Connecting the financial sector closer to climate action, Connect Earth has just raised over €5.1 million ($5.6 million). The London-based startup now plans to scale across Europe and the US.
Increasingly, consumers and companies are making decisions informed by sustainability and carbon impact. From choosing which products to buy to knowing where and what to invest in, climate action and contributing towards a more sustainable world is closely linked to our financial choices – and it’s something that is evolving with more importance every day.
Having transparent and reputable access to quality data about the impact of daily spending and investment choices, though, is somewhat lacking. It can be hard to know where to find this data and which data to trust. Aiming to bridge this gap, and create closer connections between intent, knowledge and action is Connect Earth.
The London-based startup aims to demcroatise access to sustainability data, empowering people and organisations to make genuinely sustainable choices. The team has now secured €5.1 million in a seed round to fuel its growth.
The funding was led by Gresham House Ventures with participation from Love Ventures, Global Brain and its CVC partner The Norinchukin Bank, Portfolio Ventures, Super Capital and strategic angel investors. Existing investors Market One Capital, Mustard Seed MAZE and Venista Ventures also got involved.
Nick Carmont, CTO at Connect Earth: “We are planning to launch several new products that will break down the barriers to accessing environmental data and tools. We aim to bring carbon footprint data into the daily lives of millions of people so that environmental action becomes widely accessible.”
Founded in 2021, Connect Earth offers a carbon tracking API that helps financial institutions to offer their customers transparent insight into the climate impact of their daily spending and investment decisions. It brings the financial sector closer to climate action and paves a viable way forward for more sustainable societies to emerge.
Benjamin Faulkner, Associate Director at Gresham House Ventures: “The financial sector has historically lacked the infrastructure to support sustainable finance in a tangible way. Connect Earth is solving two significant issues for financial institutions. Firstly, facilitating products and features that provide end-users insights into their carbon footprint improves customer acquisition, engagement, and retention. Secondly, extensive regulatory tailwinds such as TCFD and SFDR require financial institutions to materially improve disclosure of their carbon footprints across value chains.”
Over the past year, the impact-led startup has been able to estimate carbon emissions for over half a billion financial transactions. Its API has been integrated with large European banking groups such as KBC Bank, community banks such as New York-based Bank Purely, as well as several fintechs across Europe and the US, including Cogni, Ribbon, and Jules.
Connect Earth also has partnerships with companies such as SAP, Thought Machine and Q2, enabling their customers to use Connect Earth’s data through their respective marketplaces.
Jakub Ślusarczyk, Partner at Market One Capital: “We strongly believe that in the future, sustainability and carbon footprint awareness will become a major factor, influencing decision-making for businesses and customers alike. Connect Earth is working on providing a key piece of infrastructure that will make it a possibility. When we first met Alex and Nick in 2021, they impressed us with their vision and drive. More importantly, for the last two years, they have proven time and time again that they are able to execute on that vision and we are happy to be able to further support them in the mission of decarbonisation and building a tremendous company.”
With this new funding, the climate tech innovators plan to scale up operations in EUrope as well as boost expansion to the US.
Alexander Lempka, Co-Founder and CEO at Connect Earth: “Decarbonisation initiatives in the financial sector are growing rapidly which is why we need to further scale our product offering to help financial institutions measure and reduce the emissions of their customers. This funding round enables us to exponentially increase our impact globally.”
Zixin Pan, Associate Director at Gresham House Ventures: “Alex and Nick impressed us with their clear vision, relentless hustle, and ruthless execution. We look forward to supporting the team in achieving their vision to become the carbon data backbone of sustainable finance.”
