Frontier — the advance market commitment (AMC) backed by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey Sustainability — has opened applications for its 2026 Innovation program.

The program sits within Frontier’s broader commitment to purchase more than $1 billion worth of permanent carbon removal between 2022 and 2030.

What’s on Offer

Two tracks:

  • Prepurchases ($250K–$1.5M): Upfront funding to help early-stage projects move from lab to field deployment
  • R&D grants ($250K–$750K): Support for research tackling critical technical challenges

Applications are rolling, with selections expected twice during 2026.

Priority Areas

The 2026 program zeroes in on three bottlenecks that could limit CDR scalability:

  1. Mineralization processes — improving the speed and efficiency of carbon mineralization
  2. Ocean and inland water alkalinity enhancement — advancing OAE beyond pilot stage
  3. MRV tools — building stronger monitoring, reporting, and verification for open-system pathways

Frontier is also open to novel approaches that could outperform existing technologies.

Why It Matters

In 2025, Frontier portfolio companies began constructing projects capable of removing approximately 1.4 million tonnes of CO₂ annually — a sharp increase from 2024 capacity.

But significant technical hurdles remain around cost, measurement, and large-scale deployment. The innovation program specifically targets the early-stage experimentation and field trials needed to bridge those gaps.

The focus on OAE and open-system MRV is notable. These are pathways with enormous theoretical potential but limited real-world data — exactly the kind of risky, high-reward work that AMCs were designed to fund.

For CDR startups working on mineralization, ocean carbon, or measurement technology: applications are open.

Source: Carbon Herald · Frontier

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