Portfolio Spotlight: Cotierra - Turning Agricultural Waste Into Climate Resilience
This series highlights the companies Carbon Drawdown Initiative has invested in.
Cotierra is not a typical biochar carbon-removal startup. The company was built hand-in-hand with leading coffee companies to solve real, on-the-ground challenges in climate-vulnerable farming regions. From day one, the team designed the solution to be replicable across other agricultural value chains such as cocoa, cotton, and citrus.
Cotierra delivers measurable value to the Food & Beverage industry by improving on-farm climate resilience and productivity – tapping into multi-billion-dollar corporate budgets for regenerative agriculture, in addition to carbon markets.
Planting the Seed: Climate-Resilient Agriculture
Across the global south, farms generate enormous amounts of unused biomass (coffee prunings, cacao husks, cotton stalks, citrus residues) that are often burned or wasted. Cotierra turns this directly into value with the first fully decentralized, ultra-clean, on-farm biochar technology, transforming residues into high-quality biochar that strengthens soils, improves yields, and locks carbon away for centuries.
Focused on climate-vulnerable value chains like coffee and cocoa, Cotierra works where drought, soil degradation, and climate volatility threaten farmer livelihoods but where supply chains are ready for fast adoption. Supported by transparent digital monitoring and rigorous verification, their farmer-centered system delivers both resilience and trustworthy carbon removal at scale.
What They Are Building
Cotierra’s mobile reactors convert on-farm residues into high-quality biochar using a process that is ultra-clean, cost-effective and externally certified. The technology is fully de-risked in real farming environments and has already been proven with hundreds of farmers and several of the world’s leading coffee companies.
To ensure that biochar is produced and applied effectively, Cotierra works with local agronomist teams of their coffee partners to train farmers. Field studies in collaboration with local and international academic partners show reduced fertilizer use, higher yields, and increased resilience to both drought and heavy rainfall. These agronomic benefits strengthen farm income and make coffee supply chains more climate-resilient.
The system includes IoT sensors and a digital app that tracks production volumes, application rates, and operational performance. Cotierra’s technology is validated for clean and high-quality biochar production by Carbon Standards International, adding confidence and transparency to every tonne of carbon removed.
The Team Behind Cotierra
Cotierra was founded in 2023 by:
Thomas Käslin (CEO) – a systems thinker with a background in finance and climate transformation who previously co-founded Azolla Swiss based sustainability consultancy.
Lorenz Buser (CPO) – a former product manager at an IoT sensor startup with deep field experience working with smallholder farmers across Latin America.
Marcel Rohner (CTO) – a mechanical engineer who co-built and co-led the rapid-prototyping department at one of Switzerland’s leading machine-manufacturing companies.
Cotierra recently strengthened its leadership team with Liliana Arango, an experienced operations leader from Starbucks, who is now developing the operational blueprints for global scale-up.
Looking Ahead
Cotierra is preparing to expand across major coffee regions around the world. Strong demand pipeline, proven technology and partnerships with global leaders in agricultural supply chains give them a solid foundation for scale. As verification standards evolve and digital monitoring improves, the value of their high-integrity carbon data will continue to grow.
Their long-term vision is clear. They aim to deploy a decentralized network of clean biochar units that transform agricultural waste across the global south. The outcome is healthier soils, stronger climate resilience, and durable carbon removal at meaningful scale.
This is practical climate innovation that supports both people and the planet.
Why We Back Cotierra
Carbon Drawdown Initiative supports solutions that accelerate negative emissions and improve real-world livelihoods. Cotierra delivers both.
Their approach combines ultra-clean hardware, agronomic training, transparent MRV, and deep supply-chain partnerships. They are not only building better biochar technology. They are creating a scalable model for climate-positive agriculture that benefits farmers, strengthens supply chains, and produces trustworthy carbon removal.
We are proud to support Cotierra’s mission and excited to see their impact continue to grow.
Visit their website here: https://www.cotierra.com/
