Enterprise sustainability startup StepChange raises over $4M in funding led by BEENEXT, Global Founders Capital

Sustainability platform StepChange has raised over $4 million in seed funding led by BEENEXT and Global Founders Capital. The investment also saw participation from a other global investors such as Genesia Ventures, Whiteboard Capital, Saison Capital, Seedstars, Antler, and Speciale Invest.

According to the official statement, the funds raised will be used towards enhancing StepChange’s region-specific carbon accounting models, driving product development, and accelerating growth in India and key international markets.

Currently with a team of around 30 members across the world, the startup will also focus on hiring, said Ankit Jain, Co-founder and CEO, StepChange, during an interaction with YourStory.

Founded in 2022 by Ankit Jain and Dr Sidhant Pai, the US-headquartered company offers a comprehensive integrated solution to large corporate enterprises and financial institutions to improve their ESG metrics, manage climate risk, and reduce emissions across their supply chains, in-house operations, and financial portfolios.

StepChange also helps companies benchmark their ESG metrics, identify emissions hotspots, set achievable targets, track improvements, report ESG performance, comply with regulations and communicate the benefits of their sustainability initiatives to their consumers via internationally-recognised science-based methodologies and intuitive cloud-based tools that integrate seamlessly into existing enterprise systems.

“StepChange was built to address a critical need in the market: businesses lacked a reliable and effective way to navigate the complex landscape of sustainability and NetZero Transition. We have over 10 dedicated climate researchers on our team to ensure that we are able to create the most reliable and cost efficient solutions for businesses to become sustainable and achieve their sustainability goals," said Jain.

"We are proud to be the sustainability partner of choice for some of the largest Indian enterprises and plan to take our offerings international very soon,” he added.

StepChange has one of the largest India-specific carbon accounting databases, with over 75,000 emission factors for various products and services, and has enabled leading enterprises to account for over 250 million tCO2e in aggregate, equivalent to over 7.5% of India's emissions.

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The platform is working with some of the industry's most prominent players, including ICICI Bank, ITC Limited, and SBI across their value chains and portfolios. 

“StepChange's innovative approach to corporate sustainability focuses on region-specific carbon accounting models and platforms. We believe this approach will be a game-changer in the global effort towards tackling climate change. We look forward to supporting StepChange as they continue to empower individuals, organisations, and other entities to make data-driven decisions for a sustainable future,” shared Anirudh Garg, Investor, BEENEXT.

"In addition to the platform, we also find the StepChange team to be great thought partners in our sustainability journey,” he added.

“As the world transitions towards net zero, decarbonising financial portfolios and corporate operations & supply chains is fast becoming the next big corporate challenge. Stepchange is helping enterprises and financial institutions decarbonise by measuring and managing their carbon emissions using a differentiated, science-based approach,” shared Leo Banchik and Roel Janssen, Partners, Global Founders Capital.