Gigaton is a London-based industrial-AI company on a mission to strip gigatonnes of carbon out of heavy industry by making its plants smarter and more efficient. Founded in 2020 as Carbon Re, it was the first joint spinout from both University College London and the University of Cambridge, started by Dr Daniel Summerbell, Buffy Price, Sherif Elsayed-Ali, and Dr Aidan O'Sullivan, and is now led by CEO Josh Vernon. The company rebranded to Gigaton as it broadened its ambition from emissions software toward fully autonomous control of industrial plants.
Industries like cement, steel, glass, and chemicals are responsible for a large share of global CO2, and their emissions are notoriously hard to abate because they stem from both fuel combustion and the physics of the processes themselves. Gigaton's insight is that enormous savings, in both cost and carbon, are available simply by operating existing plants better. Its Self Learning Control system uses AI to continuously model and optimize complex production processes, adjusting operations in real time to reduce fuel use, stabilize output, and lower emissions without new capital equipment.
The results are concrete and measurable. In a deployment with Heidelberg Materials, Gigaton's system delivered a 4% reduction in fuel cost index and a 2% reduction in fuel-derived carbon emissions. Across customers, the company reports savings of roughly $1 million to $3 million annually per plant alongside cuts of around 30,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. Its client roster includes major producers such as Adani Cement, Heidelberg Materials, Holcim, and Mannok. Notably, Gigaton emphasizes operator trust, embedding its team in control rooms to work alongside plant staff during rollout.
Gigaton raised a $26 million Series A led by Plural, with participation from 2150, Semapa Next, Planet A Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise Ventures, the UCL Technology Fund (managed by AlbionVC), and Clean Growth Fund, bringing total funding to more than $35 million. The capital funds a fivefold increase in headcount and expansion beyond cement into steel, glass, and chemicals. As heavy industry faces mounting pressure to decarbonize without sacrificing competitiveness, Gigaton positions AI-driven autonomous control as a fast, capital-light lever on both emissions and the bottom line.