Via Separations Raises $36 Million to Deploy Commercial Projects, Expand into Refining and Chemicals Markets
WATERTOWN, Mass.--( BUSINESS WIRE)--Via Separations, a leader in process solutions for industrial separations, today announced $36 million in new funding with significant participation from new investors including Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation alongside participation from existing backers including Embark Ventures, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), and Safar Partners.
"Via’s modular platform addresses a critical step in industrial processing and has strong potential to enhance efficiency and unlock additional capacity within existing refining and chemical assets." - Tibor Toth, Sr. Investment Director at Aramco Ventures
The investment will accelerate deployment of Via’s modular filtration platform into the refining and chemical sectors, building on proven commercial performance in pulp and paper to help industrial operators reduce energy use, improve uptime, and strengthen operational resilience — with the added benefit of lower emissions.
Via electrifies heat-based separation with modular filtration systems that integrate directly with existing equipment, drastically reducing the energy required for chemical separations. These thermal separation steps account for roughly 12 percent of global energy use, driving significant fuel and steam demand across industrial separations. By replacing them with a mechanically driven membrane process, Via’s system can reduce energy use at the separation step by up to 90 percent, delivering lower operating costs, higher uptime, and a more flexible pathway to energy efficiency and electrification.
The company has proven the technology at commercial scale in the pulp and paper sector, approaching two years of continuous operation at a pulp mill in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Via is now expanding deployment into refining and chemicals, with hundreds of millions of dollars of capital projects in the commercial pipeline. The company also completed a pilot at a major Gulf Coast refinery last year.
“Thermal separations represent one of the largest and least-addressed sources of industrial energy consumption,” said Mike Bishop, Investment Director at Climate Investment. “Via’s innovative membrane platform introduces electrification to processes that have depended on heat for more than a century. By seamlessly integrating into existing industrial infrastructure, the company provides a practical solution for reducing energy consumption, enhancing reliability, and significantly lowering emissions.”
“At Aramco Ventures, we invest in differentiated technologies that can deliver clear operational value at scale,” said Tibor Toth, Senior Investment Director at Aramco Ventures. “Via Separations’ modular platform addresses a critical step in industrial processing and has strong potential to enhance efficiency and unlock additional capacity within existing refining and chemical assets.”
“By proving our technology commercially in one sector, we’ve built the foundation to scale into the much larger refining and chemicals markets,” said Shreya Dave, CEO of Via Separations. “This investment enables us to deliver more commercial projects across the product portfolio, expand manufacturing capacity, and accelerate global adoption of membrane‑based separations.”
About Via Separations:
Based in Watertown, MA & spun out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Via Separations delivers cost savings and operational benefits to industrial customers by electrifying chemical separations with filtration, reducing the energy needed for separations by up to 90 percent. Via is a venture-backed company with investors including Embark Ventures, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), and Safar Partners. More information can be found at: https://viaseparations.com/.
Via media contact: Nicole Neville, nneville@viaseparations.com
About Climate Investment (CI):
Climate Investment (CI) is an independently managed specialist investor focused on driving industrial decarbonization. The firm provides venture to growth equity capital to innovative companies and partners with industry to drive market adoption, create value for infrastructure owners and deliver measurable greenhouse gas (GHG) impact. Operational since 2017, CI has invested in over 40 climate tech companies across energy, transportation, buildings and industry that have collectively delivered 133 MT CO2e of cumulative greenhouse gas reduction in the period 2019-2024.
Climate Investment was founded by member companies of the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative (“OGCI”). They have invested in Climate Investment funds and deployed many of its portfolio innovations, supporting their early commercial development. Visit www.climateinvestment.com
CI media contact: Jason Dela Cruz, jasondc@climateinvestment.com
About Aramco Ventures:
Aramco Ventures is the venture capital arm of Aramco, a world leading fully integrated energy and chemical enterprise. Headquartered in Dhahran with offices in North America, Europe and Asia, Aramco Ventures’ strategic venturing programs invest globally in start-up and high growth companies with technologies of strategic importance to its parent company, Aramco, primarily supporting its operational decarbonization, new lower-carbon fuels businesses, and digital transformation initiatives. Aramco Ventures also operates Prosperity7, the company’s disruptive technologies investment program.
For more information, please visit aramcoventures.com