2022 was a big year for Patch. The San Francisco and London-based carbon credit startup raised $55 million in series B funding, introduced their new brand identity and made new partnerships with companies like Credit Suisse, Bain & Company, and over 100 other companies that are now using Patch’s technology to support carbon removal.
Consensus from the UN IPCC shows that in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we must remove carbon from the atmosphere on a scale that's one million times greater than today’s capacity by 2050. Meanwhile, businesses must focus on rapidly decarbonizing their operations to reduce emissions. But some emissions are unavoidable. That’s where Patch comes in. Patch’s platform enables companies of all kinds to seamlessly integrate climate action into their business by facilitating the purchase of carbon credits from the growing voluntary carbon market, which is estimated to become a $100B market by 2050. Now, with over $80M in total funding from Andreesen Horowitz, Pale Blue Dot, and other notable investors, Patch could be the next climate tech unicorn.
“We had a successful COP,” says Brennan Spellacy, Patch CEO and Co-founder, referring to COP27. He explains that at COP27 they proved themselves as a connector – leading conversations with business leaders, policymakers, and others about “bridging the implementation gap,” also known as the no-man’s-land between an exciting climate action strategy and actually deploying it.
Patch has three main products which function as “seamless pathways for companies to engage with carbon markets,” says Katie Lyons, who heads Patch communications. These include a carbon credit marketplace focused on transparency, an API that embeds climate action directly into a company’s product, and a new product called Patch Offtake. Patch works with companies ranging from ecommerce to private equity. For example, Route, an app that tracks e-commerce purchases, uses Patch to provide a simple process for their customers to neutralize the impact of their shipments, all without leaving Route’s website.
With the economy flirting with recession, Spellacy isn’t expecting 2023 to be another year of mega-growth. But he sees this as a rare chance for the team to focus on their main priority: making it easy for anyone to take real, impactful climate action.
“We are entering a very different economic environment. [In 2023] we want to do more of what we are doing now, but more focused. We won't be launching a bunch of net-new things. 2023 is about refinement and scaling those same things. Focusing on the core pains of buyers and sellers and helping them weather this difficult time.”
This is where their newly launched product, Patch Offtake, comes in. “It's a one-purchaser-to-many-solutions program,” says Brennan.
Patch Offtake makes it easier for companies to contribute to large-scale innovation in the carbon removal space. Companies commit to purchasing multiple years of credits from an array of innovative climate tech companies, which ensures their own inventory and also provides the upfront capital many of these carbon removal projects require to scale.
Spellacy explains that buyers benefit because they get a promised rate that will remain stable even as the price of carbon credits are expected to go up. Meanwhile, climate companies benefit by gaining access to funding that could help them scale faster. The program could be especially impactful for innovative and newer climate solutions like mineralization or coastal carbon capture. One such company is Running Tide, which uses ocean currents, buoys of kelp, sunlight, and “ocean chemistry” to bury carbon in the sea floor for thousands of years. (They illustrate the process with great drama on their website.)
“Offtake enables multi-year funding with terms and buyers we would otherwise not have access to,” said Tom Green, the CEO of Vesta in an article about the new product. As a company working to accelerate the natural carbon removal process of the carbonate-silicate cycle, Vesta might not normally expect to get buyers such as Bain and Company without the help of Patch Offtake.
There are valid questions about the effectiveness of carbon credits. Questions like: Are all carbon credits created using equal standards? Which organizations can you trust to manage carbon credits? If you spew carbon at one end of your operations and then sequester it at another, is that really making a difference? But Brennan and the team at Patch are confident that if used responsibly, carbon credits can be hugely impactful in limiting emissions as we transition to renewable energy.
Spellacy stresses the importance of transparency when making it clear what their priorities are. “What we are doing is surfacing information that has historically not been available,” says Spellacy. With more awareness about carbon credits comes pressure to ensure they're actually making an impact. “It [did not used to be] clear if the carbon was avoided or removed. That was not exposed to buyers and people did not know or maybe they didn’t care.”
“Same with the durability,” he adds, referencing the term used to describe the amount of time sequestered carbon can expect to stay sequestered. “A nature-based solution might have a 50-150 year durability and an engineering solution may have 100s. Some companies only want to buy verified long durability offsets and now they can.”
As the number of companies making climate pledges continues to grows, so too is Patch's opportunity ahead. Just this month, Patch announced that they’ve joined the World Economic Forum and US Government's “First Movers Coalition” to help companies achieve ambitious carbon removal purchase goals.
Patch is looking for mission-driven professionals to join their team. If you're one of the many who feels like they need to have a climate background to work in climate, Brennan has some words for you. “You don't need to be a climate scientist, we need all kinds of talented people. We have a similar set of problems as any other company. We still need to run payroll and interact with the press,” says Brennan. Patch has many open jobs right now on Climatebase in roles ranging from product marketing to business development and beyond.
Check out some of the latest featured jobs below. If you don't see anything that speaks to you, you can always go to Climatebase to explore thousands of other opportunities.
"We are on a mission to regenerate soil at a planetary scale—automated terraforming, with a solar powered robotics platform. ..."
"Sesame Solar is decarbonizing disaster response. We design and make Mobile Nanogrids powered by solar, green hydrogen, (optional small wind turbines) and battery storage with Essential Services Inside such as communications, clean water, refrigeration, medical assistance and more. ..."
"Marble is a climate tech venture studio. Our north star is to erase billions of tons from annual greenhouse gas emissions and create a thriving future. We partner with scientists, engineers and operators to create deeptech companies that can solve hard climate problems, and reshape multi billion $ industries. ..."
"We are the premier provider of integrated fleet electrification solutions, backed by NextEra Energy Resources, the #1 energy investor in North America, and eIQ Mobility, the #1 provider of fleet electrification assessment solutions for utilities, OEMs, and fleets. The fusion of both entities allows us to offer uniquely comprehensive and adaptable EV fleet services. Our team delivers insights on EV ..."
Cortex Sustainability Intelligence
"A Human-First organization that is passionate about creating the fastest and lowest-cost path to decarbonize buildings. Real estate is the single largest contributor to carbon emissions, with buildings and construction generating nearly 40% of global carbon emissions. As the wave of sustainability incentives and requirements sweep across the US and the world, buildings are going to be right in the ..."
"Supercharging commercial EV adoption via software to connect vehicles, chargers, and utilities. ..."
"Travertine is a Carbon Dioxide Removal and industrial chemical production company based in Boulder, CO. We are building a cost-effective, gigaton-scale CDR solution that co-produces sulfuric acid for use in critical element extraction. ..."
"Our mission is to accelerate the widespread adoption of electric semi-trucks. Our Vision is to co-create the most effective, equitable, and socially-responsible organizational model for scaling clean energy technologies. ..."
"Carbonfuture makes carbon removal from the atmosphere simple, trustworthy, and scalable. Our digital platform and financial services enable a new class of scientifically defensible carbon removal credits while unlocking a path to financial scale for carbon removal businesses globally. The carbon market – a powerful lever of climate impact – is built on trust, and we’re building the trusted infrastructure ..."
"GreenBiz Group is a media and events company that accelerates the just transition to a clean economy. ..."
"Voltus is a fully remote clean energy technology platform. Our mission is to be the Distributed Energy Platform that fulfills the promise of the energy transition. The Voltus Platform connects any distributed energy resource to any energy market across the US and Canada, providing flexibility, reliability, and resilience to the grid. ..."
They are hiring across the following departments:
"We make energy green and flexible for consumers, with fair and transparent pricing. Through our home developed platform, cloud-based billing, ..."
"SPAN is developing products to enable rapid adoption of renewable energy and deliver an intuitive interface for the home. We believe that powering your home with clean energy should be a simple and delightful experience that is technology-forward and human-centered. ..."
They are hiring across the following departments:
"ev.energy is a technology company on a mission to decarbonize mobility. Recently named “World’s Best Energy Start-up,” we are a team of former management consultants, data scientists and software developers working on an industry-leading algorithm that obtains real-time data from utilities to charge electric vehicles with the cheapest, greenest energy available while supporting the long-term stability and resilience of the ..."
"Charge Robotics is a YC-backed startup building robots that build large-scale solar farms. Demand for new solar projects is booming (1/5th of all the solar that exists in the US was installed last year!), but today’s construction companies can’t keep up due to limited labor resources. ..."
"Nitricity is a startup addressing climate change. We are innovating in an essential chemical industry that supports global food systems. The bedrock of modern agriculture is the production, distribution, and application of the essential nutrients found in fertilizers. However, nitrogen fertilizer is currently made in coal- and gas-fired facilities located hundreds to thousands of miles away from farmers who need ..."
"ClimateView is a Swedish climate tech startup that helps cities transform climate planning into progress. We combine data, agent-based modeling, and interface design to help cities manage the transition to zero carbon economies. ..."
"We build APIs that connect to EVs, home batteries, solar panels and other energy hardware so our customer can build awesome green energy apps. ..."
That's it for this week! Remember, you can always view thousands of more jobs on Climatebase.org.
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This article was paid and supported by Patch
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