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Billionaire Bill Gates has invested in a carbon capture start-up.

The Times reports his Breakthrough Energy Ventures fund has taken part in an $80million (£58.8million) fundraising for Verdox, a Massachusetts-based business whose technology aims to remove carbon dioxide directly from the air.

Verdox was founded in 2019 and Brian Baynes, its chief executive, said that a recent breakthrough had helped it to raise cash from investors.

Mr Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, provided an unspecified sum.

Momentum is building behind carbon capture as governments strive to cut emissions to net zero.

Verdox, which is a spinout from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, claims that its system is cheaper and more efficient. It uses a special plastic which, when charged with electricity, can extract CO2 from a mixture of gases. A change in voltage releases the CO2.

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