One startup's solution to the carbon-offsetting mess: Downgrade the 'middle-men' resellers

As well as the traditional carbon offset resellers and exchanges such as Climate Partner or Climate Impact X, the tech space has also produced a few, including Patch (U.S.-based, raised $26.5 million) and Lune (U.K.-based, raised $4 million).

Now, Ceezer, a B2B marketplace for carbon credits, has closed a €4.2 million round, led by Carbon Removal Partners with participation of impact-VC Norrsken VC and with existing investor Picus Capital.

Ceezer’s pitch is that companies have to deal with a lot of complexity when considering how they address carbon removal and reduction associated with their businesses. While they can buy offsetting credits, the market remains pretty 'wild-west", and has multiple competing standards running in parallel. For instance, the price range of $5 to $500 per ton is clearly all over the place, and sometimes carbon offset resellers make buyers pay high prices for low-quality carbon credits, pulling in extra revenues from a very opaque market.

The startup's offering is for corporates to integrate both carbon removal and avoidance credits in one package. It does this by mining the offsetting market for lots of data points, enabling carbon offset sellers to reach buyers without having to use these middle-men resellers.

The startup claims that sellers no longer waste time and money on bespoke contracts with corporates but instead use Ceezer’s legal framework for all transactions. Simultaneously, buyers can access credits at a primary market level, maximizing the effect of the dollars they spend on carbon offsets.

Ceezer says it now has more than 50 corporate customers and has 200,000 tons of carbon credits to sell across a variety of categories, and will use the funds to expand its impact and sourcing team, the idea being to make carbon removal technologies more accessible to corporate buyers, plus widen the product offering for credit sellers and buyers.