On-chain Carbon Market Infrastructure Will Help Scale the Voluntary Carbon Market

Flowcarbon, a pioneering climate technology company working to build market infrastructure in the voluntary carbon market (VCM), today announced it has raised a total of $70M in venture capital funding and sale of its carbon-backed token. The funding round was led by a16z crypto and also includes General Catalyst, Samsung Next, Invesco Private Capital, 166 2^nd, Sam and Ashley Levinson, Kevin Turen, RSE Ventures, and Allegory Labs. Other participants in the token sale include Fifth Wall, Box Group, and the Celo Foundation.

Flowcarbon’s mission is to drive billions of dollars directly to projects that reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere by creating the first open protocol for tokenizing live, certified carbon credits from projects around the globe. Demand for carbon credits has surged in recent years among corporations that use them to offset carbon emissions, but the ability to scale the volume of credits available has been limited by the VCM’s opaque and fractured market infrastructure. Through Flowcarbon’s protocol, project developers can immediately access a marketplace of buyers interested in their credits by bringing them onto the blockchain. Buyers are then able to purchase live carbon credits directly from project proponents.

“There are powerful economic incentives to destroy and degrade critical natural landscapes around the world, but the voluntary carbon market is a brilliant financial mechanism that creates a counterbalancing incentive to reforest, revitalize and protect nature,” said Dana Gibber, CEO of Flowcarbon. “We have a big vision and the stakes are high. We are thrilled to be partnering with the most thoughtful investors in the world, who bring a combined expertise in web3 and key market categories including manufacturing, technology, entertainment and real estate,” added Gibber.

Flowcarbon has engaged an extensive group of stakeholders from the voluntary carbon market to inform the company’s tokenization protocol design, optimizing for environmental, financial and structural integrity. Flowcarbon’s first carbon-backed token, called the Goddess Nature Token (GNT), is designed to maximize value and utility for buyers. GNT is backed by a bundle of certified credits issued over the last five years from nature-based projects, tracking popular corporate demand criteria and offering widespread exposure to corporate-quality credits. Each token can be retired as an offset, sold, used for borrowing and lending, or redeemed for an underlying real-world credit.

“The carbon market is extremely opaque and we believe demand for offsets is rapidly outpacing the speed at which supply can be increased, especially for nature-based projects,” said Arianna Simpson, General Partner at a16z crypto. “Tokenization is an obvious solution. We've explored the on-chain carbon space extensively and feel confident that Flowcarbon’s team and model are best in breed.”

To date, the company has made significant partnership announcements including its revolutionary collaboration with the Centrifuge protocol, which will unlock the debt markets for carbon project developers, as well as its collaboration with the Layer 1 blockchain Celo, to provide $10 million of GNT to offset Celo’s emissions. Flowcarbon’s GNT token will launch on Celo.

Flowcarbon was co-founded by Dana Gibber, Caroline Klatt, Rebekah Neumann, Adam Neumann, and Ilan Stern, and is run by Gibber (CEO), Klatt (COO) and Phil Fogel (Chief Blockchain Officer). Flowcarbon currently has 35 employees with collective expertise in carbon, sustainability, and blockchain technology. Flowcarbon has offices in New York, Montana and Berlin.

About Flowcarbon

Flowcarbon is a pioneering climate technology company that brings carbon credits onto the blockchain. Its mission is to make carbon markets accessible and transparent, enabling billions of dollars to be invested directly into projects that combat climate change. Flowcarbon is committed to driving real impact for people, biodiversity, and the planet.

About a16z crypto

a16z crypto backs bold entrepreneurs building the next internet. With more than $3B under management across three funds, the a16z crypto fund invests in web3 companies and protocols from early seed-stage projects to fully-developed networks. Its crypto-native team supports founders and the growth of web3 through its research organization, engineering and security teams, legal and regulatory teams, go-to-market expertise, recruiting services, educational content, and more.

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Flowcarbon raises $70M to tokenize carbon credits and build an on-chain market to drive funding directly to projects that reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere. #decarbonization #blockchain #netzerocarbon #refi #carbon #defi