Climate-focused startup Sylvera announced today that it has raised $32.6 million, in a series A funding round led by venture capital investors Index Ventures and Insight Partners, and including participation from Salesforce Ventures, LocalGlobe and angel investors. The financing brings Sylvera’s total funding to $39.5 million since being founded in 2020.
Sylvera describes its mission as becoming a source of truth for carbon markets. In May 2021, the company launched a carbon offset ratings platform, aiming to provide transparent, independent, ongoing and reliable assessments for the rapidly growing market of carbon offset projects.
According to Dr. Allister Furey, co-founder and CEO of Sylvera, the funds from the financing round will be used “to expand our coverage so that, with our ratings, corporate sustainability leaders, carbon traders, and policymakers will have clarity, confidence and choice when evaluating and investing in carbon projects.”
Furey added:
“The market is one of the world’s most powerful tools against climate change. But we need reliable data to determine the quality of carbon offsets, in order to incentivize people to invest in the projects that are actually doing good – and to reward the project developers doing good work. That’s why we’re building the most accurate ratings for the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM).”
Demand for carbon offset projects that counteract the release of greenhouse gases is expected to increase significantly over the next several years, as companies and businesses increasingly launch net zero ambitions, and turn to offsets as a bridge to their own absolute emissions reduction efforts, or to balance difficult to avoid emissions. While the carbon offsets are poised to grow rapidly, however, the market lacks a trusted, independent, universal benchmark to assess the projects. Sylvera was founded to address these issues.
Carlos Gonzalez-Cadenas, Partner at Index Ventures and Sylvera board member said:
“We won’t stand a chance of reducing the world’s carbon emissions without a well-functioning carbon offset market. Billions are spent on carbon offsets every year, yet there is a lack of transparency and accountability and, therefore, a lack of trust. Trust is absolutely essential to reach the scale required to address the climate emergency. As an independent data provider, Sylvera has seen exponential growth in demand from some of the world’s largest companies, governments, and other entities. It highlights how critical their work is, and we’re excited to expand our partnership with Sylvera.”
Deven Parekh, Managing Director at Insight Partners, added:
“We’ve seen incredible growth in the carbon offset market, but until recently, it’s been difficult for the companies that buy these offsets to measure their impact. Sylvera’s advanced technology allows corporations to monitor the performance of nature-based offsets in real time. Sylvera has quickly become a leader in the industry with a growing list of Fortune 500 clients. We’re excited to partner with Sylvera as they continue to scale up.”
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