Speedinvest leads €1.5 million round in French carbon credit issuing and selling startup Riverse

Parisian carbon credit issuing and selling platform Riverse has raised €1.5 million in a new funding round. A Techstars Berlin alumni, the startup plans to use the investment to further grow its technical offering as well as the headcount as it gears up for expansion into the German and UK markets.

The round was led by Vienna’s Speedinvest with the aforementioned Techstars Berlin participating alongside Evolem and angel investors including Stephan Rohr, co-founder and CEO of TWAICE, Eric Bergé, Tobias Lechtenfeld, partner at 1.5° Ventures, and Andreas Wiele, founder of OakTree Power.

You’ll be forgiven if you’re thinking, *yawn* “Another carbon credits swapping/issuing/selling platform?” *yawn*, as there are a rather large number of them on the market today. While some have questionable efficacy, perhaps the sheer number of them isn't a bad thing.

However, where Riverse is aiming to stand apart from the increasingly crowded sea is in it's USP which includes forgoing the standard targeting of offsetting carbon credits in developing countries in lieu of looking a bit closer to home. And by that, I mean literally, right here at home in Europe. 

More specifically, Riverse is catering to European companies operating in the fields of biogas, the reconditioning of CO2-intensive equipment, Biochar and/or Bio-based construction materials, all with the goal of providing them as frictionless-as-possible experience when trying to access the voluntary carbon markets.

Using propriety software, Riverse is able to provide a measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) process for carbon credit issuance and includes a comparative life cycle assessment to determine the impact of each project, reports that are shared with an independent third-party auditor for validation of the credits, and automated verification of the impact. From here, information on certified projects is listed on a registry connected to a network of carbon credit resellers. 

According to the company, its solution is 20x faster and 3x cheaper than market standards and is trusted by Ceezer, Sweep, Greenly, Ecodair, Cycle Up, and Be Energy, with an additional 10 partner projects in the works.

“The voluntary carbon market represents a $40 billion opportunity to finance the environmental transition by 2030. Through the industrial expertise we have developed, combined with our European and transparent approach, we aim to stimulate the development of this sector and offer our clients an experience aligned with their values and objectives,” commented Riverse CEO and co-founder Ludovic Chatoux.