Pledge Raises $4.5M Seed Round for Carbon Measurement API

Addressing the Climate Challenge with Innovative Carbon Offset Solutions

As the urgency of the climate crisis intensifies, numerous organizations are seeking ways to contribute to sustainability efforts. However, requesting customers to "offset the carbon emissions" associated with a delivery often proves to be an overly complex approach.

A significant issue lies in the lack of transparency surrounding current carbon offset programs. Furthermore, smaller businesses desire access to dependable, high-quality carbon credits, but require the ability to calculate their environmental impact at a granular level – encompassing individual products, services, and transactions.

Introducing Pledge: A New Approach to Carbon Offsetting

Pledge is a newly established startup focused on providing solutions for sectors like freight forwarding, ride-hailing, travel, and last-mile delivery. The platform enables businesses to present customers with options for adding carbon offsets to their purchases.

The company has recently secured $4.5 million in seed funding, spearheaded by Visionaries Club, with additional investment from Lowercarbon Capital (led by Chris Sacca) and Zinal Growth, the investment arm of Guillaume Pousaz, founder and CEO of Checkout.com. Pledge had previously operated in a closed beta phase.

The Team Behind Pledge

Pledge was founded by David de Picciotto and Thomas Lucas, both former employees of Revolut, alongside André Mohamed, a co-founder and ex-CTO of Freetrade. Initially, Pledge will concentrate on the logistics and transportation industries.

By integrating the Pledge API, companies can accurately measure and mitigate the carbon footprint of their shipments, rides, deliveries, or travel arrangements, ultimately achieving carbon neutrality. The platform is designed to deliver customers valuable analytics, insights, and recommendations for reducing their emissions over time.

Adherence to Global Standards

Pledge emphasizes that its emissions calculations will align with internationally recognized standards, including the GHG Protocol, the GLEC framework, and the ICAO methodology, all while maintaining compliance with ISO standards.

A core feature of the Pledge platform is its ability to facilitate the purchase of fractional carbon credits – mirroring the ability of retail investors to buy portions of stocks. It also offers access to diversified portfolios encompassing various methodologies and geographic locations, functioning similarly to an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).

Statements from Pledge Leadership

David de Picciotto, co-founder and CEO of Pledge, stated: “A simple and scalable solution for companies to understand and reduce their emissions is currently unavailable. Existing carbon measurement and offsetting solutions are often expensive and complex, limiting access to larger organizations. We created Pledge to empower any company to launch verified, high-quality climate initiatives quickly and easily.”

Investor Perspectives

Robert Lacher, co-founder and partner at Visionaries Club, commented: “Pledge is developing the infrastructure necessary for any business to launch applications for measuring and mitigating their environmental impact. Just as a wave of financial infrastructure providers enabled any company to become a fintech, Pledge will facilitate climate initiatives by providing the essential tools and software infrastructure.”

Clay Dumas, partner at Lowercarbon Capital, added: “A major obstacle to expanding carbon removal efforts is connecting supply with demand. The Pledge team is leveraging their experience in building leading financial products to unlock funding – in euros, dollars, and pounds – for carbon removal technologies.”

The Genesis of Pledge

Picciotto explained that his experience at a private equity firm, working alongside the ESG team, revealed a growing demand from Limited Partners (LPs), particularly pension funds, for increased transparency and reporting on ESG and climate KPIs within portfolio companies.

He recognized the need for a streamlined reporting and calculation process, coupled with access to high-quality carbon credits, to provide greater transparency and tools for both internal and external stakeholders.

“Our investigation into the carbon market revealed striking parallels with the financial services industry. We believed that our experience in founding and developing successful companies like Freetrade and Revolut could offer a unique perspective in addressing climate change,” he concluded.