Grain Ecosystem Raises Capital from SE Ventures to Accelerate Carbon Offset Market Disruption

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Nov 29, 2022, 08:02 ET

Sustainability startup creating platform to increase quality carbon offset supply

BOSTON, Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Grain Ecosystem, an innovative sustainability start-up that will tackle the expensive, slow, and ineffective process of navigating the voluntary carbon market, has raised capital from SE Ventures, a premier early-stage venture fund backed by Schneider Electric, the global leader in the digitalization of industrial automation and energy management.

Founded in 2022, Grain Ecosystem's mission is to accelerate quality carbon offset generation with its unique platform aimed to simplify carbon offset projects, increasing the environmental impact. The timing of this venture is particularly relevant as multinationals wrestle with the lack of supply of high-quality carbon offsets to abate residual emissions and reach net-zero targets.

"Today, the process of developing carbon offsets is extraordinarily complex, time-consuming, and expensive," said Ryan J. Letourneau, MBA, Grain Ecosystem Founding CEO. "We created Grain Ecosystem with one goal: empower carbon offset project developers to remove more carbon from our atmosphere. With the right technology and expertise, we can overcome the challenges and accelerate the path to net-zero."

Grain Ecosystem is developing a platform that will make carbon offset projects easy to build, fund, certify and verify with transparency, streamlining a critical sustainability solution that faces challenges in pricing, accounting, and quantifiable impact. The platform is designed to work specifically with impactful carbon offset projects and is focused on carbon removal.

"The challenge of addressing Scope 1 and Scope 3 emissions is significant – and carbon offsets play a critical role in helping organizations decarbonize these parts of their emissions footprint. But it's an imperfect system," said Steve Wilhite, President of Schneider Electric's Sustainability Business. "Clearly, a new approach is necessary, and we are excited to welcome Grain Ecosystem to our growing digital marketplace of solutions that simplify the cleantech buying process by connecting buyers to trusted experts, viable projects and technologies. Access to this growing community of companies committed to the energy transition will help Grain Ecosystem to rapidly scale their services to support carbon offset project developers as they create high quality, credible carbon offsets."

Incubation accelerates sustainability progress
Grain Ecosystem was incubated by SE Ventures with the support of Mach49 at Greentown Labs in Somerville, Massachusetts. The company is also a member of the Microsoft Founders Hub and was accelerated by the Cleantech Open, as a participant in the Cleantech Open Northeast cohort.

Cleantech Open is the world's oldest and largest cleantech startup accelerator and business plan competition, with a mission to find, fund, and foster entrepreneurs with ideas to solve the greatest environmental and energy challenges. "Grain Ecosystem worked really hard through the accelerator, which is like a mini-MBA. The fact that the team was able to close their first round of funding right after graduation is a testament to their perseverance and their ability to demonstrate value. We're excited to celebrate this significant milestone with them, and we wish them great success as they continue to develop and grow their venture," said Beth Zonis, Senior Director, Cleantech Open Northeast, NECEC.

"Solving the world's biggest problems requires new thinking and innovation. SE Ventures' incubation practice is committed to uncovering and nurturing ideas at their earliest stage to build successful companies that accelerate the path to a net-zero world," said Gregoire Viasnoff, VP Incubation, SE Ventures. "Grain Ecosystem's approach to simplification of carbon offset creation offers great potential for positive disruption in decarbonization efforts."

SE Ventures' incubation practice is supporting entrepreneurs to turn bold ideas into scalable businesses, executed by best-in-class teams.

With the raised capital, Grain Ecosystem is actively hiring carbon project experts and partnering with capital allocators to scale carbon projects quickly, cost-effectively, and certifiably. "This important early-stage funding and support from SE Ventures is a tremendous vote of confidence in the strategic direction of Grain Ecosystem," said Letourneau. "We are excited by the challenges that await us and the opportunity we have to disrupt the offset market of today."

About Grain Ecosystem
Grain Ecosystem is a new venture accelerated by Cleantech Open Northeast and Microsoft Founders Hub, incubated by SE Ventures.

Grain Ecosystem was created to address global warming and accelerate decarbonization by unlocking the supply of impactful carbon offsets. Its innovative platform streamlines the long, complex, and expensive certification process for carbon offset projects, creating opportunities for new carbon offset projects.

Contact: [email protected]

SOURCE Grain Ecosystem, Inc.