Asuene raised USD 26.7m in first close of its Series C funding round
Asuene has successfully raised $26.7 million in the first close of its Series C round. This round is led by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, SBI Investment, and Mirai Creation Fund III Invests managed by Sparx Asset Management. The funding involves third-party allotment to a total of 17 domestic and international investors, including existing shareholders. Asuene plans to raise a total of $31.8 million, including the upcoming 2nd close, bringing its cumulative funding to $64 million up to Series C.
The CO2 visualization, reduction, and reporting cloud service “ASUENE” has seen a rapid growth, with MRR orders increasing by 30 times compared to the Series B funding period.
The number of client companies has surpassed 6,000, making it the leader in Japan, and the number of partner companies has exceeded 140. The ESG evaluation cloud “ASUENE ESG” has over 10,000 evaluated companies, promoting ESG management for many businesses.
Additionally, the joint venture with SBI Holdings, “Carbon EX,” was established, launching a carbon credit exchange service, with over 1,000 companies registered on the platform.
With business expansion, the number of members has increased fivefold to 250. Asuene has established ASUENE APAC in Singapore and ASUENE USA in the United States, acquiring several dozen overseas customers and forming partnerships with numerous international partners. They have also set up a global development center in the Philippines, hiring many local engineers to drive global business growth.
The purpose of this funding round includes the following, as Asuene aims to become the number one climate tech company:
1. Aggressive recruitment of top talent (sales, marketing, development, new business development, M&A, etc.)
2. Expansion of sales and marketing through capital partnerships with major manufacturing companies
3. Technological investment and development team expansion for generative AI and LLM
4. Pursuit of non-linear growth through M&A
5. Strengthening global expansion in Asia, the United States, etc.
6. Further development of new businesses
Business Alliance with SMBC
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation also announced today that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Asuene to advance decarbonization and ESG management in Japan and globally.
Since October 2023, SMBC has been providing “ASUENE ESG”, the ESG evaluation cloud solution developed by Asuene. Leveraging this collaboration, SMBC and Asuene have now agreed to expand the scope of the strategic partnership and further accelerate these initiatives.
To achieve net-zero in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, the first step for every company is to understand its current situation and to visualize its volume of GHG emission in particular. With this strategic capital and business alliance between Asuene and SMBC, which are both leading providers of GHG visualization cloud services in Japan, the partners will provide corporate customers with services that take advantage of each other’s capability. Such services include effective decarbonization management solutions based on factual data, business matching by leveraging SMBC’s global customer base and various types of financing.
SMBC is receiving an increasing number of inquiries from many companies regarding how to utilize the visualized GHG-related data and how to identify specific measures to reduce emissions. Through this alliance, SMBC will be able to better understand the concerns of these companies and accompany them on the journey toward decarbonization and sustainability management.
In addition, Asuene and SMBC will focus on expanding more effective support globally based on our capabilities accumulated in Japan, which they believe is inevitable to pass on to the next generation a better environment where people can live with peace of mind. Towards this goal, they will expand their client base to be recognized as the №1 in the Asian region, where both have a strong presence, and aim to become the top decarbonization management partner in the global market.
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