Bio-based Green Methanol: C1 Secures Another €20 Million to Commercialize the Circular Raw Material of the Future

April 01, 2025

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(Renewable Carbon News/C1 Green Chemicals) C1 will use the capital raised to build the world's first demonstration plant for homogeneously catalyzed methanol --

Berlin-based cleantech company C1 has raised €20 million in fresh capital to replacefossil resources in the shipping, aviation and chemical industries
Construction of a demonstration plant is scheduled to begin in 2025
For this, C1 is recruiting experienced talent from established industrial players

Cleantech company C1 Green Chemicals AG has successfully secured €20 million in fresh capital to bring its groundbreaking green methanol catalysis technology to market. Green Methanol can be used to defossilize three key industries: shipping, aviation and carbon-based chemical production. At the same time, the use of this circular raw material significantly reduces dependence on foreign resources and strengthens the industry’s resilience.

Of the total capital raised, €15 million come from a capital increase involving renowned investors, led by denkapparat, the family office of think-cell founders Markus Hannebauer and Arno Schödl. Planet A Ventures, Maersk Growth, SquareOne, Prof. Wolfgang Reitzle (former CEO of Linde) and Jim Hagemann Snabe (Chairman of Siemens) also took part in the funding round. The remaining €5 million come from approved research grants.

“At C1, everything comes together perfectly: Cutting-edge research targeting an ecologically and commercially significant problem, pragmatic founders with a clear vision, and a team boasting impressive technological and commercial expertise. This is exactly the profile we are looking for as entrepreneurial investors. It was immediately clear that we would take the lead in this round”, says Markus Hannebauer from denkapparat.

The next step: world’s first demonstration plant

C1 will use the capital raised to build the world’s first demonstration plant for homogeneously catalyzed methanol. Preparations for this are already underway, with construction slated to start this year. C1 is continuing to accelerate the path towards competitive, green methanol.

Attracting top talent from the industry

“Two ingredients are crucial for the successful commercialization of scientific innovation: talent and capital. We are delighted that we at C1 have excellent access to both ingredients”, comments Christian Vollmann, CEO of C1 Green Chemicals AG.

With its ambitious plans, C1 has recently been able to recruit experienced chemists, chemical engineers and project managers from established companies such as Linde, BASF, Clariant, Shell and Tesla. The Berlin-based company is thus rapidly becoming a talent magnet, playing a central role in the transformation of the chemical industry.

About C1

C1 develops new, climate-friendly chemical production processes by rethinking chemical reactions from the atomic level all the way up to the production scale. The chemical processes are designed with the help of quantum chemical simulations and implemented in proprietary production technologies. In doing so, the Berlin-based company develops and scales exclusively on the basis of renewable raw materials and energy. From the first steps in the development of a production process, all processes are designed to enable a closed carbon cycle. In this way, C1 supports industry on its way to net-zero.

About the C1 technology

In collaboration with CreativeQuantum and Leibniz Institute for Catalysis (LIKAT), C1 has developed a fundamentally new proprietary homogeneous catalysis for the production of methanol. The C1 process is much more selective than the heterogeneous catalysis currently in use, which dates back to a patent from 1921. It works at significantly lower pressure and temperature, allows for more flexible operations, is more tolerant towards feedstock impurities and scales better. READ MORE