Terraxy, a Saudi deeptech startup spun out of research at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), has raised $3 million in a Seed-2 funding round led by Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital arm of Aramco, with participation from KAUST. The funding will be used to move the company from pilot-scale production into full industrial deployment across the Kingdom.
Founded in 2023 by Himanshu Mishra and Adair Gallo, Terraxy’s mission is to create sustainable soil fertility that lasts, a challenge that is both a national priority and a commercial opportunity in one of the world’s most arid regions.
The Problem Terraxy Is Solving
Saudi Arabia’s agricultural and greening ambitions run into a fundamental obstacle: its soil. Saudi soils are sandy and inefficient at retaining nutrients and water, limiting agriculture, landscaping, and large-scale greening efforts. The problem is not unique to the Kingdom, but it is particularly acute in desert environments where most standard agricultural inputs offer diminishing returns.
Terraxy’s answer is CarboSoil, its flagship proprietary soil enhancer. Under real-world conditions, CarboSoil delivers up to a 70% improvement in plant growth and yield using identical water inputs, boosting resource-use efficiency in water-scarce environments. The company describes the technology as inspired by Amazonian biochar traditions, transforming biochar (a highly stable form of carbon) into a long-lasting soil amendment proven to work in alkaline desert soils.
Beyond soil fertility, Terraxy is positioning CarboSoil as a carbon management tool. The technology binds and stores COâ‚‚ durably within the soil matrix for centuries, directly positioning the company as a contributor to the emerging carbon credit economy.
From Lab to Industrial Scale
A key milestone in Terraxy’s commercialisation roadmap is the development of a 30,000-square-meter production facility in Al Zulfi, which will enable the company to scale manufacturing and deploy its technology across Saudi Arabia.
The company has also benefited from Saudi Arabia’s regulatory infrastructure. Terraxy has progressed through the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture’s Regulatory Sandbox, which enables the testing and validation of emerging environmental technologies under real-world conditions. Dr Abdulaziz Almalik, MEWA’s Deputy Minister for Research and Innovation, said soil health is foundational to the Kingdom’s food security and land rehabilitation goals, adding that Terraxy represents an important example of how innovation, regulation, and investment can come together to address national priorities and scale promising solutions.
The Aramco Connection and Vision 2030 Alignment
Wa’ed Ventures’ involvement is significant beyond the capital. As Aramco’s VC arm, it brings institutional credibility and ties to one of the world’s largest energy companies at a moment when that company is under growing pressure to diversify its impact portfolio.
Anas Algahtani, Wa’ed Ventures CEO, said the investment reflects a focus on deep-tech solutions that address real challenges while offering scalable commercial potential, noting that what differentiates Terraxy is not only the strength of its underlying science but its ability to translate that science into a deployable, industrial solution.
The raise fits neatly into Saudi Arabia’s wider sustainability agenda. The investment is supported by KAUST’s National Transformation Institute and directly aligns with the environmental mandates of the Saudi Green Initiative and Vision 2030. For the Kingdom, Terraxy is a test case for whether deep scientific research conducted within Saudi institutions can scale into industries that serve national priorities and global markets.
