In 2023, European green fintech startups continued to see traction from investors, securing about EUR 144 million across 24 deals in the first four months of the year, a Sifted report claims. The figure suggests a slowdown in funding activity, similar to what is being observed in the fintech sector as a whole, but comes after the subsector posted a record year 2022 despite an overall dip in venture capital investment.
Continued interest in green fintech comes amid growing focus on sustainability, increasing recognition of climate-related risks, and the implementation of policies and regulations that incentivize or mandate sustainable practices.
As green fintech continues to pick up steam in Europe, we look today at some of the most promising and fastest-growing startups in the sector. For this list, we’ve focused on ventures headquartered in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, also referred to as the DACH region, concentrating on those that have either secured considerable rounds of funding, won notable prizes, or achieved strong traction over the past year, making them prone to witnessing further growth and development in 2024.
Plan A (Germany)
Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Berlin, Plan A is a corporate carbon accounting, decarbonization and ESG reporting software provider. The company has developed a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that allows businesses to self-manage their entire net-zero journey – from data collection over emissions calculation, target setting, and decarbonization planning to non-financial reporting – in one central hub.
By automatically mapping all necessary data across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 and merging them with national emission factors and datasets, the Plan A Sustainability Platform is able to provide granular emissions profiles and ESG insights in dynamic dashboard overviews. Based on the indicators with the most significant reduction potential, the software empowers companies to set science-based net-zero targets and achieve them through 1,000+ decarbonization solutions and activities, best practices, as well as a network of service providers and sustainability professionals. At the end of this holistic process, the platform produces regulation-proof ESG reporting.
Plan A claims more than 1,500 clients including high-profile brands and companies such as Chloé, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Visa, GANNI, N26, HomeToGo, trivago, Personio, Sorare, KFC, and DFB. The company says that it is experiencing rapid growth, witnessing a 600% year-over-year (YoY) increase in software revenues in December 2022.
In September 2023, Plan A raised US$27 million in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company said it would use the proceeds to double its headcount to 240+ employees, expand its market penetration in Europe with a strong focus on France, the UK, and Scandinavia, as well as deepen its platform capabilities.
IntegrityNext (Germany)
Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Munich, IntegrityNext provides a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that allows companies to assess and monitor their supply chain for sustainability risk and compliance.
The cloud-based platform enables businesses to check their supplier base against sustainability-related regulations, standards, and voluntary commitments, and helps them identify and manage ESG risks along the value chain, reducing reputational and financial risks and improving sustainability performance.
IntegrityNext claims more than 200 customers and says it monitors almost one million suppliers, making it one of the leading ESG certification software solutions in Europe. Its customers include Siemens Gamesa, Infineon, SwissRe, Generali, Henkel, OSRAM, RWE, ThyssenKrupp, Hilti and Grohe. IntegrityNext also partners and integrates with leading enterprise software tools, including Celonis, Coupa and SAP, allowing it to offer supply chain assessments across numerous major industries.
IntegrityNext secured an equity round of EUR 100 million in March 2023, which it said it would use to continue building the breadth of the platform as well as the company’s go-to-market position.
Atlas Metrics (Germany)
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Berlin, Atlas Metrics provides a comprehensive ESG accounting platform that caters to the needs of both companies and investors. The company’s platform allows organizations to effortlessly report across multiple standards and meet diverse ESG requirements with a single entry.
The platform is designed to simplify ESG compliance by consistently generating fully compliant outputs aligned with the world’s leading impact standards, keeping up with evolving guidelines and regulations. Additionally, it enables safe data sharing with various stakeholders, allowing data inputted once to be efficiently shared with portfolio companies, investors, or suppliers.
Organizations can also showcase their ESG performance and achievements through a customizable, secure Microsite, providing them with the flexibility to tailor, manage, and present their data publicly or selectively.
Atlas Metrics secured a EUR 5.2 million seed funding round in March 2023 to expand its all-in-one platform for ESG data management. The company’s next steps are focused on developing new high-impact features and helping a wider range of organizations meet their most pressing sustainability requirements. The company’s solution is also undergoing an accreditation process with Big 4 auditing firms.
Most recently, Atlas Metrics was named one of the top 100 ESG fintech companies in the world by ESGFintech100, an annual selection of the most innovative and fastest-growing ESG companies serving the financial services industry.
Tanso Technologies (Germany)
Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Munich, Tanso Technologies is a software company that offers a carbon intelligence suite to industrial companies, helping businesses gather, manage and report carbon footprint emissions on Scope 1–3 on both corporate and product levels and in alignment with the leading standards. The suite currently comprises Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF), Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) and ESG management for ESRS compliance.
Tanso Technologies co-founder and CPO Gyri Reiersen told TechCrunch in an interview in April 2023 that the company’s customers numbered in double digits, stressing that it was picking up customers around the German-speaking DACH region most particularly. These companies mainly represent industries such as automotive, machine manufacturing and steel production, she said.
Tanso Technologies has raised about US$9 million in early stage growth funding over the past three year, including a a EUR 4 million seed raise and a EUR 2.5 million innovation grant from the European Union (EU) both secured in 2023.
The startup said it would use the proceeds to move into the next phase of product development, focusing on making its software more modular to provide targeted support for both CCF and PCF calculation and optimization, as well as mesh with more manufacturers’ needs.
The Climate Choice (Germany)
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Berlin, the Climate Choice is the supplier of a climate intelligence and engagement platform. The company offers software designed to assess an organization’s readiness to adopt climate-friendly practices and provides guidance on steps needed to move closer to climate neutrality.
The Climate Intelligence Platform, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered decarbonization platform, allows companies to access and acquire audit-ready company risk and emission data, supporting suppliers in their decarbonization journey. The platform’s data engine provides climate performance data from the user’s company, business partners, and suppliers, allowing the implementation of tailor-made decarbonization measures with validated partners, as well as effective purchasing decisions based on climate-relevant data.
The company’s platform is currently in use by several early customers, including O2 Telefonica and HiPP. The company says it is actively monitoring thousands of suppliers.
The Climate Choice secured in March 2023 a US$2 million pre-Seed funding round which the company said it would use for further development and expansion of its Climate Intelligence Platform.
Frigg.eco (Switzerland)
Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Zug, Frigg.eco is the developer of business-to-business (B2B) software for the financing of renewable energy projects through tokenized green loans. The platform utilizes AI and distributed ledger technology (DLT) to streamline the creation of tokenized green bonds backed by sustainable infrastructure projects and improve transparency.
The vision of Frigg.eco is for its tokenization workflow to become an international standard for onboarding sustainable projects to the blockchain. The transparency investors gain into their individual investments is a crucial aspect and differentiator. This includes all of the financial details for each sustainable project, and additional metrics that are not normally accessible such as the amount of electricity produced and carbon emissions avoided. All metrics are provisioned real-time. Developers of sustainable projects also benefit from lower costs than traditional finance models, as various intermediaries are removed from the process.
Frigg.eco launched its first digital green bond in October 2022 with Malthe Winje, a Norwegian government-backed hydro developer. This year, the company was named one of the most promising fintech and insurtech startups in the DACH region by Fintech Innovators, and won the premier early-stage startup competition >>venture>> in Switzerland.
Frigg.eco is currently active in Switzerland, Norway, Germany and Liechtenstein, and plans to expand across the broader European region, Africa and North America within the next two to three years.
Featured image credit: Edited from freepik
