When March 2020 rolled around, Jonathan Goldberg invented his new startup, Carbon direct, was in for a long slog. The COVID pandemic started to turn the world upside down and it suddenly didn’t seem like a good time to start a business.
“I thought we wouldn’t have any customers,” he said.
He needn’t have worried. Microsoft, looking for a company to advise it on its carbon reduction plans, knocked on the door, and Goldberg had a team with a strong scientific background ready.
Microsoft itself has “a phenomenal team” working on decarbonization, Goldberg said. “They also have a dedication to science, which is pretty great to see, so they really wanted to understand why carbon removal is needed from a macro perspective and then think about applying it to their own specific business requirements.”
If Carbon Direct sounds like a carbon consultancy, it’s not far off. But Goldberg said that description doesn’t adequately reflect the entirety of the company. First, he said the company doesn’t bill by the hour. Second, he added: “We want to educate people; we are not a black box. It’s not like you click these seven buttons and that’s where your carbon disappears. That’s not how it works. We want to show people why this is important.”
To grow its customer base and team, Carbon Direct tells businesskinda.com it secured $60 million in a stock deal led by businesskinda.com last week. Decarbonization partners — a joint venture between BlackRock and the Temasek holding in Singapore — and Quantum Energy Partners.
BlackRock, in particular, has a reputation for saying one thing and: do another on climate. The $100 Billion Wealth Manager says it is “committed to an inclusive, just and prosperous transition” to net-zero emissions, but BlackRock’s finances remain linked to coaland the company expects less climate-focused shareholder proposals in 2022 than in the previous year. BlackRock called such proposals overly “prescriptive” in a May note to investors.
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