Paris-based clean energy startup Sweep raises $22M in Series A funding to lower carbon footprints for large enterprises

No day goes by without new headlines on climate change. While organizations and governments around the world focus their attention on reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, measuring emissions is equally crucial to implementing and reporting on carbon reduction.

As scientific climate warnings keep emerging, companies face pressure from customers, investors, partners, regulators, and employees to reduce their carbon footprint. However, many realize that there is a big difference between making carbon pledges and implementing and reporting concrete progress toward their carbon reduction goals. Last month, BCG reported that over 90% of companies aren’t measuring their emissions accurately and regularly, which is critical to building a solid climate program. That’s where Sweep comes in.

Sweep is an all-in-one carbon emission management platform that helps companies understand, manage and reduce their carbon emissions across their entire business and value chain. With Sweep, organizations can accurately and seamlessly track their global emissions across their three emission scopes. Sweep’s platform helps to automate the data collection, security, and analysis process to enable organizations to build a solid carbon reduction plan and focus on the actions that must be taken to reach net-zero emissions.

Today, the Paris, France-based Sweep announced it has raised $22 million in Series A funding, the highest publicly disclosed Series A round by any carbon management platform, to help meet the high demand of prospective customers who want to build a credible path to net zero. In conjunction with the funding, Sweep also announced that Bernard Liautaud, Managing Partner at Balderton Capital, has joined its board of directors.

The round was led by venture capital firm Balderton Capital, with participation from New Wave, La Famiglia, and 2050. This round of funding follows the original seed round and brings the company’s total funding to $27 million since its inception a year ago.

Founded in 2020 by CEO Raphael Güller, Nicolas Raspal, Rachel Delacour, and Yannick Chaze, Sweep is the all-in-one carbon emission management platform that helps large enterprises build a science-based and data-driven climate program. Organizations can accurately and seamlessly track their global emissions across their three emission scopes.

This network approach to carbon accounting empowers every carbon-emitting individual – such as employees, subsidiaries, suppliers, business partners – to share their data and visualize how their activities are making a difference. Sweep also offers a carbon marketplace which allows companies to couple their reduction efforts with investments in carbon positive projects. Sweep was recently named France’s #1 startup to watch and is SOC2 compliant with operations located in France and the United Kingdom.

“Reporting direct emissions is just the tip of the iceberg for the world’s largest corporations, ” said Rachel Delacour, CEO and co-founder of Sweep. “Sweep connects large enterprises with their entire network of business partners, staff, and suppliers to get a complete overview of their direct and indirect emissions. Our enterprise-grade tool is here to make carbon data collection, security, and analysis seamless and automated, so companies focus on reducing their carbon footprint and contributing to global net-zero efforts.”

Since it launched in April, Sweep has been working with Financial Times Stock Exchange 500 (FTSE) companies each responsible for 30-50 MtCO2e of carbon emissions per year. They have selected Sweep’s platform to help them build a science-based and data-driven climate program that responds to the climate emergency and anticipates coming sustainable reporting regulations.

Commenting on the funding, Liautaud said, “Sustainability is a huge priority for us at Balderton, and Sweep’s mission and vision are perfectly aligned with our Sustainable Future Goals. When we looked at the market, we were incredibly impressed with the strength of Sweep’s team, and the thoughtfulness and maturity of their product. We’re excited to support them as they help companies to effectively take responsibility for their carbon footprints.”

Earlier this month, Sweep was one of the few companies selected to present at COP26 at the UK Cabinet’s Tech for Our Planet program, which showcases the technologies designed to help reach global net-zero targets. For this pilot, Sweep worked with French investment bank Bpifrance to measure the footprints of two companies it’s investing in: telecommunications firm Orange and education tech company Openclassrooms. While the investing, lending and underwriting activities of financial organizations (Scope 3 emissions) are far higher than their direct emissions, just 25% report these portfolio emissions.

Sweep also launched the Initiatives feature to make it even easier for enterprises to identify the most effective carbon reduction roadmap against their climate goals by simulating different reduction strategies, distributing action steps to their teams and partners, and tracking progress against their climate goals.

Meanwhile, Sweep has also achieved full B-Corporation status for meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose.

Sweep Team