At the moment of the classic “pivot to crypto to reinvent yourself”, the controversial WeWork founder Adam Neumann recently launched the startup, Carbon flowto sell tokenized carbon credits on the blockchain.
Venture capitalism seems to be inadequate for Neumann and his wife / co-founder, Rebekah, who started the company along with CEO Dana Gibber and two others, Caroline Klatt and Ilan Stern. Now, Flowcarbon says yes raised $ 70 million in funding led by crypto division Andreessen Horowitz (a16z crypto) through a combination of traditional VC equity and token sales.
General Catalyst, Samsung Next, 166 2nd, Sam and Ashley Levinson, RSE Ventures and Allegory Labs joined together with a16z in the venture round, the company said, with Fifth Wall, Box Group and Celo Foundation taking part in the token sale.
The Flowcarbon Protocol helps projects sell carbon credits tokens to companies that want to reduce their carbon footprint. The credit can then be traded on crypto exchanges, the company said.
But why is the credit in the chain? Proponents, including Gibber, say doing a project that provides the credit easily raises capital and increases transparency for buyers.
Of the total funds raised in this round, $ 32 million came from venture capital firms and $ 38 million from the sale of Flowcarbon’s Goddess Nature Token (GNT), a crypto token in the Celo block backed by carbon credits, Reuters reported. GNT’s basic carbon credits have been certified by industry groups including Verra, Gold Standard, Climate Action Reserve and the American Carbon Registry and then sold in bundles to companies, according to Reuters.
Gibber told Reuters that carbon credit providers pay a 2% tokenization fee to Flowcarbon to sell credits in the chain, lower than the cost that would be incurred when selling those credits through traditional channels, which could be up to 30% of the project value. .
The credit can also be isolated from the bundle and sent physically to the token holder if the holder wants to sell from the chain, according to Gibber.
The company is playing in a crowded space, as many startups are involved in the crypto regenerative finance (ReFi) movement, which seeks to use blockchain technology to address environmental issues. Rich project Toucan, Regen, moss and KlimaDAO all working on crypto -based carbon credit solutions.
The private sale of GNT Flowcarbon tokens ended in two days, and the company now allows people to sign up for the upcoming public GNT sale, according to the website.
