Carbonˣ raises €900K in pre-seed funding
by Carbonx | Oct 26, 2022 | Company news
From left to right: Sebastien Dewarrat, Paolo Piffaretti, and Aksel Güngör
Paris, 26th of October 2022 – The carbonˣ team is thrilled to announce its pre-seed funding round of €900K with leading investors from the Fintech, SaaS and Impact spaces, including participation from the co-founders of Algolia, Nicolas Dessaigne and Julien Lemoine. We feel honoured to work with such a diverse team of investors and are excited to scale our operations to meet the growing demand of our customers and grow our presence within EMEA. Please find our full release below.
Climate fintech startup carbonˣ raises a €900K pre-seed to help businesses de-risk reaching net zero targets with managed carbon removal pools/services.
Carbonˣ, a climate fintech startup helping companies reach their net-zero targets by de-risking permanent carbon removal credit procurement while unlocking catalytic demand for the carbon removal sector, has successfully closed its €900k pre-seed round with leading investors from the Climate, Fintech and SaaS spaces, including participation from both co-founders of Algolia, Nicolas Dessaigne and Julien Lemoine.
Climate change is undoubtedly our biggest challenge and achieving the targets set out in the Paris Agreement of limiting global warming to 1.5°C compared to pre-industrial levels is a monumental task. While reducing emissions and decarbonising every aspect of our economy are critical, perhaps a lesser-known aspect of fighting climate change is the ongoing need to remove carbon from our atmosphere to securely and safely store it permanently. Carbon removal is vital as certain sectors of the economy include hard-to-abate emissions, which will remain active even after most or all decarbonisation and reduction activities have been implemented.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an authority on climate guidance, has determined that 10 billion tonnes (Gt) of carbon must be removed annually by 2050. Given that the current high-quality, permanent carbon dioxide removal delivery is at 10,000 tonnes per year, most projections require scaling carbon removal up by 1,000,000x over the next 28 years.
To meet the enormity of this challenge and to prepare for future regulations that would continue to make carbon emissions a cost-centre for corporations, many businesses are taking a stance by making net-zero pledges today. This space is evolving rapidly, especially within the Voluntary Carbon Market (or VCM), where companies today can participate in procuring high-quality, permanent carbon removal credits. Despite best efforts, more and more businesses are exposed to potential greenwashing and financial risk due to the quickly-changing environment.
The ambiguity around carbon credits mainly drives this, specifically low-quality and difficult-to-verify credits vs high-quality, permanent carbon removal credits that are low in supply and many offered for delivery at a future date.
It is in reaction to this ambiguity and the lack of market oversight that carbonˣ, founded in 2022, has developed an innovative new approach to help companies reach their net-zero targets with vetted carbon removal projects, guaranteed integrity of the carbon credits, and minimised risks of greenwashing and non-delivery – all in an effort to maximise the company’s climate impact. In providing trusted and reliable carbon removal procurement services where there are none, carbonˣ aims to work as an industry catalyst by aggregating companies’ demand and directing capital flow to high-quality carbon removal projects while setting the base for a sustainable VCM.
This pre-seed round will help carbonˣ launch its first carbonˣ removal pool and grow its team and presence within EMEA.
“Carbonˣ helps companies achieve real net zero by procuring strictly permanent carbon removal credits, while unlocking catalytic demand to stimulate the CDR sector. We do this by sourcing and evaluating best-in-class CDR technologies for the carbonˣ CDR pool and then generate standardised carbon removal credits of the highest quality. This approach de-risks carbon removal procurement for companies while maximising their climate impact.”
– Paolo Piffaretti, Carbonˣ Co-Founder and CEO.
“I have been excited and impressed with the ambition and vision of the carbonx team helping companies reach net zero; it’s both an important and massive opportunity. I see Climate Change as one of the vital areas for development and growth, and I am excited for the future with carbonx.”
– Nicolas Dessaigne, Algolia Co-Founder and Group Partner at YC.