Recently, Berlin-based VC, Extantia Capital announced €300M fund to back climate tech companies taking the decarbonisation path. Along similar lines, San Francisco-based decarbonisation platform, SINAI Technologies seeks to assist businesses in automating the way they are monitoring and pricing carbon analysis to better calculate their emissions and have now raised $22M Series A funding.
Global investment manager Energize Ventures, which accelerates digital innovation for energy and sustainability, took the lead in this round. Also Energize was joined by Stardust Equity, HighSage, and other confidential external investors, along with previous investors such as Obvious Ventures, Valo Ventures, Afore, and High Alpha. Along with Singapore-based Singtel Innov8, two other Japanese-owned investment companies, Presidio Ventures (from Sumitomo Corporation) and NEC Translink Capital, are taking part. SINAI has gotten $37M in funding altogether so far.
The funding will be used to develop even more precise, collaborative software and further its global expansion. Notably, this is taking place at a time when the majority of large corporations have pledged to achieve net zero emissions, but few are actually moving in that direction.
Expansion of climate specialists
Through the addition of analytical capabilities that make it simpler for users to manipulate data, share it, and take action, this funding will allow SINAI to accelerate the development of its Decarbonization Intelligence platform in addition to enabling it to expand internationally. SINAI is introducing an integration with Tableau, providing users with strong new ways to visualise their data. To meet the needs of its clients in the future, SINAI also intends to expand its group of climate specialists.
How do they gather data?
With the help of the company’s technology, clients like ArcelorMittal, Siemens, Toshiba, and the steel, cement, and transportation industries can gather financial and environmental data before recommending methods to reduce emissions across thousands of projects in each of those sectors.
Over 35M tonnes of carbon emissions were monitored for customers by SINAI’s Decarbonization Intelligence platform last year. SINAI also assisted those clients in evaluating more than $5B in potential capital investments for carbon mitigation projects by tying comprehensive carbon inventories to company-specific financial data.
SINAI, a US-based company that was first used in North America, now has clients from more than 20 industries and users in more than 60 nations throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. SINAI is gaining new clients from Brazil to Japan as well as investors from Asia as it expands its global presence. It was founded in 2017 by Alain Rodriguez, Maria Fujihara and is based in San Francisco, California.
“Every day, we’re seeing more companies commit to net-zero goals without a clear plan for getting there,” says Maria Fujihara, Founder and CEO. “SINAI is helping them with creating a plan. We believe that industry leaders with more reliable data and better collaboration can reach net zero by 2050 (or even before!) and prosper in a low-carbon economy. We are grateful for the support of our investors, but mostly for our customers who are interested in having clear and achievable pathways to reach their net-zero goals.”
“As corporates race to meet net-zero goals, the complexities associated with building and implementing a decarbonization strategy – from calculating emissions to deploying carbon reduction projects – are coming to the forefront,” said Energize Ventures Principal Eileen Waris, who joins SINAI’s board of directors. “This is especially true for emission-intensive industries like mining, manufacturing, and agriculture, where the financial and environmental data needed to inform decarbonization strategies is often highly complex and bespoke. SINAI provides the software platform that heavy emitters need to close the gap between measurement and management and bring their net-zero commitments to fruition.”
