The move by US financial regulators to ditch corporate emissions reporting requirements may be a setback for climate action, but one emissions-tracking CEO sees it as a growth opportunity.
Tokyo-based ASUENE, which provides software for companies to calculate and manage the carbon footprint of their supply chains and in-house operations, last month closed an $87 million fundraising round led by Decarbonization Partners, a joint venture between BlackRock and Temasek.
It may seem like a strange time to pour cash into emissions-tracking firms, as the US and EU both move to scale back or spike disclosure requirements. But CEO Kohei Nishiwada told Semafor now is the perfect time to shop for M&A targets. âExcept for a few market leaders, [startups in this space] are really struggling for growth,â he said. âThatâs why we can talk really easily about growth through acquisitions. In the US, we can purchase companies for a reasonable price.â ASUENE has snapped up eight smaller emissions-tracking startups in the US, EU, and Asia in the past two years, and has its eyes on more in the near future, Nishiwada said, adding the company is building to its own IPO in the next two years.