GreenTrade has just secured a considerable PreSeed funding as it builds out a blockchain-based marketplace for carbon credits and impact claims. The Berlin-based startup is aiming to bring more transparency and impact to the reduction of carbon emissions with a nature-based approach.
It’s obvious that the race to reduce the effects of climate change is currently underway. This challenge is now a priority for governments, businesses and individuals all over the world. More importantly, it’s a race that must accelerate.
GreenTrade is a Berlin-based startup that recently launched an initiative to decrease the amount of carbon in the atmosphere worldwide. The company achieves this by creating long-term agreements between project developers and offtakers. These agreements are turned into digital NFT tokens that can be used by corporations today.
In 2022, Katrin Klingenberg, Ulf Hackbarth, Carsten Hermann and Frederick Leuschner founded this startup. Just a year later, the company received nearly $1 million in PreSeed funding to prepare for growth.
CeruleanVC is a venture capital firm founded in the United States by Climate/Web3. This investment was led by Cerulean along with Draft Ventures, Flori Ventures and Allegory. Several business angels and serial entrepreneurs — including Sundeep Ahuja and Tom O’Keefe — also participated in this investment.
Nature-based solutions
The climate crisis requires new solutions; Ideas that mitigate the consequences without creating new carbon emissions are critical. One-third of the necessary emissions reductions can be achieved via nature-based approaches that either remove carbon from the air or don’t create new emissions.
Only 3% of all global climate funding is given to these projects.
To meet climate change targets, the UN Environmental Program claims the world has a $4.1 trillion financing gap in nature that needs to be closed by 2050. GreenTrade attempts to address this issue.
Carbon credit and impact claim marketplace
GreenTrade created a marketplace for carbon credits from transparent, long-term environmental projects. This solves the issue of transparency in these projects.
Frederick Leuschner, co-founder and CEO of GreenTrade, explained that businesses purchasing carbon credits face high initial costs. This is because they are purchasing credits that haven’t been generated yet— meaning they are buying something that doesn’t actually exist. Additionally, Leuschner said that there were a limited number of carbon credits available. He added that these existing carbon credits were decreasing in quantity at a fast rate. To solve this problem, Leuschner suggested using forward contracts. This would provide immediate financing to project developers, as well as give corporate buyers access to high-quality projects— all without risking sudden price increases in the future.
GreenTrade uses a blockchain-based platform to record the creation and trading of carbon credits. Additionally, the token protocol allows third-party verifiers and developers to enter data about carbon measurement and verification information. This includes details from data gathered from satellites, drones, soil analysis and sound mapping. This transparency allows buyers to make informed decisions when purchasing tokens associated with any given project.
Data on the blockchain can’t be changed, so it’s immutable.
GreenTrade created nature-based carbon credits that help ocean restoration and forest conservation. These credits will be released in the fourth quarter of 2022.
El Gato is a partnership between a German-Canadian NGO and the company. It’s named after a rainforest purchasing project; one that results in large sections of forest being preserved. These sections of the rainforest are identified in Peru’s public land registry. By purchasing these sections of wooded land, El Gato avoids the release of 260,000 tons of carbon dioxide for 30 years. Additionally, this project results in several positive side effects. It preserves wildlife and a wide range of biodiversity in the Amazon Forest. Additionally, El Gato generates jobs for local people and earns carbon credits certified by Verra— the world’s leading authority on carbon accounting.
GreenTrade is competing against other companies to address the effects of climate change. By making this investment, people will help GreenTrade level up in this race. This will also assist GreenTrade in releasing an additional 1 billion carbon credits by 2030.
Cerulean’s Santa Barbara-based general partner, Jahed Momand, commented on GreenTrade’s funding. He said Cerulean is an active investor in climate tech and web3 tech. According to him, Cerulean believes GreenTrade is building necessary infrastructure to scale climate impact. Additionally, Mr. Momand believed GreenTrade was developed by a high-quality team that knew how to execute and scale businesses. On top of that, he believed that the demand for nature-based carbon credits was increasing— a fact reflected in the technology behind GreenTrade. Consequently, Mr. Momand considered the investment a way to protect both the financial and environmental value nature provides.
