Sistema.bio raises $53M to launch FarmCarbon—an innovative funding vehicle aimed at expanding climate finance for smallholder farmers and accelerating methane mitigation

Fostering Innovation Mobilising Finance Smallholder Farmers East Africa Southeast Asia West Africa Clean Cooking

London, March 17th 2026 – Sistema.bio, a global leader in biogas technology and climate solutions for smallholder farmers, today announced the financial close and launch of FarmCarbon, a pioneering carbon finance vehicle designed to channel global climate capital directly to farmers. The first US$53 million close of this facility has been led by BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts (BNPP AM Alts), the alternative investments platform of BNP Paribas Asset Management, British International Investment (BII), the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, and Shell Foundation, an independent charity supporting underserved communities in Africa and Asia to increase incomes while reducing emissions.

FarmCarbon will facilitate financing for more than 90,000 Sistema.bio digesters on farms worldwide to capture and destroy methane, creating emissions reductions of over 9 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. Beyond emissions reductions, FarmCarbon is designed to deliver meaningful income uplift for smallholder and family farmers. By converting livestock waste into biogas and organic fertiliser, biodigesters significantly reduce household energy costs, replace purchased chemical inputs, and improve on-farm productivity.

FarmCarbon aims to scale climate finance in small-scale agriculture, a crucial area for meeting global climate goals that is often overlooked in the climate agenda despite its significant emissions footprint. FarmCarbon will focus on methane, a super-pollutant that, according to the Greenhouse Protocol, has 28 times the warming power of CO₂ over 100 years. Methane accounts for 30% of global warming, with livestock representing a major source—about 10% of global emissions. Yet today, data from recent reports indicate that only 2% of tracked global climate finance flows is directed towards methane abatement measures.

Unlike traditional carbon financing mechanisms, FarmCarbon is specifically designed to address the barriers that have limited investment in reducing agricultural methane. The vehicle deploys prefinancing to biogas project development, securing future emissions reductions that are later delivered to carbon credits buyers through multi-year purchase agreements. The vehicle’s design focuses on rigorous pre-validation, digital tracking, and a robust legal and financial framework to deliver high-quality impacts and emissions reductions, ensuring that financial benefits reach farmers upfront and provide them with the necessary long-term support to maximize the benefits of biogas technology over time.

In parallel, FarmCarbon’s pre-financing model allows farmers to access the economic value of future carbon credits up front, unlocking new income streams and reducing financial barriers to adopting climate-smart technologies.

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Investing in infrastructure, financing, and services for smallholder and family farms is vital for global food system resilience. For 15 years, Sistema.bio has worked hand-in-hand with farmers in Asia, Africa and LATAM, installing biodigesters that capture methane from animal waste and convert it into a clean energy source—biogas—for thermal, mechanical, and electrical needs on the farm, as well as producing organic fertiliser. FarmCarbon takes this proven solution and makes it accessible at an even larger scale—paying the economic benefits of carbon credits forward to farmers, and empowering them to co-invest in energy, productivity, health and climate outcomes on their own farms

Alexander Eaton

CEO and Co-founder of Sistema.bio

Methane abatement through biodigesters, focusing on waste management, fertiliser, and biogas energy, is among the most efficient, cost-effective, and near-term forms of emissions reduction. Recent economic analysis shows very high benefit-cost ratios for methane action. For example, a 2025 Science paper, ‘Global methane action pays for itself at least six times over’, estimates a benefit-cost ratio of ≥3x, rising to >6x when health co-benefits are included, and a global social cost of methane around US$7,381 per tonne of methane.

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FarmCarbon shows how carbon markets can reach the level of high-quality that institutional investors and stakeholders expect. This vehicle demonstrates how innovative financing addresses the cause and effect of climate change for smallholder farmers and vulnerable communities. By strengthening access to financing and embedding robust standards, this facility demonstrates how capital can flow into climate solutions at scale.

Jonathan Dean

Deputy Head of Natural Capital & Impact Private Equity at BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts

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At BII, we play a catalytic role in driving innovative financing solutions that aim to protect the planet, mitigate impacts of climate change and strengthen resilience for communities most affected. We are proud to support FarmCarbon, in partnership with Sistema.bio, BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts, and Shell Foundation, to channel more private capital into climate-positive solutions for smallholder farmers across Africa and Asia.

Holger Rothenbusch

Managing Director and Head of Infrastructure and Climate, British International Investment

FarmCarbon‘s first project has already received an ex-ante rating (AAe) from BeZero Carbon and the Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) label, underscoring the strong preparatory work that has gone into its launch. FarmCarbon puts controls in place, including digital Measurement, Reporting and Verification (dMRV), to ensure that only the highest-quality emissions reductions are funded, with transparent, measurable, and traceable origins and financial additionality. Sistema.bio and FarmCarbon are committed to ongoing safety advancements driven by biodigester design, technology, and quality control, underscoring a culture that prioritizes customer safety. This commitment is reinforced through rigorous standards, continuous monitoring, and ongoing learning, ensuring systems are reliable, durable, and safe for daily use by farming families as the program scales globally.

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Farmers need to increase their incomes. Investors need commercial returns on a product they can replicate. And the planet needs both to happen on a low‑carbon pathway. FarmCarbon is a breakthrough that aligns all three. Shell Foundation is proud to support this transaction, helping unlock further investment and proving that this new model can work for people, markets, and the climate alike

Jonathan Berman

CEO, Shell Foundation

Biogas systems have demonstrated the most effective pathway for methane elimination while delivering multiple co-benefits for energy, health, food security, and income resilience for farming families. Together with FarmCarbon vehicle’s pre-financing, the benefits are potentiated by strengthening farm resilience and profitability over the long term, enabling farmers to reinvest in their livelihoods, improve food security, and build more stable, diversified sources of income while aiming to contribute to global climate goals.

FarmCarbon is at the forefront of an urgently needed climate solution by connecting smallholder farmers, social business innovation, global finance, and corporate carbon demand within a scalable, investable structure. FarmCarbon is currently engaging businesses, governments and organisations that want to make high-impact methane mitigation part of their climate action plans

About FarmCarbon

Founded in 2025, FarmCarbon is a pioneering climate finance facility dedicated to scaling methane and CO₂ emissions reductions in agriculture, an often-overlooked sector in global climate action. By combining pre-purchase agreements, rigorous pre-validation, digital tracking, and robust legal-financial structures, FarmCarbon delivers high-quality, bankable, and traceable emissions reductions. Over the next decade, the fund aims to mobilize over US$1 billion, and prove that a focus on methane and CO₂ emissions on family farms can also expand access to clean energy, organic fertiliser, and waste management to improve conditions for millions of people in the global agricultural value chain.

About BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts

BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts (BNPP AM Alts) is the alternative investments platform of BNP Paribas Asset Management. It is the largest alternatives asset manager in Europe and a global leader, with approximately €300 billion in assets under management across Real Estate, Infrastructure, Alternative Credit and Private Equity. With more than 30-year track record, BNPP AM Alts has built a reputation as a pioneering and innovative asset manager, combining an entrepreneurial investment culture with strategic discipline. BNPP AM Alts finances the real economy by providing equity and debt to help companies to expand by developing, managing and financing infrastructure and buildings essential to economic growth. Sustainability is at the core of our investment decision-making processes, with a particular focus on decarbonization.

About Shell Foundation

For 25 years, Shell Foundation, an independent charity registered in England and Wales, has empowered underserved customers to raise their incomes while lowering emissions. The Foundation supports early-stage innovations; helps the best of them to reach millions of people; and de-risks capital to prove those models are commercial at scale. Across Asia and Africa, the Foundation enables resilient prosperity among three core groups of people: smallholder farmers, transporters, and micro-entrepreneurs.

About British International Investment (BII)

British International Investment is the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor. The organisation invests in businesses in developing countries to improve people’s lives and help protect the planet. BII’s work targets the underlying causes of poverty and the climate crisis, helping countries break free from aid dependency for good. Between 2022-2026, at least 30 per cent of BII’s total new commitments by value will be in climate finance. BII is also a founding member of the 2X Challenge, which has raised over $33.6 billion to empower women’s economic development. The company has investments in over 1,600 businesses across 66 countries and total net assets of £9.87 billion.

About Sistema.bio

Sistema.bio is the global leader in biogas and regenerative agriculture solutions for small and medium-scale farmers, providing access to innovative biodigester technology, training, and financing. Since 2010, they have been addressing the interconnected challenges of energy access, waste management, and soil degradation through renewable energy and regenerative farming solutions. Operating in over 35 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Sistema.bio delivers high-quality carbon mitigation, sequestration, and climate change adaptation programs backed by digital Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (dMRV). Sistema.bio works with family farmers all over the world to reduce their carbon footprint and make them more productive and efficient.