![[Official announcement] Carbonstop won a round A financing of 50 million yuan, co invested by Hillhouse and Jingwei](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffactor-file.carbonstop.com%2Ffactor-test%2Fda03641bb28443beae4ea69c9cd3c2c9871.png&w=1920&q=75)
521On May 10, 2021, Carbonstop, China's first provider of carbon emission management software and consulting solutions, announced it had secured RMB 50 million in Series A financing, with participation from Hillhouse Capital and Matrix China. This marks an increased commitment by both investors in the carbon neutrality infrastructure sector and represents their latest moves in systematically mapping out the sector.
Founded in March 2011, Carbonstop's core business includes customized and SaaS carbon management software, carbon accounting consultancy, and consumer-facing carbon account platforms. Over the past decade, Carbonstop has served more than 1,000 clients, including Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com, Vanke, Microsoft, and CNOOC. With this round of financing, Carbonstop aims to comprehensively enhance the SaaSification, standardization, and intelligence of carbon management.
A Trillion-Yuan Market on the Verge of Explosive Growth
In September 2020, at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, China pledged to strive for carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. At this year's National People's Congress, "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" were written into the government work report for the first time and listed as one of the key tasks for 2021. As a major means to achieve carbon neutrality, China initiated local carbon trading pilots as early as 2013 and plans to launch the national carbon trading market in June 2021, with over 2,200 power enterprises starting trading initially, and tens of thousands of enterprises expected to be included in the carbon trading scope.
Globally, over 200 international enterprises and institutions have proposed carbon neutrality targets, while hundreds of thousands of supplier enterprises and sustainable innovation enterprises are actively or passively engaging in carbon management and carbon disclosure. According to a research report by Tsinghua University's Institute of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, to achieve China's carbon neutrality goal, an annual investment of about RMB 3.7 trillion will be required over the next 30 years. In the coming five years, hundreds of thousands of enterprises will conduct carbon management and reduce emissions.
On the other hand, China's sustainable consumption market is also booming. According to the "Report on the Current Status of Green Consumption Among Chinese Public (2019)" published by the China Academy of Environmental Planning, 83.34% of respondents support green consumption, with 46.75% indicating strong support.
Liang Li, partner at Hillhouse Capital, said, “The global economy's transition from high-carbon to low-carbon or even net-zero carbon has become an inevitable trend. Leading enterprises are setting proactive carbon disclosure, carbon management, and carbon neutrality targets, and the carbon management industry urgently needs more digital and intelligent solutions. Against the backdrop of the awakening and vigorous development of global sustainable consumption, product-level carbon footprint disclosure is becoming increasingly important.”
A Decade of Dedication: The 'Carbon Manager' Behind Giants
After graduating with a master’s degree in computer science from Oxford University, Lu Hui Yan worked at a leading British carbon management company before deciding to return to China to start his own business. “Ten years ago, almost no companies in China were engaged in carbon emission management, let alone carbon neutrality. But I believed that addressing climate change globally was an inevitable trend, and companies would certainly begin to care about carbon emissions in the near future,” said Lu Hui Yan, founder and CEO of Carbonstop. “Back then, it felt like exploring an uncharted territory, but now it seems that all those judgments have become reality.”
“Without measurement, there is no management. Only by accurately measuring carbon emissions can organizations effectively reduce them. As the gateway to the industry, Carbonstop provides the most fundamental and crucial carbon emission data calculation services to enterprises and institutions through a decade of rich industry experience and the largest carbon emission factor database in China.”
Currently, Carbonstop's core products and services include carbon emission management software, carbon management consultation, and carbon account platforms. The carbon management software primarily helps enterprises achieve functions such as carbon emission quantification, analysis, management, and reporting. It offers both customized software and a carbon management SaaS platform, serving clients including governments, emission-controlled enterprises, exchanges, and carbon asset management companies (click here to learn more about carbon management software). The prerequisite for enterprise emission reduction is the quantification of internal carbon emissions to help enterprises understand their emission status and provide data support for formulating carbon reduction strategies and implementing low-carbon projects. Carbonstop's carbon management consultation covers organizational carbon inventory, product carbon footprint, product carbon reduction calculation, CDP carbon disclosure, and carbon management training. Carbonstop has also summarized the CREO path for enterprises to achieve carbon neutrality (click here to learn more details), assisting institutions such as Baidu and Hillhouse Capital in advancing their internal carbon neutrality efforts.
A carbon account quantifies low-carbon behaviors (such as "driving one less day") into carbon reduction amounts, which are recorded in personal carbon accounts to serve as the basis for spiritual and material incentives. For example, Carbonstop is a professional partner and the main developer of low-carbon scenarios for the well-known Ant Forest, helping mobilize over 550 million users to participate in low-carbon actions and plant more than 220 million trees.
Over the past decade, Carbonstop has become a driving force behind many giants in promoting green and sustainable development, serving more than 1,000 enterprise clients, including 50 Fortune Global 500 companies and top-tier institutions such as Alibaba, Baidu, JD.com, Vanke, Starbucks, Microsoft, Hillhouse Capital, Green Fund Capital, UN Environment Programme, NDRC, MEE, American Energy Foundation, WWF, and NRDC.
Building a One-Stop Carbon Management Platform - Carbon Cloud Ccloud
In addition to the above customized services, Carbonstop has also independently developed standardized products such as Carbon Hub and Carbon Cloud.
Carbon Hub is a public welfare mini-program for carbon emission information databases, providing convenient carbon information inquiries for the public and enterprises. The carbon emission factor database, a crucial component of Carbon Hub and even the entire carbon management industry, serves as the foundation.
Every product and behavior generates carbon emissions, and these emissions are known as carbon emission factors. Carbon emissions = activity data * carbon emission factor. Over the past nine years, Carbonstop has accumulated carbon emission factor data from over 200 countries worldwide, with the current data volume exceeding 100,000 entries, making it the largest carbon emission factor database in China and a cornerstone of the industry's carbon emission management.
(Carbon Emission Factor Database)
To embrace the trend of carbon neutrality and assist more Chinese enterprises in managing their carbon emissions, Carbonstop has distilled best practices from serving thousands of clients and developed China's first carbon management SaaS platform, Carbon Cloud. Carbon Cloud (Ccloud) is currently a paid carbon footprint evaluation software designed for enterprises, following the life cycle concept and designed according to international standards such as ISO 14067 and PAS 2050, covering all industries and integrating Carbonstop's database of 100,000 emission factors for user reference and use.
In the future, besides the product carbon footprint calculation function, Carbon Cloud will integrate features such as enterprise carbon emission calculation, scenario-based carbon reduction calculation, meeting carbon emission accounting, and carbon disclosure and carbon neutrality, becoming a one-stop carbon management platform for Chinese enterprises' carbon emission management and carbon neutrality.
Zuo Lingye, partner at Matrix China, commented, “Carbonstop has specialized in carbon emission calculation and management for 10 years, accumulating a complete carbon emission factor database and industry experience, and has achieved standardization of carbon management software. Founder Lu Hui Yan is one of the earliest entrepreneurs in China to venture into carbon emission management and has remained steadfast in this direction, earning a good reputation in the industry. We look forward to Carbonstop providing carbon management-related software services to more enterprises and contributing to China's carbon neutrality goal.”
The Next Decade: A Strong Partner for Chinese Enterprises on the Path to Carbon Neutrality
By the end of 2020, Carbonstop had helped its clients reduce carbon emissions by over 100 million tons and indirectly influenced the low-carbon behavioral changes of 800 million people through client products. Due to its significant contributions to UN SDG 12 "Responsible Consumption and Production" and SDG 13 "Climate Action," Carbonstop has received substantial support from organizations such as the UN Environment Programme, Expo 2020 Dubai, Alashan Foundation, and American Energy Foundation (click here for more honors). Over the next five years, Carbonstop aims to continue driving over 1 billion tons of carbon reduction in China. “The alignment between positive environmental impact and business model makes Carbonstop a transformative investment opportunity that can positively change the world,” noted the exclusive financial advisor for this round of financing.
“On the other hand, consumers are a powerful driving force for enterprises to transition to low-carbon operations,” said Lu Hui Yan. “What was once a niche focus for businesses 10 years ago is gradually becoming a necessity. I believe that low-carbon consumption will also be a major trend in 10 years, and we will serve as a bridge for product low-carbon transformation and sustainable consumption markets, promoting low-carbon transformations in both product and consumption markets, ensuring that every product has a carbon footprint.”
“In addition to financial support, the backing from top-tier investment institutions Hillhouse Capital and Matrix China has further solidified our original intentions, reminding us to remain focused on doing the right thing even during industry booms, creating long-term value for clients and society,” said Lu Hui Yan. “We will continuously refine our core products and become the strongest partner for Chinese enterprises on their journey to carbon neutrality.”
