StepChange, a top-tier corporate sustainability platform based in India, has secured over $4 million in seed funding led by BEENEXT and Global Founders Capital.

The investment also saw participation from a group of global investors including Genesia Ventures, Whiteboard Capital, Saison Capital, Seedstars, Antler, and Speciale Invest, StepChange said in a statement on Tuesday.

According to the statement, the funds raised will be directed towards enhancing StepChange’s region-specific carbon accounting models, driving product development, and accelerating growth in India and key international markets.

Founded in 2022, StepChange offers a comprehensive integrated solution to large corporate enterprises and financial institutions to improve their environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics, manage climate risk, and reduce emissions across their supply chains, in-house operations, and financial portfolios.

The firm’s cloud-based platform caters to companies looking to measure, analyze and optimize their ESG performance, while simultaneously improving operational efficiencies and future-proofing their product and service offerings.

“StepChange was built to address a critical need in the market: businesses lacked a reliable and effective way to navigate the complex landscape of sustainability and NetZero Transition,” said Ankit Jain, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of StepChange.

“We have over ten dedicated climate researchers on our team to ensure that we are able to create the most reliable and cost efficient solutions for businesses to become sustainable and achieve their sustainability goals,

“We are proud to be the sustainability partner of choice for some of the largest Indian enterprises and plan to take our offerings international very soon,” he added.

StepChange has one of the largest India-specific carbon accounting databases, with over 75,000 emission factors for various products and services, and has enabled leading enterprises to account for over 250 million tCO2e in aggregate, equivalent to over 7.5 percent of India’s emissions.

The platform is working with some of the industry’s most prominent players, including ICICI Bank, one of the country’s largest private sector banks, ITC Limited, India’s FMCG conglomerate, and SBI, India’s largest public sector bank, across their value chains and portfolios.

“StepChange’s innovative approach to corporate sustainability focuses on region-specific carbon accounting models and platforms,” said Anirudh Garg, Investor, BEENEXT.

He believes this approach will be a game-changer in the global effort towards tackling climate change.

“We look forward to supporting StepChange as they continue to empower individuals, organisations, and other entities to make data-driven decisions for a sustainable future,” he said.

BEENEXT is a Singapore-based venture capital fund which invests in early-stage tech start-ups that are focused on building the new digital platforms driven by the data network.

The fund is a platform of founders, by the founders and for the founders across the globe, primarily in South East Asia, India and Japan.

Since its establishment in 2015, the team has invested in over 200 companies globally.

“As the world transitions towards net zero, decarbonizing financial portfolios and corporate operations and supply chains is fast becoming the next big corporate challenge,” said Leo Banchik and Roel Janssen, Partners of Global Founders Capital.

According to them, Stepchange is helping enterprises and financial institutions decarbonize by measuring and managing their carbon emissions using a differentiated, science-based approach.

“We are excited by the strength of the founding team and product traction in a region that is home to a large portion of global supply chain emissions which must be decarbonized,

“We are proud to back StepChange and look forward to partnering to create a category-defining company in the region and beyond,” they said.

Global Founders Capital is a United States-based early stage investor.

Over the past two decades, the firm has backed over five hundred entrepreneurs worldwide, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Zalando, Slack, Revolut, Canva, DeliveryHero, Lazada, Traveloka, Nium, Moladin, Zepto, Spenmo, and Astro.

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