Vaulted Deep named No. 3 Most Innovative Company in North America by Fast Company. PR Newswire Today at 4:01am PDT Fast Company recognizes Vaulted Deep for creating subsurface infrastructure for hard-to-manage organic waste HOUSTON, March 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - Vaulted Deep has been named the No. 3 Most Innovative Company in North America on Fast Company's 2026 World's Most Innovative Companies list, recognizing its model of applying proven subsurface injection technology to create a new permanent disposal pathway for hard-to-manage organic waste. Across the U.S., operators rely on land application, landfilling, and incineration to manage biosolids, paper sludge, agricultural residues, and other organic waste streams. These systems remain essential but are increasingly facing capacity constraints with evolving regulations and community concerns, creating demand for alternatives that protect local land, air, and water while permanently removing carbon from the atmosphere. Vaulted is building infrastructure designed specifically for these types of waste, converting organic waste into slurry and injecting it into stable geologic formations thousands of feet underground using proven subsurface injection technology. The approach integrates with existing waste systems, providing a new reliable pathway for materials that can be difficult to manage through traditional methods. "The waste industry has had to rely on the same limited disposal options for decades," said Julia Reichelstein, CEO and co-founder of Vaulted Deep. "Those systems are under pressure, and, with our technology, Vaulted can expand the set of options available to manage this challenging waste stream." The company finances its infrastructure through tipping fees and carbon removal credits. Carbon markets help fund new disposal capacity and support competitive pricing for waste customers. In 2025, Microsoft signed a long-term carbon offtake agreement with Vaulted Deep, one of the largest purchases of carbon removal to date. The company also launched a methane quantification initiative with Google and Isometric to improve measurement and transparency for organic waste emissions. During the year, Vaulted Deep processed more than 90,000 tonnes of organic waste at its Great Plains facility and delivered more than 26,000 tonnes of permanent CO[2] removal following a major infrastructure expansion that tripled capacity at the site. "This is a reflection of the hard work our team has put into building something genuinely new, and validation that the market is ready for a different approach," added Reichelstein. Fast Company's annual list highlights companies introducing new approaches that reshape established industries. The full list of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2026 is available at fastcompany.com. About Vaulted Deep Vaulted Deep builds and operates subsurface infrastructure for organic waste, creating a scalable alternative to land application, landfilling, and incineration. Using proven deep well injection technology, the company stores waste in stable geologic formations thousands of feet underground. It works with municipalities, industrial operators, and agricultural producers to expand disposal capacity for hard-to-manage waste streams. By placing the waste deep underground, Vaulted reduces potential impacts on local land, air, and water that can come with surface disposal, while permanently removing carbon. Its infrastructure is permitted, operating, and designed to scale. Learn more at vaulteddeep.com. SOURCE Vaulted Deep This is a paid placement. For further inquiries, please contact PR Newswire directly.

Vaulted Deep bets carbon storage can enable a waste solution. The company is using injection well technology developed in oilfields for long-term disposal of organic waste. With roughly $56 million raised, it's looking to pitch its services around the country. Published March 10, 2026 Vaulted Deep, a deep well slurry injection facility based in Houston, is seizing on disposal capacity concerns across the country to offer an alternative to landfilling and incineration. Its backers are betting the high-tech solution can tap into carbon removal certifications to support facilities around the country. Vaulted Deep's technology began with Advantek Waste Management Services, a deep well slurry injection company that pumped oilfield waste back into the ground. Advantek's injection wells pump material below a layer of impermeable caprock, locking it thousands of feet underground for the long term. Each well can handle tens of thousands of metric tons of organic material per year and can operate for decades, according to the company. After securing contracts in the oilfields of the Permian Basin, Advantek began seeing demand from other industries. In 2008, it secured an agreement with the city of Los Angeles and other partners to inject sewage sludge at the Terminal Island Renewable Energy site. The site continues to process 20% of the city's biosolids, sequestering 65,000 tons of materials annually. Without it, the city would be forced to truck more material 300 miles round trip into the Central Valley for landfilling, where some residents may be concerned about contaminants leaching from the material, said Julia Reichelstein, co-founder and CEO of Vaulted Deep. "What Advantek was doing was great waste management and also really good durable, scalable, measurable additional carbon removal," Reichelstein said. "In some ways, the Los Angeles TIRE facility was the largest durable carbon removal project that the world had never heard of." Sensing an opportunity to grow the business, Reichelstein, then a venture capitalist in the climate space, worked with Advantek founder Omar Abou-Sayed to launch Vaulted Deep in 2023. The company now partners with Advantek to bring additional business to the Los Angeles facility and generates revenue from carbon credits off those agreements. Since then, it has announced two funding rounds, a seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital and most recently a Series A round led by Prelude Ventures that closed in 2024. All told, the company has raised a total of $56 million in equity and awards. Reichelstein said the funding has put Vaulted Deep in a good position to grow, alongside the revenue it's generating from its existing facilities. Shortly after the company launched, it acquired and began operating a second injection well site in Hutchinson, Kansas. The Great Plains facility in Kansas processes a mixture of biosolids, manure and agricultural waste. The site has sequestered more than 157,000 metric tons of organic waste and removed 47,000 metric tons of carbon since then. Vaulted Deep has also invested in growing the facility and increased the amount of waste it processed by 225% between 2024 and 2025. Vaulted Deep is also working to partner with clients to develop on-site solutions similar to the Los Angeles site, where an agricultural or industrial operation prefers to build a well on site to manage its waste without needing to transport it off site. Since its founding, Vaulted Deep has received attention from Silicon Valley. It secured a $58.3 million carbon removal deal in 2024 with Frontier Climate, a decarbonization initiative backed by companies like Stripe, Alphabet, Meta, McKinsey and JPMorgan Chase. Last year, it won second runner-up in the XPrize Carbon Removal competition and announced new agreements with both Google and Microsoft. Reichelstein said that support from those agreements has enabled the business to expand. At some sites, Vaulted Deep expects to earn more from carbon removal credits, while it can earn more from tipping fees at others. Reichelstein also noted Vaulted Deep is able to keep those tipping fees competitive with other forms of disposal, creating a new option for clients where previously only landfilling or incineration may have been an option. Reichelstein expects the business to bring new wells online and expand into new markets in the coming years. Its next facility, in Weld County, Colorado, is set to come online next year. "There's so much organic waste that is in need of good disposal," Reichelstein said. "We can provide long-term, locked-in, guaranteed disposal capacity at locked-in prices."

Vaulted Deep named honoree for the Wichita Business Journal Innovation Awards. Vaulted Deep, a waste management and carbon removal company, has been selected as an honoree for the 2026 Wichita Business Journal Innovation Awards. The award recognizes Vaulted's work modernizing waste management infrastructure while delivering tangible economic and environmental benefits for Kansas communities. Popular tags. Voting poll.