Blockchain-Powered Climate Tech Startup Raises $6 Million In Funding Led By Nomura

Hong Kong-based climate tech startup Allinfra has raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Japan’s biggest brokerage firm, Nomura, to expand its software that helps businesses be more environmentally friendly.

Both new and existing investors participated in the funding round, said Allinfra cofounder and CEO Dave Sandor in an announcement on Wednesday. Existing investors include the sustainability-focused UPC Capital Ventures, digital asset-focused BC Group, New York-based VC firm FJ Labs (which backed the likes of Alibaba and Korean fintech billionaire Lee Seung-gun’s Viva Republica), ACRE Investment and blockchain technology company ConsenSys.

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Allinfra said the funds will be used to expand its climate change-products, including Allinfra Climate, a dashboard that tracks a company’s environmental preservation performance (such as saving energy from electricty), as well as the tokenization platform Allinfra Digital, which allows investors to buy and sell renewable energy panels and other infrastructures in a digital form.

“Allinfra has always prioritized hiring high-caliber talent motivated to leverage the latest technology for positive climate action,” Sandor said in the announcement. “Over the next few months we’ll be expanding the team across a range of skill sets.”

Allinfra was founded in 2018 by Sandor, a former executive director at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and two other senior bankers: Bill Kentrup, the former Asia managing director of environmental financial products and renewables at Macquarie Capital, and Ronnie Potel, the former Asia-Pacific co-head of equity capital markets at Standard Chartered.

The startup encourages environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment by making use of blockchain technology to make trades of green products safer and easier.

Allinfra uses its real-time climate-relevant data detectors in Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia to facilitate green financing based on blockchain technology. One of its products, Project Genesis, works with the Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on tokenization of green bonds since last August.

Earlier this month, Allinfra gained global recognition earlier this year by being listed as one of the Technology Pioneers out of 100 institutes by the World Economic Forum.

“Allinfra’s blockchain-based technology solutions create a transparent and reliable system to finance real, positive environmental impact,” the World Economic Forum said in a statement.