Plan A Raises $27 Million To Turn Firms’ Net Zero Strategies Into Operational Changes

Plan A Raises $27 Million To Turn Firms’ Net Zero Strategies Into Operational Changes

On September 19^th, Berlin-based carbon management and ESG reporting platform Plan A announced the closure of a $27 million funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The firm stated that the newly secured funding will support further expansion, with a plan to double the number of employees and increase customer reach in Europe, particularly across France, UK and Scandinavia.

Since its foundation in 2017, Plan A has grown together with a number of high-profile clients, including:

• Visa (also an investor), which implements Plan A as part of its issuers network to manage Scope 3 emissions.
• Gaming platform Sorare, which uses Plan A to manage its decarbonization projects.
• Luxury fashion brand Chloe, which leverages the partnership with Plan A to streamline ESG reporting.
• Alphabet, which in July 2023 announced a partnership with Plan A to develop a carbon management solution for fleet managers to support operational challenges of decarbonization.

Plan A also offers industry-specific training courses: on Monday 11^th September, it released an online course for the fashion industry, to learn about existing regulations, net zero target setting and greenwashing.

Although overall funding in the climate tech space is moving at a slower pace compared to 2022, carbon management software technologies have demonstrated that they can still attract investor capital. Just this year, Greenly, nZero, Optera, Persefoni and Pledge collectively raised over $100 million. Compliance with upcoming climate disclosure regulations is becoming an imminent concern for corporates, and a main driver of the carbon management software market.

The 2023 Verdantix net zero global corporate survey found that brand reputation risk is top of mind for net zero and sustainability executives when developing their net zero strategy and targets. As part of its solution, Plan A offers net zero target setting in line with SBTi recommendations, at a regional-, firm- or facility-level as well as net zero management capabilities to track progress towards carbon reduction and influence decision-making. SBTi verification and target setting practices are an emerging differentiator of carbon management software vendors like Plan A.