The clean-tech venture firm founded by Bill Gates is providing a $40 million grant to carbon-capture startup Deep Sky Corp., which seeks to build large-scale facilities to clean carbon from the air.

Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a carbon-tech fund founded by Bill Gates, has given Deep Sky Corp. a US$40-million grant to help the startup develop its direct-air-capture demonstration centre in Alberta, where it will test several technologies.

Deep Sky, a Quebec-based developer of carbon removal projects, has landed a $40 million grant commitment from the Bill Gates-backed fund Breakthrough Energy Catalyst. Why it matters: The investment signals the $1 billion-plus Breakthrough Energy Catalyst fund's interest in demonstration projects in the carbon removal sector.

Startup company Deep Sky intends to use to the funding on the world's first direct air capture carbon removal test hub and commercialization centre, which it's working on in Innisfail.