ventures, and National Grid Partners all returning. That is nearly every investor from Captura's prior rounds, betting again on the same core technology.

This is Captura's first Series B, following a $12 million Series A in 2023, a $21.5 million expansion in 2024, and a later increase to $45.3 million. Decarbonfuse has covered the Mitsui offtake, the Hawaii pilot, the French eSAF supply deal, and a board appointment. This round looks different. The money funds manufacturing capacity, not a carbon removal plant.

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What is bipolar membrane electrodialysis, really?

Bipolar membrane electrodialysis, or BPMED, uses an electric current and a stack of ion-exchange membranes to split a salt solution into an acid stream and a base stream. No added chemicals. No byproducts.

For Captura, that matters because seawater holds dissolved CO2. Pump in the acid stream, and the CO2 releases as gas, ready to capture. Add the base stream back before the water returns to the ocean, restoring its natural pH.

That sequence powers Captura's direct ocean capture system. But the splitting step itself is a technique chemical engineers have used in industrial settings for decades, for jobs that have nothing to do with carbon. Carbon removal is one application of an older tool, not the other way around.

Acid and base regeneration from electrodialysis already runs in metal plating plants, food processing lines, and industrial water treatment facilities worldwide. Market research firms tracking the bipolar electrodialysis membrane sector put its 2025 value at roughly 105.3 million dollars, growing toward 452.6 million dollars by 2035.

Why is lithium extraction the strongest adjacent market?

Direct lithium extraction needs to separate lithium from brine faster than old evaporation ponds allow, and Captura already has orders to help with that. The company has secured purchase orders for its first electrodialysis stacks built for lithium extraction customers, with initial deliveries expected this summer. That is not a future possibility. It is a signed contract with a delivery date.

Direct lithium extraction, known industry-wide as DLE, is the fastest-growing corner of lithium mining. Traditional evaporation ponds take 12 to 24 months and recover only 40 to 60 percent of available lithium. DLE methods, including membrane-based approaches like electrodialysis, can finish extraction in hours or days at recovery rates above 80 percent, according to IDTechEx research.

• The global DLE technology and services market is projected to grow from 1.54 billion dollars in 2026 to 5.72 billion dollars by 2036, a 14 percent compound annual growth rate, per Fact.MR.
• Over 3 billion dollars has been committed to DLE projects globally since 2020, according to Future Markets Inc.
• IDTechEx expects the United States to become a leading DLE market by 2036, driven largely by oilfield brine resources.

That last point lines up with Captura's footprint. Its production plant sits in Pasadena, and the new funding expands the domestic manufacturing capacity now producing stacks for lithium customers.

Application	Market Status	Captura's Role
Direct Lithium Extraction	$1.54B in 2026, growing to $5.72B by 2036	Active. Purchase orders signed, deliveries this summer.
Acid and Base Regeneration	Decades-old, established industrial process	Piloted with CURA in low-carbon cement production
Industrial Water Treatment	Mature, global, multi-decade adoption	Named as a target market, no confirmed deal yet
Long-Duration Energy Storage	Early-stage, expanding with grid demand	Named as a target market, no confirmed deal yet
Direct Ocean Capture	Emerging carbon removal pathway	Original application, still active and expanding globally

Oldham is describing two businesses running in parallel: manufacturing for paying customers, and direct ocean capture deployment. One is not replacing the other.

Is carbon removal still part of the plan?

Yes. Carbon removal remains a live, growing line of Captura's business, not a project being wound down for lithium.

Equinor's investment in this round builds on an existing collaboration agreement between the two companies, following commercial validation of Captura's direct ocean capture system through a joint qualification program. That is a carbon removal partner doubling down, in the same round that funds lithium-market manufacturing.

The more accurate read is diversification, not abandonment. Captura is de-risking a single-revenue-stream bet by selling the same hardware into markets that do not depend on carbon credit prices or climate policy timelines. Lithium buyers do not care about CO2 removal verification standards. Cement producers do not care about voluntary carbon market pricing. Both are paying for membrane performance, full stop.

Captura is not the only player in this space

Bipolar membrane electrodialysis is not Captura's invention, and the company does not claim otherwise. Manufacturers including ASTOM Corporation, Fujifilm, FuMA-Tech, and Eurodia Industrie have built BPMED systems for chemical processing and wastewater applications for years, mostly outside North America.

What sets Captura apart is the bet that one production platform can serve carbon capture customers and industrial chemistry customers from the same factory floor, using the same membrane technology. That vertically integrated approach, in-house membrane formulation through finished commercial stacks, is what the new funding scales up.

Captura's next few quarters will show whether selling membranes to lithium and cement producers can fund carbon removal's slower payback timeline. Either way, the company now looks less like a single-bet climate startup and more like a chemical engineering supplier that happens to remove carbon dioxide too.

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