751On August 1, 2022, Carbonstop, China's first carbon emission management software and consulting solution provider, officially announced the completion of its Series B financing round worth hundreds of millions of yuan, led by Sequoia Capital China, with continued investment from existing shareholders Hillhouse Capital and Matrix Partners China. This round of financing will primarily be used for the R&D of Carbonstop's core carbon management software products and the expansion of consulting, marketing, and business teams.
01
Carbonstop: Pioneer and Leader in China's Carbon Management Industry
Founded in 2011, Carbonstop has always adhered to the philosophy that "without quantification, there is no management; without carbon management, there is no carbon neutrality." It is committed to driving carbon emission calculations, management, reduction, and ultimately achieving carbon neutrality for enterprises and institutions across various industries through technology, data, and products. Over the past eleven years, Carbonstop has served over 1,200 clients, including Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, Meituan, JD.com, Starbucks, KFC, SKP, Dow, CNOOC, China Airport Construction Group, Expo Dubai 2020, Hillhouse Capital, CDH Investments, Construction Bank, Mastercard, Hua Long Aviation, and Porsche.
Over the past five years, Carbonstop's business has experienced rapid growth, with an annual compound growth rate exceeding 100%. In the first half of 2022, despite the dual challenges of a capital winter and the post-pandemic era, Carbonstop's business still grew nearly threefold year-over-year, demonstrating its strong business resilience.
Carbonstop's solid brand foundation built over more than a decade, the world's largest carbon emission factor database accumulated over ten years, best practices from thousands of top-tier clients, industry-leading carbon management SaaS products, and the CREOS carbon neutrality methodology validated by the industry and enterprise clients collectively form the robust barriers of Carbonstop.
02
Tide Rising, Carbon Neutrality Boosts Carbon Management Market
Since September 22, 2020, when China announced its dual carbon targets at the United Nations General Assembly, carbon neutrality has become a clear card for China's development over the next 40 years, a rare certainty in the race. Both Tsinghua University and China International Capital Corporation (CICC) have predicted that over the next 30 years, China will invest around 140 trillion yuan in the carbon neutrality sector, defining it as a super gold track worth trillions of yuan. Carbon emission calculation and management, as the infrastructure of carbon neutrality, are essential paths for enterprises and institutions in various industries to achieve carbon neutrality.
By 2022, the "30·60 targets" had been included in the 14th Five-Year Plan, elevating carbon peak and carbon neutrality to the national strategic level. Subsequently, the "1+N" policy system was released, clarifying the specific areas and directions for implementing carbon neutrality. As the carbon neutrality target continues to permeate, not only do emission-controlled enterprises start managing their carbon emissions, but internet companies, financial institutions, consumer brands, and real estate groups have also set their own carbon neutrality targets and begun managing their carbon emissions. Given that tens of thousands of enterprises will engage in carbon management and set carbon neutrality targets, the potential market for carbon management in the future is enormous.
03
Continuous Innovation, Creating an Efficient and Compliant Digital Carbon Management Platform
Over the past eleven years, Carbonstop has been committed to the mission of "making every product have a carbon footprint," and its practices in carbon management technological innovation have never stopped: launching the first carbon management software - CAMP, initiating the latest attempt at digital carbon management; proposing the CREOS enterprise carbon neutrality methodology, providing new ideas and methods for enterprise carbon management; establishing the world's largest carbon emission factor database, scientifically guiding carbon emission calculations in various industries; creating China's first one-stop carbon management platform - Carbon Cloud, comprehensively improving the efficiency of enterprise carbon management.
As China's first one-stop carbon management platform and the intelligent brain for enterprises to achieve carbon neutrality, Carbon Cloud covers functions such as enterprise carbon accounting, product carbon footprint, supply chain carbon management, carbon asset management, carbon account platform, online certification, carbon neutrality services, and more. By utilizing big data and AI technologies, it connects the entire carbon management chain, meeting the needs and experiences of multiple carbon management scenarios for enterprises, and comprehensively enhancing the overall carbon reduction effectiveness of enterprises.
"Carbon Cloud" Enterprise Carbon Accounting
Furthermore, Carbon Cloud brings a digital carbon management approach for the mobile internet era, forming a closed loop of carbon management from data collection to accounting, analysis, goal setting and path planning, carbon reduction implementation, to carbon neutrality. This achieves the digitization, visualization, and valueization of carbon, making enterprise carbon management more compliant, transparent, and efficient.
Currently, Carbon Cloud has provided one-stop carbon management services to hundreds of well-known enterprises, including potential enterprises like Zhenggu, Baopu Regeneration, and Xiaowazi Plant Drinks, as well as Fortune 500 companies represented by Starbucks, Porsche, BAIC Group, and Baidu.
04
Extensive Connections, Building an Open Ecosystem in the Era of Carbon Neutrality
Since its establishment, Carbonstop has consistently upheld the spirit of open collaboration, establishing systematic ecological partnerships with institutions such as SGS, China National Institute of Standardization, the internationally renowned LCA database Ecoinvent, TCFD, and UNPRI, achieving the broadest ecological layout.
For example, Carbonstop has collaborated with the China National Institute of Standardization to build a domestic carbon emission factor database, dedicated to providing an indispensable data foundation for the low-carbon transformation and upgrading of domestic enterprises. Recently, both parties jointly released national standards for industry carbon footprint calculations and an industry-level product carbon footprint platform. In partnership with Ecoinvent, they aim to address the lack of domestic LCA data and the challenge of "selecting factors" for enterprises.
Carbonstop Carbon Emission Factor Database (Search "Carbon Wisdom" on WeChat Mini Program, ordinary users can query for free 3 times)
To assist in the construction of social carbon neutrality infrastructure, Carbonstop announced that its carbon emission factor database with over 150,000 entries will gradually be opened to all users in society. Meanwhile, Carbonstop is establishing innovation centers in London and North America to provide strong guarantees for Chinese enterprises' compliance with carbon footprints in exports and overseas expansion, as well as to enhance international brand competitiveness.
05
The Next Decade, Continuing to Do Difficult but Right Things
Carbonstop's mission is to ensure that every product has a carbon footprint. In the near future, when consumers shop in malls, supermarkets, and online, they can autonomously choose more low-carbon products by understanding the carbon footprint information of products, thereby compelling more enterprises to voluntarily produce more low-carbon products and provide more low-carbon services. Only then can society-wide carbon neutrality be achieved sooner.
Bennett Yan, founder and CEO of Carbonstop, emphasized, “Striving to become the entry-level company for carbon neutrality in China (and even globally) is the grand vision of Carbonstop. We are accelerating our development and breakthroughs, and in the future, we will drive hundreds of millions of people to reduce carbon emissions, reducing billions or even trillions of tons of carbon emissions for the Earth. The support from top-tier investors in this Series B round enables Carbonstop to adhere to long-term value and not be confined by short-term interests. Looking up at the stars, standing firmly on the ground, sticking to our original aspirations, and continuing to do difficult but right things.”
