CEEZER closes €4.2m round to democratize carbon removal and avoidance trade between organizations
CEEZER, the B2B marketplace for carbon credits, closes a €4.2M round, led by Carbon Removal Partners with participation of Norrsken VC and with existing investor Picus Capital.
Currently, companies face a myriad of challenges and uncertainties when it comes to external carbon removal and reduction. While the purchase of negative emissions is necessary for most companies to meet both science-based and compliance targets, the selection and purchase of the right credits is still daunting. With multiple standards running in parallel, often unreliable information on credit quality and a price range of 5-500 USD per ton, many companies struggle to balance impact, budget and risk. Traditionally, resellers have made use of the opacity in the market by adding significant arbitrage, making buyers pay high prices for low quality credits. This comes with significant risks to users of credits that need to report their impact as much of the funds end in the middle.
After announcing a seven-figure pre-seed in April, CEEZER quickly built a unique offering for corporates to integrate both carbon removal and avoidance credits in impact-optimized portfolios. To do so, it leverages over 1.5M data points on the carbon market to guide buyers with the latest info on credit quality, availability, and prices. With its unique, direct trade infrastructure, CEEZER enables sellers to reach the right buyers without using resellers - to sell both existing credits and credits from projects that are still under development.
Sellers no longer waste time and money on bespoke contracts with corporates but can rely on a harmonized legal framework for all transactions. At the same time, buyers have easy access to a wide range of credits at primary market conditions, which ensures better impact for every dollar spent in the carbon market. They can also report on their portfolio quality with confidence. CEEZER serves over 50 corporate customers ranging from DAX30 to start- and scale-ups in Europe and the US. CEEZER works with leading project developers, including the world’s largest developer South Pole and leaders in carbon removal such as X-Prize winner CarbonBuilt. Daily available volumes exceed over 200k tons across all relevant credit categories.
CEEZER will use the funds to expand its impact and sourcing team, led by former Associate Director at Carbon Disclosure Project Dr. Carla Woydt, focussing on making removal technologies more accessible to corporate buyers. Further, it will continue to increase the product offering to support credit sellers and buyers to find long-term offtake agreements and better plan for a supply-constraint future.
With the extension, two specialist investors in the climate and carbon removal field join CEEZER’s journey.
Founder and CEO Magnus Drewelies, says “We are incredibly excited to partner with two of the most exciting investors in the climate space, alongside our existing investor Picus. We think this is a perfect set-up to further strengthen our ties in the still emerging climate tech ecosystem,”
While approaching the VCM in the most possible data-driven and holistic way, CEEZER provides the perfect tool for corporate carbon buyers to transparently move into high-impact compensation solutions” say Benjamin Schulz and Maximilian Zeller of Carbon Removal Partners. “We are excited to partner with the team to make CDR better accessible and approachable for corporate clients.”
Tove Larsson, General Partner at Norrsken VC says, "We are very impressed with the CEEZER team and their approach to the voluntary carbon credits market. With a strong focus on the supply side of this equation, they have built a platform that helps project owners manage and scale their carbon reducing solutions, thereby addressing one of the key bottlenecks in this industry."
“We are excited to continue our journey to make the VCM more impactful with CEEZER. The team has gained significant traction in the past months and we cannot wait for the next chapter,” says Oliver Heinrich of Picus Capital.
