This week, listed U.S. electric and natural gas utility Southern Company, which serves 9 million U.S. customers, announced that it has closed a deal to spin out Cloverly, a carbon offsetting API that it backed and scaled through its own technology incubator. Southern Company will retain a minority ownership stake in the company.
Billed as “sustainability-on-demand” platform, Cloverly earlier this summer successfully closed a $2.1 million seed round led by Tech Square Ventures, along with the SB (SoftBank) Opportunity Fund, Circadian Ventures, Knoll Ventures, Panoramic Ventures, and SaaS Ventures.
According to Southern Company, Cloverly began as an employee idea for improving customer adoption of renewable energy and carbon neutrality product offerings. Based on that concept, the Cloverly API was developed using data input to calculate the amount of carbon emitted at the individual activity level, and using a fintech-style interface to purchase the appropriate amount of carbon offsets to neutralize those emissions.
Cloverly calculates and offsets emissions from e-commerce, financial transactions, commercial air travel, fleet transport, supply chain operations, energy consumption, and more. Since launching on Earth Day in April 2019, Cloverly (in partnership with brand partners) has offset over 55 million pounds of carbon.
Southern Company also says the growth of Cloverly bolsters Atlanta’s growing innovation ecosystem and further demonstrates the momentum behind technology start-ups tackling decarbonization. Southern Company itself has a stated long-term goal of net zero GHG emissions by 2050.
“The fight against climate change has never been more important,” said Cloverly’s new CEO Jason Rubottom, who succeeded founder and CEO Anthony Oni in connection with the seed round in June. “Cloverly is reshaping the way we approach sustainability, proving that innovation in tech can actually have an incredible, lasting impact on our planet. With the support of our investors, and with our passionate team, Cloverly is well positioned to lead the way to a low-carbon future.”
