Revenue Goals and Sustainability Initiatives Can Coexist

At Cemvita we believe that revenue goals and sustainability initiatives can, and should, coexist. It’s not only possible to provide sustainable solutions that increase revenue and cut costs—it’s imperative to the strength of our coalition and the soundness of our shared future. By developing sustainable, innovative solutions that benefit the environment and your business, we make the transition to clean energy feel like it’s supposed to. Natural. Empowering. Good.

A Nature Inspired Approach

Cemvita empowers companies with economical solutions to decrease their environmental and carbon footprint and create a brighter future for themselves and the planet.

The Roots
of Innovation

CEM. Code, Energy, and Mass. A new scientific platform that innovates our understanding of how living systems relate. Vita. Latin for life. A state defined by action, survival, creation, and growth.

They aren’t just the components of our name. They comprise the foundation of our work.

Acclaimed scientist and Cemvita co-founder Dr. Tara Karimi pioneered the use of these concepts to understand biological systems and forge a pathway for renewable solutions. In 2017, Dr. Karimi and her brother, Moji Karimi, an engineer and energy entrepreneur, launched Cemvita to harness her groundbreaking scientific insights and apply them to the development of a clean energy platform.

C
E
M

For Our Partners.
For Our Planet.

Our passionate team of scientists and industry leaders operate with urgency and pragmatism— guided by passion, a set of core values, and the notion that a carbon-neutral future isn’t just a good idea. It’s good business.

Mission-Minded

Pioneering & Persistent

Caring & Candid

Responsible for Results

Diverse Perspectives, Rooted in a Common Purpose

Cemvita is a multidisciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs brought together by one common purpose: to harness our distinctive skills to engineer a better future. As industry leaders from diverse sectors, we bring an invaluable collective perspective to the question of climate change and how your business can thrive in a clean energy economy.

Moji Karimi
Co-Founder & CEO
Dr. Tara Karimi
Co-Founder & CSO

Leadership Team

Charles Nelson
Chief Business Officer &
Chief Operating Officer
Liz Dennett
Chief Technology Officer
Ernesto Simon
VP of Synthetic Biology
Marcio Silva
VP of eCO₂
Marny Reakes
VP of cOre Biomining
Jeff Bricco
VP of Capital Projects & Operations
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Blake Manuel
SVP of Finance & Strategy
Cindy Jimenez Turner
VP of Government Affairs
Helen Warwick
Director of People Operations
Zach Broussard
Director of Gold Hydrogen
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Ben Reed
Director of Business Operations
Kevin Kincaid
Director of Commercial
Edris Taher
VP of Conceptual & Bioprocessing Engineering

FAQs

Want to learn more about what’s behind Cemvita’s proven solutions? We celebrate curiosity—and we’re passionate about providing answers. Explore our most frequently asked questions and dive deep into our innovative approach.

How does Cemvita’s microbial technology benefit the environment?

Cemvita’s tailor made microbial solutions are nature-inspired, which means that we employ microbes that excel in their function under ambient pressure and temperature. Our process serves as an environmentally friendly alternative that helps reduce the scope 1 emissions from energy-intensive chemical reactions. Some of our microbes even utilize harmful emissions as feedstock that fuels conversion to other useful molecules. 

Can technology that benefits the environment be profitable?

At the core of Cemvita’s mission is bringing profitable solutions to the industries we understand, while thoroughly vetting these solutions brings a positive environmental impact. This is why Cemvita’s team is composed of industry experts across oil & gas, petrochemical, and mining industries partnered with scientists who are experts at bringing novel microbial solutions to market. We focus on specific commercial areas where we know microbes can bring a competitive solution to today’s market, while also reducing environmental impact. Our eCO2, cOre, and Gold H2 product lines are perfect examples of how we are able to identify profitable solutions (validated by techno-economical and life cycle analyses) that help the world be a better place.

What is Cemvita’s business model?

Cemvita endeavors to create economically and environmentally viable solutions for a wide range of industries and applications. It follows that our business model is flexible and depends on the target application and market dynamics. Cemvita is focused on bringing its three primary product lines (eCO2, Gold H2, cOre) to market through a combination of Build-Own-Operate models alongside strong partnerships. That said, Microbes-as-a-Service also serves as a core component of our model. We focus on the tailored selection and engineering of microbes and the development of small-scale bioprocesses. We then collaborate with our clients on EPC and rollout to ensure that they’re fully equipped and supported as they scale up or commercialize our technology. 

Why is now a good time for Cemvita to commercialize biotech in heavy industries?

The clean energy transition is here. But the world needs sustainable solutions that are also economical. Because the cost to apply biotech has also dropped significantly in the last 10 years and been shown successful across a wide range of industrial and commodity industries (agriculture, wastewater, bioethanol, etc), now is the perfect time to explore new applications  in heavy industries—and unlock a healthier future for the environment and the economy.

What unique traits of microbial products make them excel within our target industries?

There is a countless supply of microbes that exist across the earth that have evolved to excel in unique environments, while producing useful resources. This is why we have seen beneficial outcomes such as fungi producing penicillin, bacteria fermenting yogurt, and yeast producing ethanol. Cemvita takes advantage of this by utilizing advanced bioprospecting techniques to identify the right microbe to fit specific industrial conditions while producing value-added products. Cemvita’s R&D and Application teams are able to optimize the performance of these living biocatalysts further, through techniques such as Adaptive Laboratory Evolution (a process of applying environmental pressure to steer adaptation to increase microbe performance). Cemvita also makes use of next generation industrial-strength Synthetic biology platforms (like Artificial Intelligence, automation, and genetic engineering tools) which allows significantly reduced cost and time to modify microbial genes and enzymes. This allows microorganisms to quickly gain new capabilities and industrial applications, whether they’re used for the creation of sustainable synthetic materials or the production of renewable fuel. 

Why the 3 verticals?  What’s the synergy between them? 

Cemvita’s three business lines (eCO2, Gold H2, cOre) address different problems of different heavy industries and from very different angles. However, all of them profit from the knowledge on non-conventional microbes and from the tools and capabilities of our synthetic biology and applications platforms.  
For example, some of the unique bacteria that use the CO2 from flue gas and that are used in eCO2 biomanufacturing applications, have a lot of similarities with those used in cOre Bioming applications. The central workflows we use to identify, augment, and scale-up microbial solutions are application across all of Cemvita’s service lines.

How are industrial microorganisms regulated?

We employ a range of solutions for tailor making microbes that allows Cemvita’s solutions to fit across any number of regulated environments. We actively engage with regulatory agencies like the EPA about the application of genetically engineered microbes. In some cases, since we are only enhancing the natural ability of microorganisms, the microbes are not considered genetically modified. All of our products undergo a regulatory assessment before we deliver them to our partners.