We are very happy to share that our founder, Shantanu Agarwal, has been selected as a Henry Fellow—a prestigious honour awarded by the Mulago Foundation. The Mulago Foundation identifies leaders working on high-potential conservation and climate solutions and supports in designing and scaling impactful initiatives. We thank team Mulago for their incredible support and guidance. You can read more about the Henry Fellows program here - https://lnkd.in/dXfyRHs7
? NEW HENRY FELLOW? Shantanu Agarwal and Mati Carbon grind rocks to improve soils and sequester carbon for smallholder farmers in India, Zambia and Tanzania. The technical term for grind rocks is Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) and it's a highly regarded form of permanent carbon removals. Put simply, you add rock dust to soil that then speeds up natural processes that remove carbon from the atmosphere. This not only locks carbon into solid compounds that wash into the ocean but also improves soil quality, potentially boosting farmers’ incomes. There's evidence that the worse the land, the better the results. Mati Carbon gets smallholders across Africa and Asia access to ERW, and to the resultant revenue from carbon markets. They create or source the rock dust needed for ERW—it’s often a byproduct of existing mining—and apply it to smallholder farmers’ fields to enhance soil quality. Mati Carbon has a software platform that tracks and quantifies the carbon removal impact of this process, creating a model that can be sold to others looking to do the same. They then sell high-quality carbon removal credits based on this data on the carbon market. Shantanu Agarwal is an experienced climate tech serial entrepreneur with more than 20 years of industry experience. He has founded multiple successful startups and nonprofits in the energy and climate space. In 2021, he founded Mati Carbon, and brings a background in chemical engineering along with an MBA from Harvard. He has an in-depth understanding of the energy business and has dealt with a lot of oil companies, electric utilities and service companies along the way.