The details:
- Company: Sistema.bio
- Fundraise: $53m (First close of the FarmCarbon vehicle)
- Key Investors: BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts (BNPP AM Alts), British International Investment (BII), Shell Foundation.
- What it does: Manufactures biodigesters that convert livestock waste into biogas and organic fertiliser.
- Previous funding: Secured $3m from Novastar Ventures’ Africa People and Planet Fund III in January 2025.
Biogas company Sistema.bio has announced the $53m first close of FarmCarbon, a dedicated carbon finance vehicle designed to subsidise the cost of climate technology for smallholder farmers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
The initial $53m tranche is backed by a consortium comprising BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts (BNPP AM Alts), the UK’s development finance institution British International Investment (BII), and the Shell Foundation.
The capital will be used to finance the rollout of more than 90,000 biodigesters. Sistema.bio projects these systems will capture and destroy enough methane from livestock waste to generate over 9m tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions reductions over the next decade.
The carbon-for-hardware model
Small-scale agriculture is a significant contributor to global emissions, primarily through poor livestock manure management. However, upfront hardware costs have historically locked smallholder farmers out of adopting mitigation technologies.
FarmCarbon operates by pre-financing the development of biogas projects. Farmers receive the biodigester units at a heavily discounted rate — either as an upfront payment or through credit instalments. In exchange, the farmers transfer the rights to the carbon credits generated by the hardware to the fund. These emissions reductions are then delivered to carbon credit buyers through multi-year purchase agreements.
Beyond the macro-climate impact, the local economic proposition for farmers involves replacing purchased chemical fertilisers with the byproduct of the digesters, while generating renewable biogas for household cooking, heating, and electricity.
“For 15 years, Sistema.bio has worked hand-in-hand with farmers installing biodigesters,” said Alexander Eaton, CEO of Sistema.bio. “FarmCarbon builds on that proven solution by bringing climate finance directly to farmers and enabling them to co-invest in energy, productivity, health, and climate outcomes on their own farms.”
The methane gap
The vehicle is targeting methane, a greenhouse gas that accounts for roughly 30% of global warming. According to the GHG Protocol, methane has 28 times the warming potential of CO₂ over a 100-year period. Despite this, only about 2% of tracked global climate finance is currently directed toward methane abatement projects.
FarmCarbon’s initial project has secured an ex-ante rating of AAe from ratings agency BeZero Carbon, alongside the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) label, indicating high expectations for the integrity of its carbon accounting.
The investors
The lead commercial investor, BNPP AM Alts, deployed the capital through its Natural Capital and Impact investment strategy. This strategy recently secured over $560m in commitments from development finance institutions including the IFC, Proparco, and DEG.
The investment marks a continued push into alternative assets for BNP Paribas. The French banking group consolidated its alternatives platform following BNP Paribas Cardif’s acquisition of AXA Investment Managers, completed last year, creating an entity with roughly €300bn in assets under management.
“We believe our investment in FarmCarbon presents an opportunity to scale up a relatively low-risk, high-quality carbon project with potentially significant co-benefits for rural populations,” said Jonathan Dean, Deputy Head of Natural Capital & Impact Private Equity at BNPP AM Alts. “FarmCarbon shows how carbon markets can reach the level of high-quality that institutional investors and stakeholders expect.”
The $53m launch of FarmCarbon follows a steady period of capital acquisition for Sistema.bio’s regional operations. In January 2025, the company secured a $3m investment from Novastar Ventures to scale its footprint specifically within African markets.