Counteract VC Research
Investment Thesis
Counteract is a London-based venture capital fund investing exclusively in carbon dioxide removal (CDR). The firm's founding premise is stark: by 2050 the world needs to be drawing down 5-10 billion tonnes of CO2e per year, roughly a 4,000-fold expansion of current carbon removal capacity within 25 years. Counteract argues that emissions-reduction and avoidance offsets alone cannot close this gap, so atmospheric CO2 extraction has to become an investable, scalable industry in its own right. The fund backs founders across the full span of CDR pathways rather than betting on a single winning technology, on the view that a diversified portfolio is the more responsible way to catalyze the sector.
Sector Focus
Counteract invests only in CDR pathways, explicitly excluding broader decarbonization, emissions-avoidance, and generic offset businesses. Within CDR they cover:
- Direct Air Capture (DAC), including solid-state, electrochemical, and energy-recycling approaches
- Carbon-negative materials: foams, concrete, fertilizer
- Mineralization and enhanced weathering
- Reforestation and biomass carbon storage/burial
- Wastewater-based CO2 removal
- Ocean-based carbon capture (e.g., olivine-based coastal enhanced weathering)
- Regenerative agriculture and soil carbon technology
- Measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) tools for carbon removal
Stage Focus
Pre-seed and seed. Counteract explicitly positions itself as an early, often first-institutional, check for CDR founders.
Check Size
Typical first ticket: $250K-$1M, sized for pre-seed/seed rounds in hard-tech and nature-based CDR ventures.
Lead Tendency
Not explicitly stated on the website or in press coverage reviewed. Given the check size and stage, Counteract appears to frequently co-invest alongside sector specialists and strategics (e.g., Equinor Ventures, which took a stake directly in the fund rather than a portfolio company) rather than exclusively lead.
Recent Activity
Counteract's debut vehicle, targeting £35M (~$42M), had its first close of £15M (~$18M) around February 2023 and grew its portfolio to 12 companies by that point, then 15+ by mid-2023 when Equinor Ventures took a minority stake in the fund itself (August 2023) to get an early look at CDR startups. The firm has continued deploying into 2026, with Seqana and Crew Carbon among its most recent additions. Several portfolio companies have gone on to raise meaningful follow-on capital: Crew Carbon closed a $25M Series A for its wastewater-based carbon mineralization technology, Mote raised a $7M first close of its Series A for biomass-to-hydrogen carbon removal, and earlier-stage additions like Parallel Carbon ($3.6M seed) and Fugu ($1.7M+ seed) reflect Counteract's pattern of getting in at pre-seed/seed and letting portfolio companies scale with specialist and strategic follow-on investors.
Portfolio Highlights
The portfolio spans the full CDR pathway map: Direct Air Capture (Norma, Fugu, Parallel Carbon, RepAir, PhLAIR), mineralization (Alithic, Cella, CQuestr8, Vateris, Magrathea, MaFix), biomass (Carbon Cell, Eco-Locked, Inter-Earth, Mote), water/ocean (Aquatic Labs, CarbonRun, Vesta, Crew Carbon), soil (BX, Ponda, Seqana), and MRV/measurement (Chloris Geospatial). Notably diversified for a fund of its size, with 20+ active portfolio companies across nearly every CDR sub-sector rather than concentration in one technology bet.
Team
- Andrew Shebbeare, Partner - background in media and technology, focused on innovation and climate solutions
- Andy Bonsall, Partner - 25 years as engineer, analyst, marketer, and manager with business-growth expertise
- Matt Isaacs, Partner - operating experience across 10 ventures, from startup to corporate venturing
- Richard Barker, Partner - 30 years as engineer, academic, consultant, and investor in sustainable businesses
- Jo Brass, General Counsel - 25 years in PE/VC investing, infrastructure transactions, and sustainable finance
- Jenny Record, Fund Operations Manager - Chartered Accountant, financial reporting and strategy background from PwC
- Sahaj Kumar, Investment Manager - sustainability-focused, climate startup and decarbonization advisory experience
- Poppy Russell, Research Manager - plant science background, Masters research on gas exchange mechanisms
Decision Process
Not disclosed publicly. With four investing partners plus dedicated research and investment-manager roles, the structure implies a partnership-style decision process rather than a solo GP.
Founder Preferences
Counteract's stated investment criteria favor founders building toward catalytic scale (a credible path to at least 0.5Gt CO2e removed by 2050), technically novel approaches that add meaningfully to the CDR toolkit, self-sustaining unit economics rather than pure grant/offset dependency, and responsible, regenerative pathways that generate co-benefits beyond carbon alone.
Geographic Focus
Global. The firm states it will "back founders worldwide" given the atmospheric, borderless nature of the CDR problem; portfolio companies span the UK, continental Europe, the US, and Australia.
Publishing / Thought Leadership
Counteract runs an active "Perspectives" research blog (20+ posts since 2021) covering CDR pathway economics, project financing, and sector maturity, most recently arguing (July 2026) that carbon removal has "graduated" into a mainstream institutional investment opportunity.