carbmee Secures €20 Million To Lead Scope 3 And Product Carbon Footprint Innovation
carbmee Secures €20 Million To Lead Scope 3 And Product Carbon Footprint Innovation
On December 3, 2024, Berlin-headquartered carbon management software provider carbmee announced a €20 million ($21 million) Series A funding round led by CommerzVentures. carbmee plans to use this capital to enhance its AI-powered functionality, as well as its Scope 3 emissions collection, management and calculation capabilities for manufacturing firms. In July 2024, carbmee launched new features tailored to the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), including models for imported goods, supplier data ingestion and emissions model comparisons.
By focusing on product carbon footprint (PCF) and supply chain optimization, carbmee aims to meet the growing corporate demand for accurate emissions traceability. It tackles two key challenges: insufficient supplier engagement and the frequent use of unreliable estimations. According to the 2024 Verdantix supply chain emissions survey, two-fifths of respondents reported discontinuing supplier relationships based on emissions profiles, highlighting the urgent need for reliable PCF solutions. In turn, suppliers face significant pressure to fulfil customer PCF requests, leaving minimal resources for innovation in low-carbon product design or active decarbonization efforts.
PCF software can help organizations address these challenges by providing tools to collect, manage and calculate emissions across supply chains. These solutions enable automated supplier data acquisition, making it easier to engage with and monitor supplier performance. PCF tools also support granular bottom-up PCF calculations, leveraging primary data from suppliers when available and complementing it with reliable secondary data to fill gaps. Many platforms offer scenario modelling capabilities, enabling decision-makers to simulate the impact of product design or sourcing changes on their overall carbon footprint. Real-time dashboards and analytics empower firms to make data-driven decisions, fostering collaboration across sustainability and procurement teams to accelerate decarbonization efforts.
In the last year, a plethora of vendors entered the PCF market, driven by regulations (such as the EU’s Green Claims Directive) and customer demand. They have not solely come from a carbon management heritage – like carbmee, Emitwise and Altruistiq – but also EHS backgrounds (Sphera), LCA (Ecochain) and product compliance (iPoint-systems). Look out for our upcoming Smart Innovators report on PCF software in 2025 for a qualitative benchmark of providers in this market.