Almost all companies emit carbon when they operate, be it video streaming, coffee subscriptions or ride-shares. With the growing awareness of the damage caused by these emissions, consumers are demanding more sustainable practices from brands and 80% indicate that sustainability is important for them.
However, effective sustainability has been very hard for businesses to do. While there’s a massive commercial opportunity for businesses to demonstrate strong sustainability commitments, calculating their emissions was one of the major challenges. It was important to have deep expertise in calculating emissions.
London-based Minimum streamlines the process into a SaaS solution that can be embedded directly into any business, making sustainability a natural and seamless part of operations. The Y Combinator-backed startup, helps businesses across all industries to make their products and services carbon neutral. Now, the company has raised $2.6 million (nearly £1.9 million) in a seed funding round.
Future plans
The investment round was led by Octopus Ventures along with participation from Clocktower Ventures, Dutch Founders Fund, Plug & Play Ventures, and AGO Partners. The funds will support Minimum’s progress in making carbon neutrality the new default for businesses within Europe and the USA. It will help the company triple the team, expand their customer offering, and continue to invest in their proprietary calculations engine.
With carbon neutrality use cases rapidly emerging in various industries including on-demand delivery, real estate, and cryptocurrency, Minimum expects to facilitate the offsetting of over a hundred thousand tonnes of CO2e by the end of 2021.
Nick Sando, fintech investor at Octopus Ventures, commented, “There’s a huge commercial opportunity for businesses that demonstrate strong sustainability credentials but for most, it’s extremely difficult to achieve. Minimum is a game-changer because it embeds real-time emissions tracking directly into the business itself, and businesses can neutralize the emissions they are actually accountable for, rather than an arbitrary amount. Not only can this help them make their operations carbon neutral by default, but armed with an understanding of their carbon impact companies can provide much-needed carbon transparency to their customers and are better equipped to continuously improve the sustainability of their processes.”
Freddie Evans, Co-founder and CEO, commented, “Sustainability is becoming a major competitive advantage for businesses because consumers are, quite rightly, demanding it. Every business needs to understand and reduce their emissions wherever possible, and neutralize unavoidable emissions by supporting carbon removal and reduction projects. Those that don’t will be left behind. We built Minimum to make effective climate action so accessible for businesses that there is no excuse not to embrace it.”
Tracking carbon footprint made easy
Minimum’s platform lets businesses calculate the carbon footprint of their products and services. Also, it connects them to a curated set of market-leading carbon offsetting projects to neutralise their environmental impact. Once businesses have chosen the projects they would like to support, they can use Minimum’s proprietary API to embed this carbon calculation and offsetting functionality directly into their business processes or customer journeys. Alternatively, businesses can use the platform’s web app to easily input their company emissions information manually.
Its calculation engine automatically converts key data about each product or activity into emissions information. Wherever possible, Minimum incorporates the specific, personalised data provided by the company itself.
Carbon removal and reduction projects
Minimum conducts significant due diligence to ensure it works with the only highest calibre carbon removal and reduction projects. This ensures that companies can precisely track the positive impact of their offsets and can pass this information on to their customers.
Founded by Freddie Green, Chris Winchurch and Freddie Evans, Minimum’s portfolio of projects has been specifically selected to reflect the Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting. Eventually, it gives businesses access to a range of both carbon reduction projects as well as carbon removal projects. Businesses can select individual projects that appeal to them or choose a diversified portfolio.
The post With £1.9M funding, Y Combinator-backed London SaaS startup Minimum wants to offset carbon emissions by 2021 appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
