UK blockchain carbon offset platform receives $45M startup investment #

Carbonplace says it will use the money to improve its services and turn itself into the “Swift of Carbon Markets”.

Carbonplace, a blockchain platform for carbon credit transactions, has raised $45 million from nine founding institutions that together control $9 trillion in assets, according to a press release issued on February 8. Among them are BBVA, BNP Paribas, CIBC, Ita Unibanco, National Australia Bank, NatWest, Standard Chartered, SMBC, or UBS. The London-based fintech company also said it planned to split off into a separate company that will be run by its new CEO, Scott Eaton.

According to Carbonplace, the funding will be used to strengthen the company’s technology and staff, allowing it to expand its services to a wider range of financial institutions and establish partnerships with other key players in the carbon market. These players include registries and stock exchanges around the world.

Commenting on the situation, NatWest Markets CEO Robert Bagby drew attention to a McKinsey study that forecasts global demand for voluntary carbon credits to increase 15-fold over the next few years. CarbonPlace says that it is the best company to meet this need because it has scalable technology for environmental groups.

Carbonplace has already piloted transactions with firms such as Visa and Climate Impact X, and the service is scheduled to debut later this year. Carbonplace has said that the digital wallets are a tool that allows owners to prove ownership to the market in a secure way, reducing the risk of double-counting and making reporting easier. The company uses its own distributed ledger technology to help offset transactions that happen using the digital wallets.