BIG Raises $1.5 Million to Convert Africa’s Agricultural Waste Into Verified Carbon Credits

Biochar Industrial Group (BIG) has secured $1.5 million in pre-seed financing to develop a program that turns agricultural residues from African food processors into verified carbon-removal credits. Breega led the round, with participation from Catalyst Fund, while the Mulago Foundation provided non-dilutive funding.

BIG was founded in 2026 by former Releaf Earth executives Ikenna Nzewi, Uzoma Ayogu and Isaiah Udotong. The company installs and operates pyrolysis systems at food-processing facilities, heating agricultural residues such as nut shells, husks and cobs in oxygen-limited conditions to produce biochar instead of allowing the material to decompose or burn.

Under its Biochar-as-a-Service model, food processors supply the biomass while BIG finances and operates the equipment, manages carbon measurement and verification, and sells the resulting credits. The biochar can also be used as a soil amendment on farmland. The company is targeting processors that generate at least 2,500 tonnes of suitable waste annually.

BIG intends to use the funding to deploy equipment and recruit personnel in engineering, operations, logistics and carbon verification. It also plans to develop digital monitoring systems that record the volume of biomass processed and the amount of carbon stored. After conducting site visits across West Africa, the company says it has attracted interest from other regions of the continent.

Key Takeaways

BIG aims to address two challenges through one business: food processors need an effective way to manage agricultural waste, while companies seeking to meet climate goals require carbon removal that can be measured and verified. Biochar links the two by converting material that might otherwise decompose or be burned into a substance capable of storing carbon for extended periods.

The model also limits upfront costs for food processors because BIG finances and operates the equipment itself, sharing the value generated from biochar sales and carbon credits. The founders bring relevant experience from Releaf Earth, which previously delivered verified carbon-removal credits from Nigerian biochar production to Salesforce through Milkywire. That achievement offers a proof of concept for a market where credit quality and accurate measurement of carbon removals remain major concerns.

The $1.5 million round is modest for an industrial-infrastructure venture, leaving BIG to demonstrate that individual sites can generate sufficient revenue from carbon credits and biochar sales to support expansion. If the economics prove viable, the company could deploy equipment across multiple processors rather than construct centralized plants, creating a distributed network of carbon-removal facilities near sources of agricultural waste.

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