CarbonBridge Scores $1.85M ARPA-E Extension, Partners with RTI International

May 28

*CarbonBridge Reactor Reveal event in Harlem, co-sponsored by Coeus Collective*

The wins are stacking up fast for CarbonBridge. The Santa Cruz-founded biotech startup — a graduate of the Santa Cruz Works Accelerates program — has officially secured an additional $1.85M in funding from ARPA-E under its OFF GRID award, bringing the company's total federal award to approximately $2.57M. The extension follows 18 months of intense execution and a rigorous review by ARPA-E of work completed and future plans. In short: the feds looked hard, liked what they saw, and doubled down.

The announcement lands alongside another major milestone: RTI International, a nonprofit research institute with deep roots in applied science and technology, has partnered with CarbonBridge to build and commission a customer-visitable demonstration biomanufacturing platform in North Carolina. That's not a pilot. That's a proof point — a facility where prospective customers can walk in and see Carbon Bridge's technology operating at meaningful scale. It's a critical step on the commercial roadmap the team has been building toward.

The momentum doesn't stop there. CarbonBridge already counts A*STAR in Singapore and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory among its paying customers — a customer roster that signals credibility well beyond the startup ecosystem. The company was also showcased at last month's ARPA-E Summit in San Diego, earning a main-stage callout that put their work in front of the nation's leading energy innovators and policymakers.

At the core of CarbonBridge's approach is a modular biomanufacturing architecture designed for scalability and cost control — a technical strategy that appears to be resonating with both government funders and research institutions worldwide.

For Santa Cruz Works, CarbonBridge's trajectory is exactly what the Accelerates program is built for: taking high-potential deep-tech companies and giving them the runway to compete nationally and globally. From demo days in Santa Cruz to main stages in San Diego to demo facilities in North Carolina — this is what the pipeline looks like when it's working.

CarbonBridge is one to watch.

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