18 October, 2024, OOYOO Ltd.
News release
Ground Breaking CO₂ Capture Membrane start-up raises successful venture financing
(Kyoto JAPAN, 18 October, 2024) OOYOO Ltd., a Kyoto-based technology startup that provides low-cost, carbon capture solutions announced its seed capital raise of JPY430 million (USD3.1 million / USD=JPY140).
OOYOO’s first external funding round was of an equivalent scale and valuation compared to procurement cases for similar-stage companies in the United States. Its investors are Kyoto University Innovation Capital Co., Ltd. (KU-iCAP), Energy & Environment Investment, Inc. (EEI), UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Ltd. (U-Tokyo IPC), and Kyoto Capital Partners Co., Ltd. (KCAP).
Shogo Otani, OOYOO’s Representative Director, led the fundraising activity. Otani joined OOYOO after his business experience in one of Japan’s largest trading company.
“I am very excited that we have closed our venture financing round. We can now compete on an international stage with mature but more costly technologies, on deployment speed and scale, to solve a globally relevant challenge,”
“Our successful funding round will help OOYOO scale its cutting-edge technology to capture carbon dioxide (CO₂), which we believe will play a leading role in enabling carbon recycling and reducing global emissions. Using this seed investment, we expect to demonstrate the feasibility of carbon capture within various enterprises to offer reductions in Scope 3 emissions, which currently account for the majority of a business’s CO₂ footprint.”
OOYOO’s founder, Easan Sivaniah, is a Professor at Kyoto University who leads a research team at its Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)
“From the start, OOYOO, was born with a global mind in Japan’s cultural home. Our Kyoto-based international team members come from Japan, the United States, Southeast Asia and Europe. I hope that our success will show more young professionals, both in Japan and overseas, that companies like OOYOO can support the dreams of global adventurers and entrepreneurs.”
Nobuhiro Yagi, Executive Officer at KU-iCAP.
“I am very pleased to join OOYOO Ltd. as lead investor, where OOYOO’s gas separation membranes use Kyoto University technology developed by Professor Easan Sivaniah. With a global management team, we look forward to the growth of OOYOO, which aims to become a key player in decarbonizing technologies to solve global environmental problems, and will provide support in all possible ways.”
Tohru Nishikawa, Partner & Kumiko Morie, Capitalist at EEI.
“OOYOO’s gas separation membrane technology is anticipated to significantly reduce CO₂ capture costs, making it a vital solution in the urgent global challenge of decarbonization. We believe OOYOO, together with their industry leading partnerships is making significant strides to contribute in this field. We are very excited to work with OOYOO’s multinational team as they strive for success in the global market.”
Takahiro Mizumoto, AOI Fund Investment Officer at U-Tokyo IPC.
“It is an honor and delight to support OOYOO. We believe that a CCUS startup capable of competing on the global stage can emerge from Japan, a country with a proven track record in membrane technology for water treatment. We at the U-Tokyo IPC are eager to serve as a bridge between OOYOO and various academic institutions and large enterprises in Tokyo to the success of OOYOO.”
Yoshiki Murata, Deputy General Manager of Venture Investment Department at KCAP.
“We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for the opportunity to collaborate with OOYOO. We highly regard the innovative technology developed by Professor Easan Sivaniah at Kyoto University, and we have invested with great expectations for the sustainable society that their gas separation membrane can help create. Moving forward, we will leverage the resources of the entire Kyoto Financial Group to provide our support.”
OOYOO Ltd. develops high-performance membranes that separate and purify air and various gases, and aims to play a key role in commercializing membrane technology for a zero-carbon future.
OOYOO’s membrane technology is based on an expansive research experience and design principles of OOYOO’s founder, Professor Easan Sivaniah at Kyoto University. These design principles value the power of process simplicity, and strategic material selection that enhance stability, scalability and cost. By combining such principles, OOYOO’s membrane is a highly optimized combination of such materials. Compared to conventional membrane technologies, the OOYOO membrane significantly enhances separation efficiency, particularly in the separation of carbon dioxide (CO₂), achieving high gas processing rates and stability to adverse process conditions.
In fossil-fuel powered power plants and manufacturing industries, CO₂ recovery is a critical issue. By implementing OOYOO’s membrane technology, efficient CO₂ separation and recovery can be achieved at a low cost, with reduced energy consumption and space requirements. Additionally, it has potential applications for the future separation of oxygen, methane, ammonia and hydrogen, allowing it to meet diverse needs across a wide range of industrial gases.
Until this funding round, OOYOO has taken a boot-strap approach, raising 1 billion yen in subsidies, loans (including Japan Finance Corporation) and revenue from Japanese manufacturers in a wide range of sectors. OOYOO was only one of ten Japanese ventures invited to exhibit its carbon capture technology at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference in Dubai in 2023.
OOYOO’s partnerships with industry leaders include participation in a 5 billion yen joint project with Sumitomo Chemical to develop and demonstrate a system using a separation membrane to capture and separate CO₂ from factory exhaust. The project was selected by Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in 2022 as one of NEDO’s Green Innovation Fund Projects.
OOYOO has also made a basic agreement with Tokyo-based TOPPAN Holdings Inc. for mass production of CO₂ separation membranes to enable capture and reuse. Another basic agreement with GS Yuasa International Ltd. and GS Yuasa Membrane Co., Ltd. aims to develop and provide high-performance CO₂ separation membrane systems with the target to market them by 2026.
Press Relations Contact
OOYOO Ltd.| Administration Dept. | TEL 81-80-2746-2246 | e-mail info@ooyoo.jp