Planted secures € 5 million for ESG management platform

Aachen/ Colo­gne — The Colo­­gne-based green tech startup Plan­ted has recei­ved seed funding of 5 million euros. The invest­ment is backed by Tech­Vi­sion Fonds, WENVEST Capi­tal, neoteq ventures, AWS Grün­dungs­fonds and Smart Infra­struc­ture Ventures to further deve­lop the ESG software. 

“Through smart auto­ma­tion, Plan­ted combi­nes ecolo­gi­cal respon­si­bi­lity with econo­mic success — and makes sustaina­bi­lity measur­a­bly profi­ta­ble,” says Dr. Ansgar Schlei­cher, Mana­ging Part­ner of the Tech­Vi­sion Fund. “Plan­ted is alre­ady support­ing over 350 custo­mers in Germany with their sustaina­bi­lity strategy.” 

Plan­ted offers an AI-powered ESG plat­form that supports compa­nies holi­sti­cally in their sustaina­bi­lity trans­for­ma­tion — from mate­ria­lity analy­sis, carbon accoun­ting, decar­bo­niza­tion and local envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion projects to the final report in accordance with the Corpo­rate Sustaina­bi­lity Report­ing Direc­tive (CSRD).

Why another ESG solu­tion is needed

The market for ESG soft­ware is highly compe­ti­tive. What makes Plan­ted unique is that the plat­form is not limi­ted to pure compli­ance, but enables compa­nies to undergo a complete trans­for­ma­tion towards sustainable value crea­tion. In addi­tion to meeting regu­la­tory requi­re­ments, Plan­ted supports decar­bo­niza­tion — often with a reduc­tion in emis­si­ons of more than 50 percent. Custo­mers can also get invol­ved in local envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion, for exam­ple by plan­ting mixed forests. 

Up to 75 percent time savings

Plan­ted uses advan­ced AI tech­no­lo­gies to imple­ment the CSRD. For exam­ple, the soft­ware can extract speci­fic data from docu­ments, iden­tify suita­ble reduc­tion measu­res and high­light impacts, risks and oppor­tu­ni­ties in the double mate­ria­lity analy­sis. This saves users up to 75 percent of their time. 

“We are turning the CSRD obli­ga­tion into an oppor­tu­nity,” says Wilhelm Hammes, CEO and co-foun­­der of Plan­ted. “Instead of spen­ding months measu­ring and report­ing CO2, we auto­mate these proces­ses. This allows compa­nies to focus their resour­ces on effec­tive measu­res, such as decarbonization.” 

Support from a large consor­tium of investors

Chris­to­phe Aumaître, Part­ner at WENVEST Capi­tal, says: “Plan­ted offers compa­nies an intel­li­gent solu­tion to not only docu­ment sustainable trans­for­ma­tion, but to actively shape it. The team combi­nes in-depth ESG exper­tise with state-of-the-art tech­no­logy, going signi­fi­cantly further than many other solu­ti­ons on the market.”

In addi­tion to the afore­men­tio­ned inves­tors, busi­ness angels Nina Kani, Felix Schür­holz (CO-Foun­­der & MD SoSafe), Frank Piotraschke (CRO SoSafe), Arno Nonnen and Julius Göll­ner (ARRtist) are support­ing the investment.

Finan­cing brings person­nel reinforcement

The Colo­­gne-based start-up was foun­ded in 2021 by Cindy Schül­ler, Hein­rich Rauh, Wilhelm Hammes and Jan Borchert. Jonas Quilitz joined the team as CPO in Febru­ary 2023. With the finan­cing round, Julian Grune­wald joins as CFO and brings exten­sive expe­ri­ence in finance and strategy. 

About TVF

The Tech­Vi­sion Fund (TVF) is the leading early-stage VC fund from the Rhineland/NRW with a focus on tech­no­logy start-ups in the pre-seed to Series A phases. the borde­ring Nether­lands and Belgium. TVF Manage­ment has expe­ri­ence from four gene­ra­ti­ons of funds and curr­ently has over €100 million in assets under manage­ment. The fund is backed by potent inves­tors such as NRW.BANK, seven savings banks from western NRW and more than 15 successful entrepreneurs.
TVF supports start-up teams with proxi­mity, network and exper­tise and paves the way for them to become the next inter­na­tio­nal indus­try leader. Through the S‑UBG Group network, the TVF offers unique access to over 150 successful compa­nies in various indus­tries and estab­lishes cont­acts between start-ups and their first custo­mers, part­ners and advisors.
TVF — Brain | Cash | Proximity
www.tvf.vc

About Plan­ted

Plan­ted is a leading provi­der of a holi­stic ESG manage­ment solu­tion. With a combi­na­tion of inno­va­tive soft­ware and perso­nal consul­ting, Plan­ted supports compa­nies in their sustaina­bi­lity trans­for­ma­tion — from mate­ria­lity analy­sis,_{carbon accoun­ting} and decar­bo­niza­tion to the final CSRD report. Plan­ted combi­nes compli­ance with real trans­for­ma­tion and inte­gra­tes active envi­ron­men­tal protec­tion: compa­nies can protect forests locally or plant their own company forest. More than 350 compa­nies, inclu­ding Cari­tas­ver­band Bruch­sal, Sena­cor Tech­no­lo­gies AG and Insta GmbH, rely on Plan­ted to achieve their sustaina­bi­lity goals.
www.planted.green