Lightspeed Venture Partners backs Berlin-based greentech firm Plan A in €25.2M round: Know more

Berlin-based Plan A, a corporate carbon accounting, decarbonisation, and ESG reporting software provider, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $27M (approximately €25.2M) in a new funding round.

The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Visa, Deutsche Bank, and Opera Tech Ventures (VC arm of BNP Paribas). 

Numerous unicorns, including those of Supercell, Aiven, Zalando, and Wolt, also participated.  

Existing investors such as HV Capital, Keen Venture Partners, Demeter IM, and coparion also participated in the round. 

The announcement comes after Plan A demonstrated significant growth in the customer base (1,500+ clients) and software revenues (>600% YoY Dec 2021–22), and a pan-European partnership network.

Fund utilisation

Plan A says it will use the funds to double its headcount to 240+ employees to expand its operation in Europe with a focus on France, the UK, and Scandinavian countries. 

The company will also use the funds to advance its platform’s decarbonisation tooling, Scope 3 coverage, actionability, and policy alignment capabilities. 

With the capital infusion, Plan A aims to empower hundreds of thousands of businesses to self-manage their net-zero journey using its end-to-end SaaS platform.

Lubomila Jordanova, CEO of Plan A, says, “Climate change and the associated impacts pose an existential risk to businesses. It’s our mission at Plan A to provide made-to-measure software solutions and services to empower large and complex companies to decarbonise their operations and value chains and respond to regulatory shifts. We are over the moon to bring these stellar investors on board the Plan A journey today to back us in navigating the complexity of corporate decarbonisation and address climate change on a global scale.”

Plan A: Business decarbonisation platform

Founded in 2017, Plan A is a greentech company that has developed a comprehensive software solution that enables businesses to self-manage their entire journey towards achieving net-zero emissions. This solution includes data collection, emissions calculation, target setting, decarbonisation planning, and non-financial reporting – all in one central hub. 

The Plan A Sustainability Platform automatically collects and merges data from Scopes 1, 2, and 3, national emission factors, and datasets. 

It allows the platform to provide detailed emissions profiles and ESG insights through easy-to-read dashboard overviews. The software enables companies to set science-based net-zero targets based on the indicators with the most significant potential for reduction. 

The company says it achieves this through over 1,000 decarbonisation solutions, best practices, and a network of sustainability professionals and service providers. 

Once the process is complete, the platform produces ESG reporting compliant with regulations. 

The software’s high degree of automation makes it easy to manage deep decarbonisation and comply with highly fragmented regulatory markets, reducing complexity and costs.

The Berlin, Paris, and London-based company counts Chloé, BMW, Deutsche Bank, Visa, GANNI, N26, HomeToGo, trivago, Personio, Sorare, KFC, and DFB among its customers.

Plan A is B Corp-certified and thus demonstrably adheres to strict social and environmental standards.

The investor

Lightspeed Venture Partners is a multi-stage venture capital firm focused on accelerating innovations and trends in the Enterprise, Consumer, and Health sectors. The company has backed hundreds of entrepreneurs and helped build more than 400 companies globally.

Julie Kainz, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners says, “At Lightspeed, we strongly believe in the power of technology and unique founding teams to attack one of the most important challenges our society faces today – climate change. We’ve been closely following the journey of Lubomila and the entire Plan A team over the past years and it has become incredibly clear to us that they have positioned themselves as a leader in this space. The strength and flexibility of their platform truly has the capabilities to drive change and impact within organisations from across any sector and on a global scale, and to guide organisations both small and large on a holistic decarbonisation journey.”