Carb0n.fi Co-Founder and CEO Bree-Ann Yek
Bree-Ann Yek, a climate change champion, met Florian Bohnert, who has similar interests, at a venture builder programme at Antler Singapore. The duo wanted to develop a modern tech solution to address this pressing issue and reverse the climate catastrophe, with a heavy focus on Southeast Asia.
“Southeast Asia is a relatively untapped space when it comes to carbon offsetting at a large scale. But it holds a lot of promise in terms of its ability to fight climate change,” says Yek. “We aim to build a win-win solution for maintaining our collective responsibility towards reversing the climate change over the long-term based on this technological spine.”
To achieve their goal, Yek and Bohnert joined hands with Xenon, an experienced techie, to set up Carb0n.fi in 2021.
Carb0n.fi builds an online platform to allow people to put their crypto-assets to work and get rewarded with carbon offset NFTs and its native $ZRO token. It means when you deposit your crypto-assets in Carb0n.fi, you’re empowered to counterbalance the carbon emissions that you create.
Using blockchain to address climate change
In other words, Carb0n.fi is an ASEAN-focused blockchain solution firm aiming to establish a carbon-zero world for the people, by the people. It combines investments, allows its users to reap the benefits from these investments, and at the same time contributes to environmental sustainability all at once.
The world over, people and organisations act in their self-interest. There is a mutually inclusive bridge between intrinsic behaviour and saving the climate, believes Yek. “As our ecosystem grows, our real-world transition will be effected through integration with the EU, the UK, the US and other centralised exchanges to create opportunities for our users to benefit from carbon arbitrage.
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Yek started her career trading bunker fuel before launching startups to recycle plastics. She brings many years of commodities trading, legal, and environmental volunteer experience. The climate champion is also involved in Southeast Asia’s various sustainable growth communities and projects.
Bohnert (CMO), on the other hand, spent 15 years building purpose-driven, environmental and social projects as founder, advisor, mentor, and investor. Xenon (CTO) has experience optimising yields and working on future use cases of DeFi.
According to Yek, there is a perception that NFTs are detrimental to the environment. Carb0n.fi is here to change this. In her view, NFTs can play a significant role in fighting climate change.
“Most carbon offset markets are centralised today, and it is pretty hard to efficiently track the source and avoid double-spending in these markets due to market inefficiencies and technical data protocols. Carbon offset NFTs are 100 per cent transparent, and anyone can track them at any time. We will provide an interface allowing users to track every asset we create and are being transferred at every step of the way,” elaborated Yek, who earlier founded The Verdant Room, an energy management system provider.
“We believe that carbon offset NFTs will better deliver the real-world value of carbon offsets. That’s why our vision is to become a new standard in the industry,” she said.
As for the target userbase, Yek said Carb0n.fi aims to bring carbon offsetting and carbon neutrality to both experienced crypto natives and non-crypto natives. She claimed that the solution is highly scalable since it’s a decentralised software.
The startup boasts of thousands of people in its community from across the world. As the number grows, the company plans to enhance its platform. Carb0n.fi’s technical architecture would allow it to eventually handle trading volumes of millions of units of carbon offset NFTs, she claimed.
“To extend the opportunity of environmental rescue to non-crypto users and corporations, we will also develop a mobile app to allow users to invest in carbon offsets affordably and seamlessly. The app will enable real-world companies to offset their carbon emissions and allow carbon offset projects to tokenise their carbon offsetting activities. This will allow us to reach everyone globally and integrate everyone into a larger climate movement. After all, climate change is an issue everyone faces,” Yek elaborated.
The company’s ultimate goal is to partner with centralised actors and establish national carbon exchanges.
Catering to both B2B and B2C
Carb0n.fi caters to both B2B and B2C clients. It charges a small fee on the transactions on its carbon offset exchange. It will focus on individuals within the crypto world in the short term and target companies that are familiar with crypto and have crypto on their balance sheets.
“These companies can allocate a part of their assets to be deposited into our platform, and for that, they will receive carbon offset NFTs. Finally, our app will enable non-crypto-savvy companies to benefit from the same platform and services in a traditional interface,” Yek noted.
As Carb0n.fi builds the product and keeps the community updated and engaged, it faces the challenges of meeting the demand. “Our community is looking forward to the release of our platform. It takes a well-experienced team distributed worldwide to answer all the questions they have. Thankfully we have a great team and partners as well as suppliers that aid us in doing just that.”
Early last month, Carb0n.fi announced a US$600,000 seed financing led by cryptocurrency VC firm Owl Ventures, with participation from Blockseed Ventures, Lancer Capital, and Antler Singapore, among others
The round also included an angel consortium of 13 fintech and crypto individuals, including Byron Grigoratos.
The round was completed in the lead-up to its initial dex offering (IDO) on the CardStarter launchpad (scheduled for January 19th, 2022) and TruePnl. The firm has no immediate plans to go to the market for a follow-on round.
“Our ultimate motivation is not only to fight climate change but also to empower the masses to take their future into their own hands and create a better world that our children will one day inherit. We work with the future in mind,” Yek concluded.
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