GreenTech startup, Klimato, has just secured €4.2 million to supercharge its mission to reduce the food industry’s carbon impact. The Swedish team now plans to ramp up its international expansion.
The global food system accounts for about one-third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions – making it one of the main contributors to climate change. As the green transition evolves, and efforts are made to make life on earth more sustainable and planet-positive, the food industry is one that needs to undergo transformative change.
Based in Stockholm, Klimato aims to help do this. The startup has developed a platform that helps restaurants and food service providers to calculate, communicate and report the carbon footprint per dish – helping people make more climate-friendly food choices and giving actionable insights to players in the industry.
Klimato has now raised €4.2 million in a new investment round led by Global Cleantech Capital. Existing backers, including Almi Invest Greentech, also participated.
Anton Unger, CEO and co-founder of Klimato: “We are delighted to welcome GCC as a new investor and for the continued support from Almi Invest Greentech. Their support will enable us to further develop our technology and accelerate our growth. This investment will help us strengthen our market position and achieve our mission of reducing the climate impact of food. We will expand globally with our existing and new customers while continuing to develop our product to become the worldwide market leader for sustainability services in the food sector”.
Launched in 2018, Klimato has developed a proprietary cloud-based software platform to tackle the food industry’s carbon problem. Using research-based data, the software automates the carbon accounting process, making it faster, easier, and more accurate. It also provides a comprehensive dashboard that allows users to track their emissions and identify actions to reduce them.
The aim is to make carbon emissions transparent to the entire value chain – from the chef to the purchasing manager and to the consumer. The platform enables food providers to give each dish a climate label.
So far, the fast-growing startup has already landed the attention of some of the world’s largest food service providers such as Sodexo and Levy (part of Compass Group), hotels like Hilton and Marriott, restaurants such as KFC and Bastard Burgers, and food producers like Unilever’s subsidiary Violife.
For clients, the average emission per dish on Klimato’s platform decreased by a reported 23% in 2022, from 1.1 kg CO2e to 0.8 kg CO2e. 57% of all the dishes that Klimato’s customers served in 2022 were climate-friendly (0.5 kg CO2e or below), compared to the global average of 1.7 kg CO2e.
Emil Mahjoub, Investment Manager at GCC: “We are impressed by Klimato’s strong growth, the successful start of the international expansion, and their commitment to sustainability. Klimato helps the food industry make data-driven decisions about carbon emissions, and is already a business-critical partner to leading organizations such as Sodexo, Compass Group, and Violife across the Nordics, the UK, and beyond. We are excited to collaborate with the management team and existing investors to help realize Klimato’s ambitious global growth plans.”
Armed with this new funding, the startup aims to expand. It’ll grow into new markets, such as Germany, France, and the US. Klimato has also shared plans to enhance its product offering with more sustainability indicators.
Karin Edström, Investment Manager, Almi Invest GreenTech: “Climate has the potential to drive the food sector in a sustainable direction at a large scale. Since our first investment in Klimato in 2021, we have been impressed by the annual impact we have seen for Klimato’s customers, last year an average decrease in CO2 emissions per dish by 23%. We are thrilled that our investment will allow Klimato to expand further and help the food industry with a faster transition.”
