Carbon Accounting Startup Optera Raises $12 Million
Sustainability management solutions provider Optera announced that it has raised $12 million, with proceeds aimed at enabling the company to expand its carbon accounting solutions and services to more mid-market and enterprise companies.
Founded in 2006 as a boutique corporate sustainability consulting firm, the Boulder, Colorado-based Optera provides sustainability management software enabling companies to accurately measure and manage Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, and providing actionable insights and forecasts, and tools to collaborate with supply chain and investment partners.
The financing follows significant expansion by the company, which grew its team by more than 250% and quadrupled its number of customers last year. Optera’s platform already tracks emissions associated with more than $180 billion in supply chain spend. Optera said that the proceeds from the financing will be used to accelerate product innovation and to grow its sales and marketing teams to reach a global scale.
Tim Weiss, co-founder and CEO of Optera, said:
“The biggest businesses around the globe are actively transitioning to the low-carbon economy. It is no longer a question of whether this transition will happen but whether it will happen quickly enough. Optera’s platform enables global companies to quantify and manage their biggest sources of emissions with greater accuracy, confidence, and actionability.”
The Series A funding round was led by Next Frontier Capital and participation from Blackhorn Ventures, Mucker Capital, Overture, Engage, Massive, SaaS Ventures, Valo Ventures, AngelList, and Stout Street Capital.
Kirsten Suddath, General Partner at Next Frontier Capital, said:
“Optera is driving innovation and change in ESG, making it easier for corporations to manage their decarbonization journey more effectively – especially across their value chains. By making emissions data actionable, Optera is instilling confidence in its customers that they can report accurately and make progress towards net-zero initiatives. We see tremendous value in Optera’s solutions, which is why we have increased our investment and will continue to be a partner in their future growth.”