Only have 1 minute? Read our 3 takeaways:
- Plan A, a Berlin-based, European climate tech firm with a Bulgarian co-founder, has announced the successful closure of a $27 million funding round.
- The company’s corporate carbon accounting, decarbonisation, and ESG reporting software reported a staggering 600% year-over-year increase in revenues.
- US-based Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which saw significant participation from global financial institutions including Visa, Deutsche Bank, and Opera Tech Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of BNP Paribas, in addition to existing investors and unicorn founders.
The freshly acquired capital is earmarked for aggressive expansion and technological refinement. Plan A aims to double its current staff count to over 240 employees and is setting its sights on capturing larger market shares in France, the UK, and Scandinavia.
On the product side, the firm commits to enhance its SaaS platform, by rolling out advanced decarbonisation tooling, expanding Scope 3 data processing capabilities, and fine-tuning its policy alignment features.
In a previous interview for The Recursive, co-founder and CEO Lubomila Jordanova emphasized the role of technology in helping the corporate sector decarbonize, in alignment with global targets: “I think technology can optimize processes, eliminate waste, save energy, and do a lot of work to enable transparency.”
She also spoke to the importance of developing innovative vehicles for investment in order to support the scaling of climate technologies. I know a lot of startups doing amazing stuff on sustainable innovation in Romania and Bulgaria (…). And it is, to some extent, uncommon that they are so mature in their value proposition, and they are so experienced with technical complex stuff. That is something that should become of importance for institutional investors, VCs, and investors, because it is going to allow for the economies to move in a healthier manner outside of the climate crisis.”
A science-based, end-to-end software tool for decarbonisation
In a fragmented regulatory landscape for the corporate sector, Plan A’s Sustainability Platform stands out for its comprehensive, end-to-end approach to facilitating a company’s journey to net-zero emissions. Through sophisticated automation, the platform gathers emissions data across Scopes 1, 2, and 3 and combines this information with national emission factors and datasets. This data-driven approach allows for the generation of nuanced emissions profiles and actionable ESG insights.
The SaaS platform is further designed to meet rigorous scientific standards. All calculations and decarbonisation solutions are aligned with internationally recognized methodologies such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). This ensures a high level of scientific accuracy in the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) calculations, a claim certified by TÜV Rheinland, a global leader in independent inspection services.
Companies can then leverage emissions insights to set and meet science-based net-zero targets, aided by a suite of over 1,000 decarbonisation solutions and activities provided by the platform. Plan A’s client portfolio includes over 1,500 companies—among them, industry giants like BMW, Chloé, and KFC.
