Root Global, a Berlin-based startup helping food and beverage companies get to net zero, has raised €8 million in seed funding. The round was led by Christoph Janz at Point Nine (which invested in Soda and ampere.cloud), with participation from Project A, HelloWorld (which backed Enapi and Claimer), Arc Investors, and a host of experienced startup operators.
Stepping into the next phase of growth, the startup is hiring fresh talent to tackle the challenges of climate change and the food system. It will also build a customer-facing product.
What challenge does it tackle?
Helping companies calculate and reduce their GHG emissions requires going all the way to the largest sources of emissions, often deep in their supply chain. This is due to the nature of how carbon accounting works: A company’s emission footprint includes emissions of all its suppliers. This is where Root Global’s approach comes into the picture as it aims to demonstrate emission reduction year-over-year. Given the access to the most critical data in the supply chain, the company believes it has a clear and practical solution that will become the industry standard for a €400 billion market.
What does the company do?
It launched the RootOS platform in October 2023 to help companies across the food system manage their climate footprint and reduce GHG emissions. Its mission is to build the climate OS of the food industry. The all-in-one climate platform to manage and reduce GHG emissions enables one to collect and verify on-farm data at scale, calculate the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) according to the latest updates of the GHG Protocol and set a reliable baseline year that you can actually plan with and gradually reduce from, calculate and share your Product Carbon Footprints (PCFs) with buyers, and measure Scope 3 emissions from agricultural operations.
The company has also onboarded some of Europe’s biggest Food & Beverage players, including the largest dairy plant in Europe and the largest fast-food chain in the world. Through them, the company works with over 10k farmers in helping them manage and reduce millions of tons of CO2 emissions.
In a blog post on their website, Eric Oancea and Maurice Hensl, co-founders of Root Global said: “Our mission is more urgent today than ever. Climate performance has become a critical business performance indicator as enterprises are now mandated to disclose their climate performance and set Net Zero targets. Some of the companies we now work with had even lost key customers due to missing climate requirements and documentation, prior to onboarding.”
What do we think about Root Global?
The company is poised to revolutionise the food and beverage industry’s approach to climate impact. With its RootOS platform, the startup provides a comprehensive solution for managing and reducing GHG emissions, making it easier for companies to meet Net Zero targets. By partnering with major industry players and directly supporting thousands of farmers, Root Global is set to become an industry standard, driving significant reductions in the sector’s carbon footprint.
