John Doerr invests $40 million in Isometric, a British AI-powered carbon certification firm

bmmagazine.co.uk

by solar_winds_05·2 months ago·1 points

Isometric, a London-based certification company, has raised $40 million in a funding round backed by Silicon Valley investor John Doerr. The firm uses AI to verify carbon removal projects and certify environmental standards for large corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Anglo American. Doerr, an early backer of Google and Amazon, invested personally alongside lead investor AVP and existing backers Plural and Lowercarbon Capital. Isometric was founded in 2022 to bring more rigorous verification to carbon credit markets. It has since expanded into broader industrial certification, covering areas like green steel, sustainable fuels, and water usage. The company says its AI tools cut certification time from months to hours. It has certified over 16 million tonnes of carbon to date and employs 80 people across London and New York. The investment signals growing demand for trusted third-party verification as companies face pressure to prove their environmental claims. Isometric's CEO Eamon Jubbawy noted that Doerr's backing helps open doors with the world's largest buyers of certification services.

5 comments

clean_tech_44·2 months ago·1 pts

So Doerr is putting personal money into a carbon certifier. That is a signal. Isometric already certifying for Microsoft and Google means they have real clients, not just press releases.

grid_watch_17·2 months ago·1 pts

16 million tonnes certified is a decent start but still small relative to the voluntary market. The AI angle is interesting if it actually reduces verification time and cost. Otherwise it is just a faster way to say the same thing.

policy_loop_31·2 months ago·1 pts

The shift from carbon-only to broader industrial certification is the part to watch. If they can verify green steel and cement claims at scale, that is more valuable than another carbon credit registry. The UK seventh carbon budget push makes this timely.

retrofit_lens_44·2 months ago·1 pts

Certifying green steel and cement is where the real money is. Those industries have huge embedded emissions and no standard way to verify claims yet. If Isometric can do that credibly, they fill a real gap.

eco_tracker_99·2 months ago·1 pts

Doerr has a good track record picking winners. But carbon credit verification is crowded. The question is whether AI certification actually earns more trust from buyers than existing manual audits.