CNaught, the platform making carbon credits more secure and scalable, today announced $4.5 million in seed funding led by Bow Capital, with participation from FJ Labs, Silence VC, Karman Ventures, and Marketplace Capital.
The investment will drive growth and provide greater integrity in the voluntary carbon market, equipping businesses with limited sustainability resources with the strategies and tools used by the most sophisticated buyers of carbon credits. This funding also accelerates CNaught's mission to provide businesses with the confidence to reduce their carbon footprint and meet their sustainability goals.
Additionally, CNaught launched its CNaught Guarantee, a first-of-its-kind backstop that builds upon CNaught’s due diligence process to programmatically reduce risk for every buyer of carbon credits through the CNaught platform.
“CNaught is making it easier for businesses to take real, credible climate action,” said Rafi Syed, General Partner at Bow Capital. “What impressed us was their ability to simplify a complex space and build trust with companies that want to do the right thing. We're proud to support a team that’s helping busy buyers drive measurable impact.”
The CNaught Guarantee: Minimizing Uncertainty from Carbon Investments
CNaught’s proprietary approach to portfolio design and project due diligence delivers credits that optimize impact while minimizing risk. If, however, credits purchased through CNaught are canceled by their registry or suspended for more than a year within three years of purchase, CNaught will replace all affected credits with a portfolio of high-integrity credits at no additional cost, subject to the program's terms and conditions. This protection addresses the long-tail risk that often holds buyers back. CNaught is the only carbon credit provider to offer such comprehensive protection.
"Businesses want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon credits are a critical tool for reaching their goals," said Mark Chen, CEO and Co-founder of CNaught. “By providing a guaranteed portfolio of high-quality credits, delivered through an easy-to-use experience, we create a pathway for meaningful climate action at scale."
Applying Innovation and a Science-Backed Approach to Carbon Credits
CNaught has differentiated itself by applying the latest in technology and science to simplify the use of quality carbon credits for busy customers. Leveraging the recommendations of the World Economic Forum and the Oxford Principles for Net Zero Aligned Carbon Offsetting, CNaught has integrated the latest innovations in remote sensing, artificial intelligence, and third-party ratings to implement a transparent science-backed strategy that delivers on the needs of its customers.
As a result, in addition to the CNaught Guarantee, all customers benefit from:
Portfolio Diversification: CNaught creates diversified portfolios across project types and geographies to mitigate risk and maximize climate impact.
Rigorous Due Diligence: Instead of leaving customers to evaluate thousands of projects on their own, CNaught conducts comprehensive project-level due diligence to identify high-quality credits and then provides buyers with both benefits and risks of recommended projects.
Independent Verification: Every project supported by CNaught is highly-rated by at least one independent, third-party rating agency, reinforcing credibility and offering companies an additional layer of confidence in their carbon credit purchases.
Ongoing Monitoring: Unlike traditional brokers, CNaught continually monitors projects after purchase, alerting customers to any developments that might affect their purchases and helping them maintain accurate and up-to-date sustainability disclosures.
End-to-End Automation: CNaught’s platform continues to support customers beyond carbon credit diligence and procurement with branded marketing assets, automated compliance reports, and integrated stakeholder management tools.
Groundswell of Support from Industry Leaders
CNaught's approach has gained significant traction with forward-thinking companies across sectors. CNaught counts Palantir Technologies, Asana, Harvard Business School, Kickstarter, and Populous among its customers. Since launching its product in 2023, the company has helped these organizations use tens of thousands of tonnes of carbon credits to deliver on sustainability goals.
“Our commitment to sustainability is core to who we are — how we design and endeavor to create climate-positive venues and experiences. Carbon credits are an important component of our global business’ objective to get our operations closer to carbon neutrality, despite the market being complicated and difficult to navigate,” said Mohit Mehta, Principal, Global Head of Sustainability at Populous. “CNaught's diligence, transparency, and approach made it easy for us to purchase high-integrity carbon credits and be confident that we are genuinely contributing to climate action.”
The company’s solutions are equally valuable for smaller organizations. “We’re endlessly inspired to evolve, to be better to each other and the planet,” said Ruby Shrestha, Vice President of Scientific Affairs at Seattle Chocolate Company. “CNaught has made the entire process so easy and provided a lot of security with their project due diligence. We've been able to offset our operational footprint while focusing on our core business, knowing our climate investments are protected.”