Aramco Ventures backs Via Separations in $36 million round

• Saudi Arabia's Aramco Ventures participated in a $36 million funding round for the US-based deeptech startup Via Separations, alongside Climate Investment and Marathon Petroleum.
• Founded in 2016, Via Separations develops modular filtration systems that replace heat-based industrial separation processes with energy-efficient alternatives.
• The funding will support global deployment, manufacturing expansion, and adoption of membrane-based separations across industrial sectors.

Press release:

Via Separations, a leader in process solutions for industrial separations, today announced $36 million in new funding with significant participation from new investors, including Climate Investment, Aramco Ventures, and Marathon Petroleum Corporation, alongside participation from existing backers, including Embark Ventures, The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), and Safar Partners.

The investment will accelerate deployment of Via’s modular filtration platform into the refining and chemical sectors, building on proven commercial performance in pulp and paper to help industrial operators reduce energy use, improve uptime, and strengthen operational resilience — with the added benefit of lower emissions.

Via electrifies heat-based separation with modular filtration systems that integrate directly with existing equipment, drastically reducing the energy required for chemical separations. These thermal separation steps account for roughly 12 percent of global energy use, driving significant fuel and steam demand across industrial separations. By replacing them with a mechanically driven membrane process, Via’s system can reduce energy use at the separation step by up to 90 percent, delivering lower operating costs, higher uptime, and a more flexible pathway to energy efficiency and electrification.

The company has proven the technology at commercial scale in the pulp and paper sector, approaching two years of continuous operation at a pulp mill in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada. Via is now expanding deployment into refining and chemicals, with hundreds of millions of dollars of capital projects in the commercial pipeline. The company also completed a pilot at a major Gulf Coast refinery last year.

“Thermal separations represent one of the largest and least-addressed sources of industrial energy consumption,” said Mike Bishop, Investment Director at Climate Investment. “Via’s innovative membrane platform introduces electrification to processes that have depended on heat for more than a century. By seamlessly integrating into existing industrial infrastructure, the company provides a practical solution for reducing energy consumption, enhancing reliability, and significantly lowering emissions.”

“At Aramco Ventures, we invest in differentiated technologies that can deliver clear operational value at scale,” said Tibor Toth, Senior Investment Director at Aramco Ventures. “Via Separations’ modular platform addresses a critical step in industrial processing and has strong potential to enhance efficiency and unlock additional capacity within existing refining and chemical assets.”

“By proving our technology commercially in one sector, we’ve built the foundation to scale into the much larger refining and chemicals markets,” said Shreya Dave, CEO of Via Separations. “This investment enables us to deliver more commercial projects across the product portfolio, expand manufacturing capacity, and accelerate global adoption of membrane‑based separations.”