Biochar Industrial Group, a climate-tech startup founded by former executives of Nigerian agro-processing company Releaf Earth, has secured $1.5 million in pre-seed funding to convert agricultural waste from food-processing facilities across Africa into biochar and carbon-removal credits.
The startup, founded in 2026 by Ikenna Nzewi, Uzoma Ayogu and Isaiah Udotong, plans to use the fresh capital to deploy pyrolysis equipment directly at agricultural processing facilities, turning materials such as nut shells, husks, cobs, stalks and sawdust into biochar.
Biochar is a charcoal-like material produced by heating organic matter in an oxygen-deprived environment. The process prevents much of the carbon contained in biomass from being released through natural decomposition and instead locks it into a more stable form.
Under BIG's business model, food-processing companies provide the agricultural waste, while the startup finances, installs and operates the pyrolysis equipment on-site. The factories then receive a share of the value generated from the waste.
The funding round was led by early-stage venture capital firm BREEGA, with participation from Catalyst Fund. The Mulago Foundation also provided non-dilutive funding.
BIG said the investment will support the recruitment of engineering, operations, logistics and carbon-verification personnel, while also helping the company develop monitoring and verification systems to track the amount of carbon removed through its operations.
Turning waste into a climate asset
Africa generates more than three billion tonnes of agricultural waste annually, ranging from crop residues and nut shells to husks, cobs and sawdust. Much of this material has limited economic value for the factories where it is generated.
BIG is seeking to turn that largely underutilised waste stream into a commercial and environmental asset.
Rather than allowing biomass waste to decompose and release carbon dioxide, the company processes it through pyrolysis to produce biochar. The resulting material can be used as a soil amendment, potentially providing an additional agricultural benefit while keeping carbon stored for extended periods.
The company says the approach could address two challenges simultaneously: the disposal of agricultural waste and the degradation of African farmland.
More than 80 per cent of agricultural lands in Africa are considered degraded, limiting their productivity. BIG believes that biochar, when appropriately applied to soils, can contribute to improving soil quality while also providing a pathway for durable carbon storage.
“Africa has natural advantages to lead the most scalable and cost-effective biomass-based carbon removal globally,” said Ikenna Nzewi, chief executive officer of Biochar Industrial Group.
“By forming true win-win partnerships with agricultural processors to produce biochar, we have the opportunity to turn localised waste liabilities into a transformative global solution.”
Biochar-as-a-Service model
At the centre of BIG's strategy is what it calls Biochar-as-a-Service, or BaaS.
Under the model, agricultural processors supply the raw material while BIG takes responsibility for financing, installing and operating the processing equipment. The company also provides local staff to operate the units and manages the carbon measurement, verification and credit issuance processes.
The waste is processed using continuous pyrolysis machines at temperatures above 600°C in an oxygen-deprived environment. Instead of decomposing naturally, the biomass is converted into biochar.
According to BIG, the carbon contained in the biochar can remain stored for hundreds to thousands of years, depending on how the material is used.
The company plans to generate carbon-removal credits from the process, with the credits independently audited before being sold to buyers in international carbon markets.
BIG also intends to sell the physical biochar as an agricultural input, creating a second potential revenue stream from the same waste-processing operation.
The startup is initially targeting large agricultural processors that generate at least 2,500 tonnes of waste annually. It is particularly interested in residues such as nut shells, husks and cobs that have limited value in their existing applications.
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| Uzoma Ayogu, Isaiah Udotong, and Ikenna Nzewi, co-founders of BIG. Image source: BIG |
A significant portion of the new funding will go towards building BIG's technical and operational infrastructure.
The company plans to deploy digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification systems, known as MRV, that will continuously track biomass processing and the carbon removed through its facilities.
The data generated by these systems is intended to create an auditable trail that can support the verification and issuance of carbon-removal credits for international buyers.
BREEGA partner Tosin Faniro-Dada said BIG's experience operating industrial infrastructure was an important factor in the investment.
“BIG is turning a real industrial waste problem into repeatable, audit-grade carbon credits, and doing it with a level of operational discipline that’s rare this early,” said Tosin Faniro-Dada, Partner at BREEGA.
“It’s the product of a founding team – Ikenna, Uzoma, and Isaiah – who spent nearly a decade building and operating industrial infrastructure across Nigeria with Releaf Earth. We’re proud to back them as they scale that same execution discipline into carbon removal at a continental scale.”
The three founders previously spent almost a decade working on industrial agricultural infrastructure at Releaf Earth, a Y Combinator-backed agro-processing company.
Pan-African expansion
BIG says its expansion strategy will not be restricted to a particular group of African countries. Instead, the company plans to locate its operations where sufficient quantities of suitable agricultural waste are available.
The startup has already visited potential sites in West Africa and said it has received enquiries from other regions of the continent.
“We have a Pan-African mandate and prioritise sites that have an abundance of biomass with low opportunity cost for biochar production,” the company said in the statement.
“We have already visited sites throughout West Africa but have received inquiries from every region of the continent. In a nutshell, BIG goes where the biomass takes us.”
The company enters a growing African biochar and carbon-removal market that includes firms such as Biochar Solutions Africa in Nigeria, PathBeing, Kenya-based Biosorra and Tera.
Globally, companies including Charm Industrial, Graphyte and Vaulted Deep are also developing technologies designed to convert biomass into longer-term forms of carbon storage.
The Middle East and Africa's biochar market is projected to surpass $450 million by 2032, reflecting growing interest in biochar applications and demand for durable carbon-removal credits.
For BIG, the immediate challenge will be translating its model from individual processing sites into a scalable network across the continent while maintaining reliable carbon measurement, verification and operational efficiency.
With its founders' previous experience in agricultural infrastructure and the new funding available for deployment and hiring, the company is positioning agricultural waste not simply as a disposal challenge but as a potential source of both agricultural value and long-term carbon removal.