- Rice Investing $10 Million in Private Capital Raise Led By Carrier Ventures
- Investment Comes Ahead of Montana’s Business Combination With Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition II Corp. (“XPDB”)
- Montana’s Patented AirJoule® System Reduces Energy Consumption and CO2 Emissions for Air Conditioning, While Reducing or Eliminating Refrigerants and Providing Water from Air
Montana Technologies LLC (“Montana” or the “Company”) today announced that Rice Investment Group (“Rice”) has committed to invest $10 million in Montana as part of a private capital consortium led by Carrier Ventures. Following the closing of its business combination with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition II Corp (XPDB) (NASDAQ: XPDB, XPDBU, XPDBW) expected in March, Montana will trade on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “AIRJ”.
The investment from Rice will accelerate the commercialization of Montana’s patented AirJoule® system. It follows the execution of an agreement between Montana and Carrier Corp. to commercialize the AirJoule® technology in Carrier’s Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) markets throughout the Americas, Europe, India, and the Middle East. Montana also most recently announced the formation of a joint venture with GE Vernova to combine GE Vernova’s proprietary sorbent materials and coating processes with the AirJoule® system.
Kyle Derham, Partner, Rice Investment Group, said, “AirJoule® is a transformational energy efficiency technology that we believe is capable of gigaton scale decarbonization while lowering costs without subsidies. Our diligence revealed meaningful engagement from blue-chip strategics who have performed extensive work to validate the technical claims of the Company and are now preparing to fully support product commercialization. We believe the Company’s go-to-market strategy can lead to rapid market adoption in the large and growing HVAC and air-to-water end markets.”
The AirJoule® system utilizes a unique, patented (self-regenerating pressure swing adsorption) method to harvest thermal energy and water from air. Incorporating GE Vernova’s sorbent innovations into this proprietary system has the potential to reduce electricity consumption as compared to conventional air conditioning cooling systems and result in a corresponding reduction in carbon emissions as well as a reduction, or in some cases elimination, of refrigerants. In addition, the combined technologies can harvest water from the atmosphere at low cost, offering a potential solution to water scarcity around the world. The AirJoule® System also leverages Montana’s important global supply agreement with BASF, one of the world’s largest chemical companies, whose expertise and investments in the new sorbent materials allows low cost at production scale.
“We are extremely grateful to have the support of such a reputable team as the Rice Group,” said Matt Jore, CEO of Montana Technologies. “Their financial acumen and energy market knowledge is invaluable, and Montana is fortunate to have them on board as an investor and major force in the transition to low cost, clean resources in the energy and water nexus.”
Pat Eilers, CEO of XPDB, said, “We are thrilled to add Rice to an already impressive group of strategic and financial investors. Rice has an excellent track record of scaling category defining energy transition businesses utilizing a SPAC vehicle. Their investment also provides a strong vote of confidence in the AirJoule® technology and business plan, given Rice’s extensive diligence, and support for the business combination between XPDB and Montana to access the public markets and most efficiently finance the anticipated demand for GE’s and Montana’s breakthrough technologies.”
