· Wayra has participated in ClimateTrade's €7 million Pre-Series A round along with Conexo Ventures, ClearSky and other investors
· Telefónica is working to integrate the ClimateTrade API into tu.com to offset the carbon footprint of all the devices it sells.
Madrid, January 27, 2022.- Wayra has taken another step in its commitment to contributing to Telefónica's goal of being CO2 neutral with the investment in ClimateTrade, the first climate marketplace using blockchain technology. Telefónica's open innovation hub participated in the Pre-Series A round of ClimateTrade, which raised a total of 7 million euros along with Conexo Ventures, ClearSky, and other investors.
“We are thrilled to support Francisco Benedito, Jose Lindo, Ana Karen Zapata, and the rest of the ClimateTrade team, leading figures in the fight against climate change, with exceptional ambition in our country,” says Marta Antúnez, director of Wayra Barcelona. “ClimateTrade’s marketplace is truly disruptive. It not only helps companies worldwide calculate, reduce, and offset their carbon footprint by supporting projects with proven impact through blockchain, but also, through its API, allows its customers to offset the emissions of the products and services they are purchasing, accelerating the decarbonization of the planet for everyone,” says Antúnez. More than a decade ago, Telefónica created the Climate Change Office and began working to have the most efficient network on the market in terms of energy and CO2 emissions. Now it is also extending this commitment to its customers. This commitment from the company can already be seen in its work to integrate the ClimateTrade API into the purchase process of devices from tu.com, Telefónica's technology e-commerce platform that allows its customers to offset the CO2 emissions generated by their orders free of charge. Through Blockchain, ClimateTrade automatically generates an official certificate that guarantees carbon footprint offsetting after purchase. “Companies no longer just have to offer the best products and services to our customers; we have to do so while caring for the ecosystem around us. ClimateTrade allows us to make this a reality: thanks to them, we can, together with our customers, be an active part of the change, combining our commitment to our customers and our planet through the most innovative technology,” declares Gonzalo Abalo Alvarez, Head of Business Analysis at Telefónica. ClimateTrade is a marketplace born in Spain that supports global brands in their decarbonization goals, facilitating the financing of carbon offsetting and climate regeneration projects around the world. This new capital infusion will be used to increase the startup's operations in Europe, Asia, and the United States, with new offices in four countries, to expand its technology offering, and to hire new talent. “Over the past four years, ClimateTrade's vision has been to enable climate action through technological innovation. In 2021 alone, our blockchain-based marketplace enabled companies to offset nearly 2 million tons of CO2. This oversubscribed funding round is a testament to the impact ClimateTrade has already generated, and we are excited to accelerate our action against climate change with this new capital infusion,” explained Francisco Benedito, CEO of ClimateTrade. In addition to Wayra, this round attracted interest from more than 90 investment funds, such as the Spanish company GED through its fund Conexo Ventures, the US energy and technology fund ClearSky, blockchain investors Borderless Capital, SIX FinTech Ventures, the venture capital arm of Swiss financial infrastructure provider SIX Group, climate investment fund Amasia, and Valencian impact fund Zubi Capital, among others. data-rt-max-height="33.723653395784545%" data-rt-dimensions="854:480" data-page-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGCTGoym_Qw">