Biochar Industrial Group Secures $1.5M Pre-Seed Funding to Scale Pan-African Infrastructure

AFRICA — Biochar Industrial Group (BIG) has officially closed a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round earmarked for scaling industrial biochar infrastructure and deployment networks across the continent.

The financing round was led by early-stage venture capital firm Breega, with participation from the Catalyst Fund and non-dilutive capital from the Mulago Foundation.

Tackling Industrial Waste via Biochar-as-a-Service

BIG was founded in 2026 by Ikenna Nzewi, Uzoma Ayogu, and Isaiah Udotong, veterans of Y Combinator-backed agro-processing company Releaf Earth. The startup addresses the continent's immense agricultural waste management challenge, where processing facilities generate over 3 billion tonnes of biomass residues annually (including nut shells, husks, cobs, and stalks) that are frequently burned or left to decompose.

At the core of the business model is Biochar-as-a-Service (BaaS), an on-site operational framework targeted at large agricultural processors generating at least 2,500 tonnes of waste annually:

• Capital and Operational Deployment: BIG fully finances, installs, and operates continuous pyrolysis equipment directly on-site at food-processing facilities, heating organic material above 600°C in an oxygen-deprived environment.
• Dual-Stream Value Creation: Facilities supply the low-value waste and receive a share of the resulting economic value, while BIG converts the biomass into stable biochar capable of storing carbon for centuries.
• Agricultural and Carbon Monetization: The physical biochar is commercialized as a soil amendment to restore degraded African farmland, while the process generates audit-grade, independently verified carbon-removal credits for international buyers.

"Africa has natural advantages to lead the most scalable and cost-effective biomass-based carbon removal globally," said Ikenna Nzewi, CEO 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."

Expansion and MRV Development

Proceeds from the pre-seed round will be deployed to expand BIG's engineering, operations, logistics, and carbon-verification teams. Additionally, the company is building digital Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV)systems utilizing continuous monitoring to ensure transparent, audit-grade data trails.

Rather than focusing on specific regional borders, BIG is executing a Pan-African mandate, prioritizing industrial sites based on raw biomass availability to scale its infrastructure where feedstock is most abundant.

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