Turning CO₂ Into a Profitable Resource

Colorado-based startup New Iridium has successfully raised $2.65 million in seed funding, propelling its mission to transform carbon dioxide from a climate liability into a valuable industrial resource. This funding round will accelerate the commercialization of New Iridium’s advanced catalytic platform that converts bio-ethanol and captured CO₂ into high-value chemicals with a verified carbon-negative footprint.

Reinventing the Chemical Supply Chain

Most traditional chemical manufacturing depends on fossil-derived feedstocks and energy-heavy processes that release enormous amounts of CO₂ and generate toxic byproducts. New Iridium’s modular, continuous-flow reactor changes that narrative by using bio-ethanol and CO₂ as feedstocks, operating under mild conditions to dramatically reduce energy use and emissions.

Their flagship products - bio-acetic acid and bio-ethyl acetate - have already achieved USDA BioPreferred® certification, verifying their 100% bio-based content and negative carbon lifecycle. After more than 200 hours of continuous pilot operation with excellent conversion rates, New Iridium has shown not just technical feasibility but true industrial viability.

Beyond Green: The Power of Dual Wins

New Iridium’s platform isn’t just about being green; it’s about winning on performance and economics too. In the cleantech world, startups often focus narrowly on environmental impact, assuming customers will trade off performance or cost for sustainability. But New Iridium took a contrarian path: they engineered a system that competes directly with petrochemical incumbents on price and reliability, all while eliminating emissions.

Here’s a hidden gem for founders: the most disruptive products eliminate trade-offs customers think they have to live with. When New Iridium set out to prove they could deliver cost savings (up to 56% lower) and emission reductions (up to 77% lower) in one unified solution, they didn’t just create a better chemical - they created a new standard.

For founders in any sector, this is an invaluable insight. Don’t just incrementally improve. Go deep into the painful compromises your industry has accepted for decades, and break them apart. When you build a solution that’s not a choice between A or B but offers both (or more), you don’t merely enter a market - you redefine it. That’s how true category leaders are born.

Targeting Billions in Market Value

With its roots in U.S. bio-ethanol infrastructure, New Iridium is directly positioned to serve massive global markets. Acetic acid alone is a $15 billion market, while ethyl acetate represents around $5 billion. These chemicals are essential ingredients in coatings, adhesives, packaging, textiles, and pharmaceuticals.

New Iridium’s process achieves conversion efficiencies above 95%, producing consistent, high-purity chemicals that match - and often exceed - petrochemical benchmarks. This combination of industrial reliability and sustainability gives New Iridium a powerful commercial edge.

The Team: Science Meets Scale

At the helm is co-founder and CEO Dr. Chern-Hooi Lim, who brings deep technical expertise from the University of Colorado Boulder. Alongside him is co-founder Professor Garret Miyake, a pioneering researcher in catalysis and sustainable chemistry, and COO Brent Cutcliffe, an experienced operator skilled at scaling early-stage technologies into industrial reality.

Their team recently added strategic advisor Jeff Uhrig, former CEO of Novomer, to guide commercialization strategy and global partnerships - a crucial move as they transition from pilot to full-scale manufacturing.

Deploying the $2.65M Seed

The fresh $2.65 million in funding will be used to:

• Scale reactor systems from pilot (50 tons/year) to intermediate and commercial-scale (eventually targeting 50,000 tons/year production).
  
• Further improve process automation, data integration, and continuous operation performance.
  
• Advance CO₂-to-chemical product lines, expanding the portfolio beyond acetic acid and ethyl acetate.
  
• Build partnerships with industrial off-takers and grow the engineering and commercialization teams.
  

The roadmap targets commercial trials by 2026, with full-scale rollout expected by 2028. By building modular, distributed reactors that can be co-located with bio-ethanol producers, New Iridium also reduces logistics emissions and cost.

Redefining Industrial Chemistry

As corporations and regulators demand urgent decarbonization, solutions like New Iridium’s are shifting from “nice-to-have” to absolute essentials. The chemical industry - responsible for up to 10% of global carbon emissions - desperately needs scalable, cost-effective paths to carbon reduction.

New Iridium’s technology offers a blueprint for how mission-driven, science-based startups can achieve deep decarbonization without sacrificing profitability. It’s proof that the clean future doesn’t have to be more expensive or less effective - it can be better in every way.

A Lesson for Every Founder

New Iridium’s journey is more than a technological success; it’s a strategic masterclass. By questioning long-held trade-offs and proving that sustainability and performance can coexist without compromise, they’ve positioned themselves to lead an entire industry into a new era.

For founders everywhere, the takeaway is clear: the real breakthroughs happen when you stop asking, “Which should I prioritize?” and start asking, “How can I achieve both?” In that pursuit lies the future of every transformative company.