Sylvera, a leading carbon data provider, has secured $57 million in Series B funding round to incentivize companies to invest in real climate impact with carbon credits and expand in the U.S.
Balderton Capital led the round along with other new investors Bain & Company, Fidelity Strategic Ventures and 9Yards Capital, with participation from existing investors Index Ventures, Insight Partners, Salesforce Ventures, Speedinvest, Seedcamp, and LocalGlobe.
Achieving Net Zero Goals with Confidence
Meeting the net zero by 2050 goal is critical if the world has to prevent catastrophic climate-related disasters. But without ramping up emissions reduction efforts, at least doubling the pace by 2030, achieving net zero targets is impossible.
The world also has to remove about 10 Gigatonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere annually by 2050. Reaching net zero calls for capital investment of about $3.5 trillion each year over the next 3 decades. This funding is necessary to build infrastructure and scale up technologies crucial for a zero-carbon economy, including carbon credits.
High-quality credits are important in keeping projects around the world running, such as reforestation and renewable energy deployment. The credits offer one of the most scalable ways to drive climate finance where it’s most needed.
Unfortunately, both climate actions and funding aren’t enough to keep pace with the net zero deadline. What more, tracking progress against climate targets and measuring the climate impact of investments are difficult because of insufficient data.
This is what Sylvera is changing, for the better, as asserted by the company’s CEO and co-founder, Allister Furey, saying:
“Our technology ensures funding is going to the projects, companies, and countries having maximum climate impact to get the world on track for net zero. In time, this data will create much-needed financial incentives, such as higher share prices and cheaper borrowing, for organisations taking serious net zero action.”
The London-based carbon rating agency is helping companies and governments to invest in carbon credits and confidently report on their impact since 2020. With its cutting-edge technology and carbon measurement methodologies, Sylvera assesses climate action investments, including carbon credits, and rates them.
Sylvera’s data infrastructure and carbon intelligence enables companies to confidently reach their net zero goals and deliver global net zero.
Last week, the carbon credit rating firm, along with Pachama, published their carbon market trend report. It sums up the most significant trends that experts foresee shaping the carbon market landscape in 2023 and beyond.
Funding Sylvera’s Growth and Building Its Platform
Sylvera builds software to impartially and accurately assess carbon projects that capture, remove, or avoid emissions to help organizations ensure that they’re investing effectively in real climate impact.
The carbon ratings company uses technology and climate science to develop and test rigorous methodologies to rate projects and produce data. Its unique platform that leverages machine learning facilitates the creation of new sustainable investment products while educating investors about the quality of carbon credits.
Highlighting the role of Sylvera and its innovative carbon rating, Daniel Waterhouse, Partner, Balderton Capital, noted that:
“Sylvera has proven to be the market leader in this emerging field and we are excited to be joining them on the next phase of the journey and their work in accelerating the roll-out of data, tools and software in order to steer a path to reducing damaging climate change.”
Moody’s ratings are to bond credits, Sylvera’s ratings are to carbon credits. Its rating is a combination of these core scoring pillars – carbon, additionality, permanence, and co-benefits. The carbon rating process takes between 60-120 hours, but it depends on the complexity of the project.
Generally, it involves the following steps:
The $57 million investment will help Sylvera further develop its platform and technology to produce the most robust data crucial in climate action investment decisions. The funding will also help the company scale its teams and product offerings as it expands into the US.
Having a new office in New York, a global hub for financial services, will help Sylvera grow its network. The company has 12 new employees in the U.S. right now and will double this team by year-end.
Since its Series A announcement in January last year, Sylvera’s customer base has grown 7x, adding more Fortune 500 clients. This Series B round brings its total fundraising to over $96 million.
Sylvera is serving major financial services providers, governments, and infrastructure suppliers while partnering with large companies like S&P Global.