Gigaton

Gigaton (formerly Carbon Re) is a UK AI software company that raised a $26m (£19.3m) Series A on 3 June 2026, led by Plural with Cambridge Enterprise Ventures and the UCL Technology Fund co-investing. Its platform uses reinforcement learning to autonomously control energy-intensive industrial processes in cement, steel, glass and chemical plants, cutting fuel consumption and carbon emissions without halting production. Paying customers include Adani Cement, Heidelberg Materials and Holcim, three of the world's largest cement producers.

Gigaton is the first joint spinout from University College London (UCL) and the University of Cambridge, founded in 2020. The dual-university provenance reflects the company's interdisciplinary roots: industrial process modelling at Cambridge combined with UCL's machine-learning expertise. The original name "Carbon Re" reflected an early focus on the insurance and carbon-risk market before the company pivoted to direct process-control software, a shift validated by the customer roster.

Heavy industry accounts for roughly 30% of global CO₂ emissions, yet most decarbonisation investment targets power generation or transport. Gigaton's bet is that autonomous process control can deliver meaningful emissions cuts at scale without requiring capital-intensive equipment replacement, making it commercially attractive to incumbents who face growing regulatory pressure under the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and UK Emissions Trading Scheme. The industrial AI-for-decarbonisation segment is sparse at Series A stage, giving Gigaton an early-mover advantage in a market with significant switching costs once integrated into plant operations.