Next Gen GHG Emissions Management: Project Canary And Persefoni Receive Series A Funding

Next Gen GHG Emissions Management: Project Canary And Persefoni Receive Series A Funding

ESG data and continuous emissions monitoring tech provider, Project Canary, announced on April 6^th 2021 that they had secured a $10 million investment from Quantum Energy Partners, Global Reserve Group and Energy Impact Partners. Project Canary’s mission is to improve the quality and trustworthiness of environmental emissions data from industrial asset operators. To this end the firm offers Canary X IoT data collection devices which collect data on methane emissions every second from natural gas well heads and they also provide an ESG certification service for natural gas production sites. EQT Corporation, the $4 billion revenue Pittsburgh-headquartered natural gas producer has implemented the Project Canary solution to support its Responsibly Sourced Gas strategy. This week, US LNG developer NextDecade Corp stated that it would deploy the Project Canary tech to help secure capital investment for its proposed Rio Grande LNG export plant in Texas.

Also in April, Rice Investment Group, a $200 million multi-strategy fund focused on energy verticals, led a $9.7 million investment round in Arizona-headquartered carbon accounting platform Persefoni. The deal included participation from NGP Energy Technology Partners, an energy sector private equity fund, and from Sallyport Investments. Founded in 2020, Persefoni has already raised $13.2 million. Persefoni’s funding from investors with roots in the US energy sector reflects a recent shift from the industry’s opposition to climate action to advocating a carbon price policy. To guide it’s development, the firm has hired the ex-CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative, Tim Mohin into its executive team. Persefoni differentiates its product strategy by developing a broad portfolio of carbon management solutions for multiple buying personas: institutional investors, CFOs, CEOs, business unit leaders and consultants.

Driven by financial markets’ focus on ESG performance and energy transition strategies, investors are now funding next gen carbon management vendors. Project Canary and Persefoni are not the only GHGtech vendors getting funding. Canada’s GHGSat, a satellite-based GHG emissions monitoring provider, raised an additional $30m in September 2020. Inevitably, more private equity investment into carbon and GHG tech solutions will be announced throughout 2021. But how will the new solutions improve on the diverse existing carbon and GHG management technologies? The likes of Cority, Enablon, Intelex and Sphera have spent more than a decade developing big data emissions calculation engines. These are already used by larger emitters to control regulated air emissions and GHG emissions. Deepki, Envizi and Measurabl have carved out differentiated offerings for sustainable real estate and energy efficiency. Verdantix has recently benchmarked a whopping 44 ESG, carbon and sustainability software vendors. In a crowded market, entrepreneurs pitching next gen carbon and GHG emissions management solutions need to sharpen their pencils.