Stockholm-based startup Klimato has recently secured €4.2 million in funding to further expand its international presence. Klimato offers a cloud-based platform that enables food service providers, restaurants, and food producers to measure, report, and reduce their carbon footprint. The funding round was led by Global Cleantech Capital (GCC) with support from existing investor Almi Invest GreenTech. With this new investment, Klimato is poised to make a significant impact on the food industry’s sustainability efforts worldwide.
Klimato enables food service providers, restaurants, and food producers, such as Sodexo, Hilton, and Violife, to measure, report, and reduce carbon emissions from food. Klimato’s proprietary cloud-based platform is used by over 500 food businesses in 12 countries and has helped them decrease their CO2 emissions by an average of 23% in 2022.
Klimato has developed a proprietary cloud-based software platform that helps food service providers, restaurants, and food producers measure, report, and reduce their carbon footprint. Using research-based data, the software automates the carbon accounting process, making it faster, easier, and more accurate. It also provides a comprehensive dashboard that allows users to track their emissions and identify actions to reduce them. Klimato has grown rapidly since launching in 2018, helping to reduce the carbon footprint of some of the world’s largest food service providers such as Sodexo and Levy (part of Compass Group), hotels like Hilton and Marriott, restaurants as KFC and Bastard Burgers, and food producers like Unilever’s subsidiary Violife, the largest plant-based food company in the world. Today, Klimato is used by 500 food businesses in 12 countries on three continents.
CO2 emissions from food constitute about one third of global emissions. Klimato’s solution makes these emissions transparent to chefs, purchasing managers, and consumers – through user-friendly tools that are used in recipe creation and procurement, and Klimato’s climate label with the carbon footprint per dish. Through inspiring chefs and nudging guests in the restaurants, the average emission per dish on Klimato’s platform decreased by 23% in 2022, from 1.1 kg CO2e to 0.8 kg CO2e. 57% of all the dishes that Klimato’s customers served in 2022 were climate friendly (0.5 kg CO2e or below), compared to the global average of 1.7 kg CO2e.
The investment of € 4.2 million will accelerate Klimato’s growth – both with existing customers and into new markets, such as Germany, France, and the US – aiming to become the worldwide market leader for sustainability services in the food sector. Klimato will also expand its product offering with more sustainability indicators. The financing round was led by Global Cleantech Capital (GCC), a Netherlands-based investor in growth-stage companies focused on sustainability and clean technology, with continued participation from Almi Invest Greentech and other existing shareholders.
“We are impressed by Klimato’s strong growth, the successful start of the international expansion, and their commitment to sustainability,” said Emil Mahjoub, Investment Manager at GCC. “Klimato helps the food industry make data-driven decisions about carbon emissions, and is already a business-critical partner to leading organizations such as Sodexo, Compass Group, and Violife across the Nordics, the UK, and beyond. We are excited to collaborate with the management team and existing investors to help realize Klimato’s ambitious global growth plans.”
“Klimato has the potential to drive the food sector in a sustainable direction at a large scale. Since our first investment in Klimato in 2021, we have been impressed by the yearly impact we have seen for Klimato’s customers, last year an average decrease in CO2 emissions per dish by 23 percent. We are thrilled that our investment will allow Klimato to expand further and help the food industry with a faster transition,” said Karin Edström, Investment Manager, Almi Invest GreenTech.
“We are delighted to welcome GCC as a new investor and the for the continued support from Almi Invest Greentech,” said Anton Unger, CEO and co-founder of Klimato. “Their support will enable us to further develop our technology and accelerate our growth. This investment will help us strengthen our market position and achieve our mission of reducing the climate impact of food. We will expand globally with our existing and new customers, while continuing to develop our product to become the worldwide market leader for sustainability services in the food sector”.
