Importance of sustainable tech grows, as BeZero Carbon raises £42m

The next generation of green technology is being developed across the United Kingdom, with London-based startup BeZero Carbon gaining a £42 million investment to support its aim of bringing transparency to the carbon market.

Net-zero targets are now commonplace across the business ecosystem and are expected to play a major role in global efforts to reduce climate emissions. However, the Voluntary Carbon Market, which enables companies to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits has come under criticism for poor transparency and weak oversight.

BeZero Carbon’s voluntary carbon market scoring platform gives subscribers a wide range of tools and assessments that are able to more accurately rate firms on their sustainable activities.

“Set to reach $50bn by 2030, the Voluntary Carbon Market will play a central role in the transition to Net Zero. BeZero Carbon has built the biggest ratings agency in the market, with an incredible team of experts that are leaders in their fields,” said Jeffrey Harris, Venture Partner at Quantum Energy Partners.

BeZero Carbon’s Series B funding round was led by Quantum Energy Partners with support from EDF Pulse Ventures, Hitachi Ventures, Intercontinental Exchange, Molten Ventures, Norrsken VC, Illuminate Financial, Qima and Contrarian Ventures.

“Starting with carbon, effective ecosystem markets have huge potential to accelerate the Net Zero transition and generate economic prosperity. Developing the information infrastructure that allows these markets to take off is fundamental to their growth,” said Tommy Ricketts, CEO and co-founder of BeZero Carbon.

The new investment brings the firm’s total funding to £59.5m in the last 12 months.

All eyes on sustainability

Sustainability has become a key topic conversation at organisations across the world, with money rapidly flowing towards sustainable projects.

Printing giant Brother UK is another business that is refocusing on sustainable initiatives. At the recent Brother Key Partner Conference, Managing Director Phil Jones MBE said sustainability will become one of the big battlegrounds alongside technology, though greenwashing is a concern and all of the projects at Brother will follow key steps to ensure measurement remains at the core of all goals.

In an effort to not only reduce the price of green technologies and boost the green tech sector, the UK government also recently announced at COP27 a £65 million pledge towards the world’s first large-scale Industry Transition Programme by the Climate Investment Funds, a multilateral climate fund aiming to speed up climate action in clean energy and transport technology, energy access, Nature and climate adaptation and resilience.

Business Secretary, Grant Shapps, said it will be the efforts of entrepreneurs, innovators and the international community that will help cut global emissions in the coming decade and achieve net-zero by 2050.

“Green means growth, and with our existing talents in clean technologies, UK businesses could be world leaders in an industry that will only expand, creating jobs for generations to come while also protecting our precious planet,” Shapps added.

The £65 million investment will also support energy-intensive industries in developing economies including India and Indonesia to go green. This investment is in addition to the £65.5 million already pledged by the UK Prime Minister to benefit the Clean Energy Innovation Facility, which provides grants to researchers and scientists to accelerate the development of innovative clean energy technologies in developing countries.

“Emissions from hard-to-abate industries are concentrated in developing countries and set to rise. With support from the United Kingdom and Sweden, the first-of-its-kind CIF Industry Decarbonisation program will support developing countries, manage transition risks, and seize emerging economic opportunities. This investment platform will bring to bear concessional finance, technical assistance, and partnerships to ignite transformation across industries like steel, cement, and aluminium,” said Mafalda Duarte, CEO of the Climate Investment Funds.

The fund has so far supported 76 projects, including the creation of biomass-powered refrigeration in India, prototype lithium-ion batteries in Nigeria, and clean hydrogen-based fuels for steel production in Morocco.