In October 2021, climate management and accounting platform Persefoni made headlines after raising $101 million in its Series B financing round—the largest ever for a software-as-a-service climate tech company. It came less than two years after its founding.
Based in Tempe, Arizona, the fast-growing start-up is on a mission to enable financial institutions and other corporations to seamlessly measure, report, and manage their carbon footprint and comply with disclosure requirements.
A highly specialized space, climate management and accounting for financial institutions is particularly difficult due to the complex nature of financial investments—just one way that has helped Persefoni stand out from the pack. Another is their relentless investment into research and development, currently accounting for 60% of their over 200 employees.
As the demand for climate accounting software has grown, so has Persefoni, with a customer base that now covers 17 out of the 20 business categories within the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
To achieve net zero targets, however, these customers needed to be able to offset their hard-to-abate emissions. For that, Persefoni turned to Patch.
A portal to carbon removal
Persefoni’s solution was to create a self-service marketplace featuring Patch’s expertly vetted, broad scope of projects. Patch connects companies of all sizes with trusted carbon credits, either through instant purchases on their dashboard or an API integration that automates the process.
“Patch projects are synonymous with trustworthy, easy-to-access, and high-quality carbon removal credits,” says Kentaro Kawamori, CEO & Co-Founder at Persefoni. “This means we can offer them to our customers with total confidence and free of commission.”
The marketplace is designed to be intuitive and user-friendly—much like an ecommerce platform—and features the full portfolio of Patch partners. Projects are searchable by geography, project type, or price, which makes it easy for companies to find the carbon removal credit best in line with their goals or constraints.
“We’ve tried to make it as easy as possible,” explains Brennan Spellacy, Patch’s CEO. “When a new project is added to our library, it automatically gets added to Persefoni, as well.”
Attracting new business
The Persefoni marketplace streamlines the process for companies and organizations to evaluate and purchase carbon credits. But because it’s available to anyone who visits their website, it’s had a surprising secondary effect: generating new leads for potential Persefoni customers.
“Each new Persefoni customer means one more company taking control of their carbon footprint,” says Spellacy. “Any opportunity to drive more traffic to Persefoni’s website is a win for the planet.”
The path ahead
In just a few short months since launching the marketplace, Persefoni has already sold 530 tons of carbon removal credits—the equivalent of 638 acres of US forest. The next step is embedding carbon offsets directly into their product offer.
In the meantime, Persefoni continues to invest heavily in their own product capabilities. Currently building on their enterprise grade product with new feature releases every two weeks, they’re also releasing a free version of their software to small and medium-sized businesses, with a customized user interface.
“We want to be the company that defines the new generation of climate reporting,” concludes Kawamori. “Patch is the perfect partner to help us do so. I have no doubt that they'll continue playing a key role in the digital infrastructure of the new energy economy.”
