A Massachusetts-based startup that captures carbon dioxide directly from the air has raised $80 million from investors, including Bill Gates-led Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Founded in 2019, Verdox Inc.’s technology is still only operable at lab scale. But Chief Executive Officer Brian Baynes says that a recent breakthrough with the key material used to trap the greenhouse gas has given investors confidence to invest such a large sum at an early stage in the startup’s development. As the world gets serious about reaching net-zero emissions within decades, there’s growing interest in technologies that can permanently sequester CO₂ already in the atmosphere. Nature-based offsets such as forests have become a wildfire risk —ironically due, in part, to climate change—and could release any CO₂ they might have stored. Direct air capture technology offers more hope that the offset will do away with the promised amount of greenhouse gas for […]