The company is building a software-as-a-service platform using AI for the food industry to track and reduce the carbon footprint of every product in its line.
Food production has a huge impact on the environment. More than a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions can be linked to food. As the climate around the world runs askew, it is important to assess the impact of the food industry on the climate. This is what Carbon Map does.
Paris-based Carbon Maps, a holistic climate management platform for the food industry, recently announced that it has raised $4.3 million (€4 million) just weeks after it was founded. The company is building a software-as-a-service platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for the food industry to track the environmental impact of each product in its line. The platform can be used as a basis for ecological assessment.
While there are quite a few carbon accounting startups — like Greenly, Sweep, Persefoni and Watershed — Carbon Maps isn’t an exact competitor as it doesn’t calculate a company’s total carbon emissions. It doesn’t focus on carbon emissions exclusively, either. Carbon Maps focuses on the food industry and evaluates the environmental impact of products — not companies.
While there are quite a few carbon accounting startups—like Greenly, Sweep, Persefoni, and Watershed—Carbon Maps isn’t an exact competitor because it doesn’t calculate a company’s total carbon emissions. Nor is it solely focused on carbon emissions. Carbon Maps focuses on the food industry and assesses the impact of products on the environment – not companies.
Carbon Maps says it plans to utilise the capital to improve its platform’s features and models, hire approximately 15 new talents, and expand its services to other EU countries.
Three entrepreneurs with backgrounds in food, data science, and supply chains – Patrick Asdaghi (serial entrepreneur and founder of FoodChéri, acquired by Sodexo in 2021), Jérémie Wainstain (agritech expert with a physics PhD), and Estelle Huynh (former COO at Mojix, a US-based supply chain traceability SaaS) – founded Carbon Maps.
The French firm is on a mission to help food companies decrease their environmental footprint, including factors such as carbon footprint, biodiversity impact, water use and animal welfare.
Leveraging science-based mathematical models coupled with AI, Carbon Maps collects and analyses data across all stages of the food chain, from farmers to consumers, to calculate various impact indicators.
“Our ambition is to become the leading environmental accounting platform bringing together all players in the food value chain, empowering them to assess their products’ climate impact so they can reduce it sustainably,” states Patrick Asdaghi, CEO of Carbon Maps.
Carbon Maps has developed a platform that helps the food industry to calculate its carbon footprint based on water consumption, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during production, the impact on biodiversity, and animal welfare.
“Our food system is a major contributing factor to global greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity destruction, deforestation, and water consumption worldwide,” Asdaghi adds.
“Carbon Maps offers concrete tools and solutions that enable brands to develop actionable insights on an SKU-basis and build credible, effective climate plans relevant to their supply chains and their regions,” says Asdaghi.
The platform plans to cover all crucial indicators needed to support food companies’ ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies and integrate the Eco-Score, an environmental consumer product label detailed in France’s Climate & Resilience Law. It is expected to be in effect by the end of 2023.
Breega Capital is a Paris-based venture capital firm that typically invests in Seed and Series A startups across Europe.
François Paulus, Chairman and co-founder of Breega, says, “At Breega, we are thrilled to renew our support to Patrick and his co-founders in their mission to build the tools and infrastructure to help food companies manage their climate impact journey.”
“Carbon Maps’ vertical approach, factoring often underestimated agricultural practices in their science-based platform, is a game changer,” he adds,
Samaipata is an early-stage founder’s fund that invests in marketplaces and digital brands across Europe.
“The international potential of Carbon Maps is clear and vast. Seeing the extensive initial interest in France, we want to leverage our network in Southern Europe to help the company expand rapidly as the urgency of standardised environmental labelling is gaining momentum,” says Aurore Falque-Pierrotin, Partner at Samaipata.
Image Credits: Carbon Maps
