Race to Net zero It has led Thousands of companies Commitment to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 This falls short What is needed to confront the growing climate emergency.
The problems are multiple. Inadequate action and planning between governments and companies is part of it, but even with the best will in the world, the herculean undertaking required to get companies to net zero in less than three decades presents a wide range of challenges.
Among them is how to help well-meaning institutions invest in carbon projects, and thus – how to help carbon projects get investment? this thing Upna The company seeks a solution through a platform that helps companies find, finance and monitor carbon projects as part of their offset endeavors.
The London-based company, which has rebranded from Salt About three months agoIt announced today that it has raised $6.5 million in seed funding as it looks to connect projects with companies seeking to address their emissions as part of a so-called voluntary carbon market (VCM).
Fully checked
Founded in 2022, Opna serves as a direct artery for companies to find fully vetted project developers, saving them time and money to finance projects as part of their efforts to achieve net zero. In addition, Opna also helps facilitate the financing side through standardized processes and agreements, while enabling companies to monitor their project portfolio over time through key performance indicators (KPIs) and risk reporting.
According to Opna founder, Shilpika Gautam, the status quo of discovering and financing carbon projects is a largely tedious manual process with little digitization. There is little consistency across sectors, which increases due diligence difficulties.
“The processes and tools are driven by the sophistication and experience of companies, and how important they are to their net-zero emissions strategy,” Gautam explained to TechCrunch. “The most active companies are inundated with emails from project developers – because the process is completely manual, it is difficult for companies to know which projects are good, bad or duplicate, leaving them to default to working with project developers they know.”
Opna founder Shilpika Gautam Image credits: upna
On the project side, there is a wide range of developer types, including larger private players Like Antarctica And Environmental securities Which has access to its own capital pool. Then there are small and medium-sized players who usually need to raise financing in advance to implement their carbon projects. It is the latter that Opna is looking to support, where the financier (i.e. a company) provides some financing upfront with the promise of either future carbon credits, or a commitment to purchase carbon credits upon delivery.
“We focus on projects where the frameworks and standards are in place, and where the science is more popular,” Gautam said. “In other words, where we can really focus on meeting the financing challenge.”
In terms of the business model, Opna plans to charge a set percentage on completed financing transactions, as well as an annual subscription for monitoring, tracking and reporting on the projects being funded.
In the 18 months or so since its founding, Gautam says Opna has roped in “dozens” of project developers from around the world who need upfront financing.
“We work closely with these projects, which range from reforestation projects in South America, restoring degraded lands and preserving biodiversity, to… Biochar “Projects that produce biofuels and achieve decarbonization are underway in several countries in Europe, Africa and South Asia,” Gautam said.
Meanwhile, on the funding side, Gautam said Opna has privately beta-tested its platform with several companies across sectors, though it stopped short of naming names. But its latest cash injection will be used largely to scale things up and boost customer awareness over the next couple of years.
carbon copy
There are a number of players operating in the Opna space, including carbon removal marketplace Supercritical which recently raised $13 million in Series A funding. However, Gautam said Opna differentiates itself not just by allowing companies to buy carbon credits generated Indeed, but instead is moving more to help launch new projects.
“The Opna platform enables companies to finance carbon projects directly, before the projects generate a carbon credit,” Gautam said. “This is a crucial distinction, because we are currently in short supply of high-quality credit, and by financing projects initially, companies help revive them, thus securing the future supply of credits these projects eventually generate to match their needs. Clean goals, zero.”
Opna’s seed round was led by European VC firm Atomico, with participation from Pale Blue Dot, MCJ Collective, Angelinvest, Tiny VC, and several angel investors.