Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Serena Ventures, Aglae Ventures, Air Angels, Sweet Capital and ThirdKind Ventures invested US$5m in Pachama, a San Francisco-based marketplace for carbon offset projects with initiatives in Brazil and Peru, with participation from angels Scott Belsky (Behance), Tobi Lutke (Shopify), and Tim Schumacher (Ecosia), and follow-on from Saltwater Capital and Lowercase Capital. Pachama raised US$4.1m in January 2020 from Global Founders Capital, Social Capital, Lowercase Capital, and Saltwater Capital. Breakthrough Energy Ventures is a VC fund established by Bill Gates, Jack Ma, Jeff Bezos, John Doerr, and Vinod Khosla as part of the Breakthrough Energy Coalition.
(Contxto) Argentine sustainability startup Pachama is reeling in US$5 million to help more companies reduce their carbon footprint with its AI platform. It had already closed US$4.1 million in January of this year.
Pachama seed extension amid pandemic
Startups in telemedicine and e-commerce have been greatly boosted by the Covid-19 outbreak. They’ve even closed impressive rounds in recent months. But Pachama Founder-CEO, Diego Saez Gil, wasn’t so certain a sustainability startup would be attractive amidst a pandemic.
They’d snagged big name customers like Shopify and Microsoft. But would that be enough?
“I wasn’t sure whether investors were going to shy away from long-term, purpose-driven companies like ours,” said Saez Gil in a blog post.
But the response was astounding.
Pachama’s latest round came from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Serena Ventures (Serena Williams’s personal VC fund), Aglaé Ventures, Air Angels, Sweet Capital, ThirdKind Ventures, My Climate Journey, as well as from Amazon’s new Climate Pledge Fund.
A few angels also pitched money including Scott Belsky (Behance), Tobi Lütke (Shopify), and Tim Schumacher (Ecosia). Previous VC investors, Saltwater Capital and Lowercarbon Capital also returned with funds for Pachama’s seed extension round.
Pachama plans
The investment will serve for developing its platform which uses satellite imagery to calculate the amount of carbon absorbed by forests. That way, companies that deploy carbon footprint reduction measures can understand their impact with greater precision.
Moreover, Pachama also lets businesses review ongoing carbon-reducing projects from around the world and contribute to these efforts.
It also hinted at some significant growth efforts now that it has the backing of the world’s largest e-commerce company.
“Having the strategic support from Amazon will exponentially increase the chances of success of our work, allowing us to scale our solution globally,” said the startup’s Founder.