Biochar Industrial Group raises $1.5m to turn agricultural waste into carbon credits

Biochar Industrial Group (BIG) has raised $1.5 million to build a business around agricultural waste from food-processing companies in Africa. The startup, founded by former Releaf executives, plans to install pyrolysis equipment at food factories and use materials such as nut shells, husks and maize cobs to make biochar.

The funding was led by BREEGA, with participation from the Catalyst Fund. The Mulago Foundation also provided non dilutive funding. BIG will use the money to deploy its equipment and build the team needed to run the sites. That includes engineers, operations and logistics staff, as well as people working on carbon measurement and verification.

The factory supplies the waste

BIG's approach is based on putting its equipment where agricultural waste is already being produced. The food processor does not have to buy the machinery. BIG finances, installs and operates it under what the company calls Biochar as a Service. The processor supplies its waste to the operation and receives a share of the value generated.

BIG is targeting agricultural processors that produce at least 2,500 tonnes of waste a year. The company is interested in materials including nut shells, husks, cobs and other residues that have limited value to the businesses producing them. The location of each site will matter. Agricultural waste is bulky and expensive to move over long distances, so having a large supply close to the equipment is central to the model.

From crop waste to biochar

The equipment uses pyrolysis, a process that heats biomass at temperatures above 600°C with little oxygen. Instead of simply decomposing, the material is converted into biochar. The biochar can be used in agriculture as a soil treatment. BIG is also building a carbon removal business around the material because some of the carbon from the original biomass remains stored in the biochar.

The company plans to measure the biomass going into its machines and the carbon stored in the resulting material. It says these systems will create the records needed for independent verification of its carbon removal credits. Those credits can then be sold to companies and other buyers in international carbon markets.

There are two products

BIG is effectively trying to sell two things from the same process. There is the biochar, which can be sold for agricultural use, and there are the carbon removal credits linked to the carbon stored through the process. That matters because the economics of the business do not depend entirely on the price of carbon credits.

At the same time, neither market is guaranteed. BIG still needs buyers for the biochar and carbon credits, while the costs of equipment, maintenance, labour and transporting material will affect how much money each site can make.

The supply is there, but it is spread out

Africa produces more than 3 billion tonnes of agricultural waste a year, according to research cited by BIG. The material comes from a wide range of activities, including food processing, farming and timber production. BIG's target is not to collect waste from individual farms and transport it across countries. It wants to work with larger processors where substantial quantities of waste are already concentrated.

The company says it has visited possible sites across West Africa and has received enquiries from other regions. It does not currently plan to limit the business to a handful of countries. Instead, it says it will look for locations with enough suitable biomass to support an operation.

The founders have worked in agricultural processing before

BIG was founded in 2026 by Ikenna Nzewi, Uzoma Ayogu and Isaiah Udotong. The three previously worked at Releaf Earth, a Y Combinator backed agro-processing company, where they spent almost a decade working on industrial infrastructure in Nigeria. They are now applying that experience to waste from agricultural processing. BIG is entering a sector that already has several African players. Biochar Solutions Africa, PathBeing, Biosorra and Tera are among the companies working with biochar or agricultural residues. International companies such as Charm Industrial, Graphyte and Vaulted Deep are pursuing other methods of storing carbon from biomass.

For BIG, the $1.5 million will fund the early installations and the people needed to operate them. The company now needs to show that food processors will consistently supply enough waste, that the equipment can operate economically and that there is a market for both the biochar and the verified carbon credits.

That will determine whether a model built around agricultural waste at individual factories can be expanded across Africa.