Inspired by the above-mentioned studies, we hypothesized that dimethyl malonate, an active methylene compound, can be used as carbene precursor for the generation of a cobalt(III) carbene radical complex (Figure ). Under basic conditions, dimethyl malonate will be deprotonated and the respective anion can then coordinate the cobalt complex. Normally, this species is a deactivated product resulting from HAT by the carbene radical complex, but with the work of Che in mind, we postulated that HAT could lead to the desired cobalt(III) carbene radical complex. Benzophenone is known as an excellent HAT reagent and was therefore selected for this study. The formed cobalt(III) carbene radical complex can react directly with an olefin to form a cyclopropane as the product. In this work, we demonstrate that dimethyl malonate can be used as a carbene precursor to generate a cobalt(III) carbene radical complex, which is characterized by EPR and NMR spectroscopy.