We are excited to announce that Matchstick Ventures Fund II has completed an investment in Optera. Optera enables companies to manage emissions, energy, water, and waste across their operations and supply-chains in accordance with leading climate science.

Background: 

Over the last 10 years, the corporate sustainability market has grown exponentially. A decade ago, only a few hundred of the most environmentally conscious companies were conducting serious accounting of their impacts. Now, through a combination of existing and expected regulation; shareholder, employee and customer activism; and heightened global awareness, much of the Fortune 5000 wants in. Market research suggests globally more than 20,000 companies want top-notch sustainability management tools.

To truly measure their impact and comply with expected regulation, companies need to understand their footprint across the whole supply chain. They must also be able to make smart forecasts for the future, considering the business and climate impact of each decision. However, present sustainability software, including offerings from Measureabl, Salesforce, Schneider Electric and Accuvio, don’t combine supply-chain analysis and deep forward projection tools. Joining these capabilities is crucial to address the larger risks and opportunities found in vast global supply chains. Scientists say this is the last decade to begin meaningful action on climate change, and businesses with the right tools will win in this major transition.

Company Specifics: 

Optera is the first SaaS platform that lets companies track and manage their emissions, energy, water, waste across their entire business and key suppliers, in accordance with climate science. It enables businesses to collect and analyze data, comply with reporting protocols like CDP and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and prepares them to meet climate regulation. It also empowers decision-makers to set ambitious environmental goals, identify the most valuable projects and areas for investment, track returns, and incorporate climate awareness into procurement practices.

Crucially, Optera extends this rigorous evaluation through the entire supply chain. It has unique access to a 20,000-company strong dataset from CDP, a top global environmental disclosure protocol, giving customers an in-depth way to consider their full footprint. Companies using Optera’s supply chain tools can also send free versions to top suppliers, deepening their analytics and Optera’s potential customer base at the same time. 

Optera offers a SaaS model with customers including Target, Nordstrom, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Cisco Systems.

Co-founders Jason Denner, Ty Colman, and Tim Weiss spun Optera out of Rocky Mountain Institute, a leading sustainability think tank. They are highly visible world experts in the field, thanks in part to their consulting and research for organizations like the World Economic Forum, CDP, and Fortune 5000 companies. They are based in Boulder, and we connected with them through the local startup ecosystem.