Businesses are becoming more cognizant of the environmental impact they discharge, the resources they need, and the consequences of their choices as to how emissions are affecting climate change. For larger corporations, they may have entire departments, staffed with thousands of individuals, solely dedicated broadly to understanding and managing ESG goals. For small and medium-sized businesses that are not able to dedicate such resources, technology represents an answer. EcoHedge is a cloud-based platform that SMEs are turning to understand and measure their carbon impact. The platform automates the capture, calculation, and categorization of an organization’s emissions so that they are empowered to actually address the carbon impact of their business decisions without having to worry about collection and administrative burdens. EcoHedge is initially focused on manufacturing businesses as industrial activity is responsible for nearly half of all emissions despite only accounting for a quarter of GDP in the EU.
London TechWatch caught up with EcoHedge Founder and CEO Robert Smallcombe to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised from K+U Ventures B.V, Activate Capital, Angels, and Crowdfunding via Seedrs. The final amount was £420K and it was our Pre-Seed round.
Tell us about your product or service.
EcoHedge is a cloud-based software, helping SMEs get to grips with their carbon accounting. It automates the capture, calculation, and categorisation of emissions data so that customers can spend less time on administrative tasks, and more time on sustainability transformation.
What inspired the start of EcoHedge?
EcoHedge was inspired by a book I read called Ray Dalio’s Principles, in which he introduces frameworks and systems he uses to navigate challenges. This got me thinking about how individuals can resolve their everyday decisions and desires with their climate impact and obligations. Hence the name ‘EcoHedge’, I wanted to give people a way to hedge their climate impact risk, without compromising on their lifestyle.
How is it different?
Our Philosophy at EcoHedge is all about empowering customers to make their own decisions, we don’t lecture businesses on climate. We provide truly automated software, removing human-error-prone, manual input, to a greater degree than other platforms.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
We are targeting difficult-to-decarbonise industries in the UK such as Manufacturing. Decarbonisation is now a priority at 80% of UK manufacturing firms, but they have often been overlooked. We will aim to serve this market, comprised of over 6000 companies in the UK.
What’s your business model?
A Software as a Service, annual subscription model.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
Identifying where there is value creation vs value extraction and cutting costs accordingly. Doubling down on customer-focus, to ensure every penny goes towards making a better product for our customers.
What was the funding process like?
We crowdfunded, so it was an immense amount of work upfront. Having to undergo the initial due diligence was tough, but once we were live and had lots of momentum, it became more enjoyable.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
As we are a relatively small team, we found balancing our business operations, product development, etc. with our fundraising campaign the biggest challenge.
Crowdfunding is a full-time job!
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
The biggest factor for our investors was the experience across our founding team. Having the voice of the customer, expertise in software sales, and prior experience of taking technology from concept to reality, resonated. We also had a strong pipeline of customers and product roadmap.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Over the next 6 months, we will move from purely offering carbon measurement to becoming a fully rounded carbon management platform. We will also be expanding our development and sustainability team.
What advice can you offer companies in London that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Demonstrate clearly that you either have the sales skills or development capability, to deliver traction. For example, building partnerships with bigger brands to give yourself an early sales pipeline or developing a proof of concept to showcase your technology in real life.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
I see EcoHedge as developing into a trusted partner for busy business owners, helping them to make informed decisions about whether to divest from or engage with their carbon-intensive suppliers. Ultimately, delivering meaningful emissions reductions for SMEs at scale.
What’s your favourite tourist destination in London?
The Churchill War Rooms – fascinating to see the command centre for Britain’s WW2 operations. Thoroughly recommend visiting!
