Climate app Klima launched its new beta app with help from a $5.8 million seed round.
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The startup’s first institutional funding is backed by Christian Reber, Jens Begemann, Niklas Jansen, e.ventures, HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and 468 Capital.
Berlin-based Klima was an idea formed by co-founders Markus Gilles, Jonas Brandau and Andreas Pursian-Ehrlich following Gilles’ backpacking trip from Alaska to Patagonia. They decided to take on climate change after working on other tech-for-good projects related to promoting civil discourse, quality journalism and women’s empowerment.
“It was the first time I had appreciation of the natural world, which happened to be at the same time that the urgency of the climate crisis bubbled up,” Gilles told Crunchbase News. “I tried to understand how the situation was and how quickly we needed to act.”
The app enables users to measure their personal carbon footprint within minutes, and offset emissions through a personalized monthly subscription, typically less than $20 per month, Gilles said.
One of Klima’s differentiators is the ability to choose the impact areas for the spending, see how the money is being used, and the impact the subscriber is making, he said. In addition to offsetting, it will be reduce carbon emissions by helping people change their habits–such as the way they consume food, how they commute to work, and how many flights they take per year–with personalized recommendations on how to be more climate healthy.
Klima will use the new funding to launch its beta version, add to its team of eight, which Gilles expects to double in the next two months, and further develop the online community where subscribers can share their journey to net zero with others.
“We are just at the beginning,” he added. “Our long-term goals include pushing out a best-in-class tool and turning it into a social community. We need to be very many very quickly, because the clock is ticking for us to turn this into a mass movement for carbon neutrality.”
Feature photo of Klima founders Jonas Brandau, Marcus Gilles and Andreas Pursian-Ehrlich, as well as app photo courtesy of Klima
Blogroll illustration: Dom Guzman
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