Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that invests in a large number of startups twice a year. It created a new model for funding startups. Twice a year, the company invests a small amount of money ($150k) in a large number of startups. The startup accelerator works intensively with the companies for three months, to get them into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors. Each cycle culminates in Demo Day when the startups present their companies to a carefully selected, invite-only audience.

Y Combinator

Octopus Ventures is a venture capital firm that offers support to companies at various stages of their journey, from idea conception to IPO. They allocate over £200 million annually to invest in sectors such as health, fintech, deep tech, consumer, and B2B software, with a focus on making a positive impact. Their experienced team assists portfolio companies in scaling rapidly. Octopus Ventures' investment philosophy extends beyond monetary support, involving time, energy, and focus to work closely with founders for success. Notable companies they have backed include ManyPets, Cazoo, Depop, Elvie, and WaveOptics. Their operations span London and New York, with a network of partners in the U.S. and Asia.

Octopus Ventures

Plug and Play is a seed and early-stage investor focused on great teams leading emerging growth companies.  Plug and Play runs 12 industry-specific accelerator programs twice a year, that acts as a platform for major corporations and high quality startups to connect and collaborate.  Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Plug and Play participates in Seed, Angel and Series A funding where they often co-invest with their strategic partners. Through years of experience and as part of their network, Plug and Play has put together a world-class network of serial entrepreneurs, strategic investors, and industry leaders who actively assist the firm with its successful and growing investment portfolio.  SEED ROUND. Plug and Play participates in seed round investing through a program called Startup Camp. Startup Camp is a 10-week program based in Silicon Valley for top-notch entrepreneurs to work intensively on building out their business model. Select startups will refine their business models and prototypes with help from a combination of structured workshops, speaker series and mentorship sessions, as well as active coaching from their investment team. At the culmination of Startup Camp, founders will have crystalized their business plans and pitched their company to the venture capital community at EXPO Demo Day.''  ANGEL ROUND Plug and Play makes angel round investments throughout the year, sourced from their monthly Plug and Play Angels (PAPA) sessions. They are partnered with local angel investors in Silicon Valley who participate in PAPA to find the most promising startups and best new technologies.  SERIES A. Series A typical Series A round is in the range of $2 million to $10 million, and is intended to provide operating capital for the company for six months to two years. This round capitalizes the company as it develops its products, performs initial marketing and branding, acquires talent, and conducts other early-stage business operations. It is in this stage that Plug and Play will co-invest with over 180 venture capital partners.  Plug and Play has helped grow market leaders such as PayPal, Danger, Google, DropBox, LendingClub, Zoosk, SoundHound, CreditSesame, Skytree, and has over 400 more early-stage startups in its portfolio.

Plug and Play

AGO invests in entrepreneurs building companies that create a better world

AGO Partners

VentureSouq (VSQ) is a MENA-based venture capital fund manager with a global portfolio. VSQ manages thematic funds, with a current focus on FinTech and ClimateTech.

VentureSouq

Clocktower Technology Ventures invests in the insurance, payments, personal finance, lending, credit, and asset management sectors. The firm’s expertise investing across financial services and its related ecosystem of global institutional allocators, policymakers, and hedge fund managers have created a community that offers a distinct value-add to portfolio companies. Since launching, Clocktower Technology Ventures has invested in 96 fintech companies in North America, Europe, and Latin America. It was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Santa Monica, California.

Clocktower Technology Ventures

DFF is an early-stage VC that primarily invests in marketplaces and other network-effects-driven propositions all over EU. Our fund is founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs. We look beyond spreadsheets and resolve early-stage growth pains with lightning speed. Ready to scale together? From Amsterdam, to the world.

DFF Ventures

Karman Ventures (fka Moving Capital) is a venture capital firm backed by early employees of Uber and other decacorn startups.

Karman Ventures (fka Moving Capital)

Minimum

Minimum provides a real-time platform that serves as a single source of truth for carbon accounting as well as a command and control hub for all carbon management activities. Its software complements a solid Carbon Accounting core with a comprehensive suite of capabilities, allowing an organization to easily meet its Carbon Management goals.

UK-based Minimum offers an enterprise carbon accounting software to interpret and disclose their emissions data. The company’s platform generates audit-ready reports and allows companies to meet disclosure standards. Minimum leverages its modeling expertise to create a digital twin of a company’s emission profile.

New technology allows individuals and organizations to become carbon intelligent

Carbon Management Software

MINIMUM WAGE VARIES ACROSS U.S.

UK-based Minimum offers an enterprise carbon accounting software to interpret and disclose their emissions data. The company’s platform generates audit-ready reports and allows companies to meet disclosure standards. Minimum leverages its modeling expertise to create a digital twin of a company’s emission profile.Key customers and partnershipsIn <a href="https://carbonherald.com/carbon-accounting-firm-minimum-expands-to-us-partners-with-nasdaq/">August 2023 </a>, the company partnered with Nasdaq, to expand its portfolio of ESG tools, while supporting its advisory clients. Minimum’s clients include Matterport and Octopus Group, among others.Funding and financialsIn June 2021, Minimum raised USD 2.6 million in a seed funding round led by Octopus Ventures. In August 2020, Minimum raised GBP 125,000 (USD 175,000) in a seed round led by Y Combinator. The funds were used to expand the team, increase customer offerings, and to increase investments into the company’s proprietary calculation engines.

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 Circular IQ is a Netherlands-based digital platform that offers SaaS-based solutions for businesses to assess their circular performance through smart data-gathering and analytics. Circular IQ collects and analyzes supplier-specific data and provides tailor-made reports for businesses about the circularity of their operations.&nbsp;
 
 
 Circular IQ offers three main services 1) Circular Procurement Program, a service that monitors and reports the circular performance of a business&rsquo;s existing supply chain, 2) Product Circularity Improvement Program, a service in collaboration with KPMG to identify areas where the circularity of an existing supply chain can be improved, and 3) Circular Transition Indicators (CTI) Program, a service that supports and guides businesses through circular transition.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In March 2024, Circular IQ reported more than 2,000 CTI customer accounts in 94 countries. Microsoft, KPMG, Whirlpool, Saudi Aramco, Aptar, Rabobank, bp, Deloitte and Royal DSM were some of Circular IQ&rsquo;s high-profile clients.&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 
</div>

Circular IQ

<div>
 
 Cloverly offers an API-based digital infrastructure for voluntary carbon markets (VCM). The Cloverly platform is used by both corporate buyers and project suppliers. Buyers can directly purchase carbon removal credits through its platform or integrate its technology into their products, services, or supply chains. Similarly, project suppliers leverage the Cloverly Marketplace and the supplier software, to manage commercial operations such as inventory management and tracking of carbon credit sales. The supplier platform offers carbon credits from suppliers including Therm, KOKO Networks and CarbonCure. For each carbon credit purchase, Cloverly produces a unique transaction receipt and certificate.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Leading companies such as American Express, Salesforce, Visa, have added Cloverly to their platforms to facilitate the purchase of carbon offset credits. The online gift card company, Instagift, also allows its customers to offset emissions through Cloverly. In November 2021, Clovery partnered with Diversifi to launch a service that offsets the crypto-carbon footprint. In May 2022, Cloverly also partnered with 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11507">
 BeZero Carbon
 </a>
 to obtain third-party ratings and independent quality assessments and 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11506">
 Redwood Logistics
 </a>
 to measure freight emissions and offset those via carbon credits in July 2022. In November 2023, the company also collaborated with Sustain.Life, a B2B carbon intelligence startup, to supply carbon credits. As of February 2024, the Cloverly platform was used by over 300 global enterprises.&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials&nbsp;
 
 
 Cloverly&rsquo;s most recent funding was in May 2023, when it raised USD 19 million in a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/18533">
 Series A funding
 </a>
 round led by Grotech Ventures. In July 2021, Cloverly raised USD 2.1 million in a seed funding round led by TechSquare Ventures. As a part of the transaction, Cloverly was also spun out from Southern Company, an American gas and electric utility where it was incubated.
 
</div>

Cloverly

UK-based Giki offers two mobile apps to reduce the personal carbon footprint of its users:Giki Badges is an app that allows users to find sustainable and healthy products in supermarkets through 15 unique badges to UK supermarket products based on sustainability, health, and fairness. Customers can scan the product barcode to find the badges that are being awarded to the product. Giki Badges reported awarding badges to over 280,000 supermarket products.Giki Zero is an app that allows users to calculate and reduce the personal carbon footprint. Giki Zero estimates the personal carbon footprint of a user based on a lifestyle survey (a set of detailed questions about the user’s lifestyle) and provides customized advice to reduce the user’s carbon footprint. Giki Zero Pro is an extension of the same product for businesses which allows employees to monitor and reduce their carbon footprint.Key customers and partnershipsIn April 2023, Giki partnered with <a href="https://www.compass-group.co.uk/media/news/compass-partners-with-social-enterprise-giki-to-empower-its-45k-strong-workforce-to-reduce-their-carbon-footprint/">Compass Group </a>, a UK-based food and support services provider, to calculate and reduce the personal carbon footprint of its employees. As of March 2024, Giki had worked with over 100 global customers, including NatWest Group, Federated Hermes International, BBC, Deloitte, Adobe and Accenture, among others.

Giki

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 Canada-based Metrio primarily offers SaaS-based Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting solutions for businesses. Metrio allows companies to monitor their ESG performance in real-time using dashboard tools to create customized reports based on any standard ESG framework. In addition to ESG reporting, Metrio also offers ESG industry benchmarking, supply chain ESG monitoring, and ESG investment management services.&nbsp;
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In June 2022, Metrio was acquired by Nasdaq. After the acquisition, Nasdaq integrated Metrio&rsquo;s SaaS platform into its suite of ESG solutions. Metrio continued to remain an independent company and brand after the investment. 	
 
 
 As of January 2024, Metrio software was used by over 5,000 clients, including 100+ multinational companies across financial, food, manufacturing, retail, and transportation sectors. Major customers include Target, Air Canada, Decathlon, and Aldo.
 
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Metrio

<div>
 
 Proof (formerly Proof of Impact) is an Impact-as-a-Service (IaaS) company based in the Netherlands. Proof offers a range of SaaS-based digital tools for businesses and investors to collect, verify, and analyze real-time sustainability data from community assessments, IoT devices, and corporate disclosures. The company also verifies and secures them using blockchain technology and presents them in a quantifiable form for sustainable decision making.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Proof&rsquo;s services include: 1) Digital consultancy&ndash;digital assessments to create and deploy a company&rsquo;s sustainability strategy, 2) Impact dashboard&ndash;an end-to-end solution to collect, verify, analyze, and report sustainability data, and 3) Impact Catalyst Cloud&ndash;cloud-based tools and API solutions for tracking, verifying, and investing in sustainability projects. Proof also operates a marketplace for sustainability projects where investors may directly select, and fund verified sustainable projects.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 
 
 In May 2023, the company 
 <a href="https://resources.proof.io/press-release-assetmetrix-and-proof-join-forces-to-offer-an-integrated-sfdr-focused-esg-solution-to-private-market-clients/">
 partnered
 </a>
 with AssetMetrix, a German-based next generation asset servicer, to offer an integrated solution for ESG data collection, reporting and optimization.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 
 
 Proof&rsquo;s most recent funding was in August 2022, when it raised USD 6 million in a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/12037">
 pre-series A funding
 </a>
 round led by Rakuten Capital. Previously in December 2021, the company raised USD 2.3 million in a seed funding round led by Altera Investments.&nbsp;
 
 
 
</div>

Proof of Impact

Pure-play software solutions that measure, monitor, analyze, and report carbon footprints of internal business operations including ESG management and reporting software. Excludes supply chain and other Scope 3 carbon intelligence solutions.

Software for offsetting business carbon footprints including carbon intelligence startups that also offer offsetting solutions. Primarily includes instant offsetting services and carbon trading marketplaces.

Pure-play software solutions to measure, monitor, and analyze personal carbon footprints.

Software solutions to reduce, and offset personal carbon footprints including carbon intelligence startups that also offer offsetting solutions.

Pure-play software solutions that measure, monitor, analyze, and report carbon footprints from supply chains and other Scope 3 emissions.

Carbon trading marketplaces that allow individual and business users to buy and sell carbon offsets.

Solutions used improve carbon tracking transparency across internal and external business operations

Provides tools to monitor and offset CO2 emissions using reforestation, renewable energy credits, etc

Some carbon trading marketplaces are blockchain based (e.g., Nori)

Some carbon tracking companies use AI to measure and report CO2 emissions (e.g., Persefoni)

Minimum

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