This post is also available in: Danish

The startup Klimate will make it easy for businesses to capture CO2 globally. And for the Danish carbon trading platform, the Canute programme has been a shortcut to establishing itself in the UK.

Sponsored: This article is published in collaboration with Canute

Climate objectives are well on their way to becoming a regular part of doing business. But a healthy business does not mean you are also an expert in the green transition. So where do you start, and how do you ensure that the money you invest actually makes a real green difference?

Katja Grothe-Eberhardt, co-founder and CEO of Klimate.

»We need to get rid of the fear of greenwashing – too many companies are holding back because they are afraid of doing it wrong,« says Katja Grothe-Eberhardt.

She is the co-founder and CEO of the startup Klimate, an advanced marketplace that will make it easy and transparent to remove CO2 from the atmosphere through carbon purchase agreements.

»Basically, our focus is how to scale the capacity to capture CO2 from the atmosphere. We work with verified and scalable technologies that have the capacity to capture CO2 – which ranges from afforestation to biochar and direct air capture. We try to make it as easy and automated as possible,« explains Grothe-Eberhardt.

Klimate helps businesses invest their money into portfolios that fit their budget and impact expectations – whether that’s biochar or a carbon capture plant. And although the company is only two years old, it is already the 10th largest marketplace of its kind globally.

The potential is global

There is no point in focusing on zero emissions in Denmark alone. The climate crisis is global and therefore calls for a global solution. Yet only one in ten Danish startups has a strategy and ambition to grow beyond its home market, compared to more than one in three in Finland and Estonia. This is a huge problem according to Mia Grosen, founder of Canute, which helps Nordic scaleups successfully scale internationally.

»The climate crisis is an opportunity for Danish companies to make Denmark a frontrunner in innovative climate solutions that can create new large companies and growth in Denmark. But if Denmark is to be a frontrunner in creating companies that can help solve a global crisis like the climate crisis, it requires Danish startups to think bigger and be helped onto the international stage,« says Grosen.

Mia Grosen, founder of Canute.

Through the programme, companies such as Onomondo, Raffle and Goodiebox have been vising Berlin, London and New York, among others. Here they gain direct market insight and access to new local networks that can help their expansion in very concrete ways.

»It is essential that Danish startups get help to tackle the huge task of opening up a new market – because that is where the real growth happens,« says Grosen.

About Canute:

Canute helps Nordic scaleups scale internationally through 3-day market entry programmes physically held in New York, Berlin, Amsterdam, Stockholm and London. Here, founders gain valuable input from other successful founders who have succeeded with their go-to-market strategy, as well as market-specific knowledge from key local players. In 3 days, founders get insights into best practices and local networks that would otherwise take them months to find on their own. A timeframe most founders cannot afford or have the time for.

Read more on Canute.io

Sweden or England?

Half of Klimate’s turnover already comes from companies outside Denmark. And the startup is looking into a market that is facing explosive growth globally: today, only 0.006 per cent of the 10 gigatonnes that the International Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) estimates will need to be removed annually by 2050. To accommodate the global demand, Klimate is now establishing an office in London. Not least thanks to the Canute programme.

»As part of Canute, we went to both Stockholm and London to explore the opportunities there, and it was part of our journey to find out where the greatest potential is here and now. We actually thought we would open Stockholm first, but it turned out that London has much more potential in the short term,« says Grothe-Eberhardt.

The trips have effectively given Klimate knowledge and networks in the two markets – on everything from co-working spaces and legal issues to cultural differences in the markets and local investors. At the same time, the trips have given them a strong relationship with the other scaleups that were on the same trips.

“It was those two trips that decided that the UK was a better fit for us. If we had to do it ourselves, it would have taken us a long time and cost us dearly,« she says.