Carbon accounting might not quite be a dinner table topic right now. But as the world feels more pressure to slow the pace of climate change, governments and corporations alike are exploring how to measure carbon footprints.
Austin startup ClearTrace has built its business around this emerging sector with a platform that helps companies monitor and audit their energy consumption, as well as what it might generate. On Dec. 15, it announced it has raised $4 million in venture backing from Boston-based Clean Energy Ventures. Other firms in on the round included Brookfield Renewable Partners and Clean Energy Venture Group. That brings its total raised to $5.7 million.
It previously raised seed funding from the Singapore-based Fund for Sustainability and Energy.
"Our goal is to accelerate the decarbonization of human activity and increase the adoption of sustainable and renewable energy through a technology platform that is fully automated, immutable and verifiable,” ClearTrace CEO Lincoln Payton said in a statement. “We have built the energy data system for the future."
The company, formerly known as swytchX, plans to use the new funding to expand its software capabilities and make new hires. It currently has 14 employees, 11 of whom are in Austin. It plans to hire around a dozen more to bring its headcount to about 25 by the end of 2021.
ClearTrace's platform automates energy and carbon accounting, tracking energy use in real-time and logging verifiable digital records using blockchain technology.
ClearTrace counts investor Brookfield Renewable Partners as one of its customers, along with JPMorgan Chase. It says it has a growing customer base but declined to name other clients.
Earlier this year, the company was named one of 16 startups to join cleantech accelerator Greentown Labs, a Massachusetts organization that expanded to Houston in June.
“Companies of all sizes are seeking to reduce their carbon impact due to new regulations and increasingly intense advocacy from employees, customers and investors," Daniel Goldman, managing director and co-founder of Clean Energy Ventures, said in a statement. "Yet, a key challenge for these companies is the ability to truly verify, validate, and account for their overall environmental and carbon footprint. A high degree of accountability and reporting is essential as companies work to decarbonize to help solve the climate crisis."
