Patch is a climate-tech company operating a two-sided marketplace in the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), designed to make high-quality carbon credits more transparent, accessible, and scalable.
Context & Problem
Global, corporate, and individual actors are aiming for net zero rather than absolute zero emissions, relying on carbon credits to offset residual emissions that cannot be eliminated through lifestyle or operational changes. Demand for carbon credits is expected to grow at least 15x by 2030, with the VCM potentially reaching a value of around $50 billion. At the same time, the IPCC indicates that carbon removal capacity must scale by a factor of 1,000,000 by 2050 to stay within climate targets.
However, today’s VCM is:
- Fragmented and opaque, with low transparency and accessibility.
- Characterized by high and often opaque trader margins.
- Suffering from low consumer trust and limited supply of verifiably high-quality credits.
These frictions reduce capital flows into projects that avoid or, more importantly, remove carbon from the atmosphere.
Patch’s Solution & Model
Patch addresses these issues through a marketplace and infrastructure approach that serves both sides of the market:
- Supply side (project developers / carbon removal projects):
- Provides inventory and sales infrastructure for carbon credits.
- Supports project developers with administrative and operational tasks so they can focus on core project execution.
- Curates and grows a portfolio with a strong emphasis on carbon removal credits, enhancing impact additionality.
- Demand side (companies, platforms, and other buyers):
- Offers a transparent marketplace for discovering, comparing, and purchasing carbon credits.
- Builds B2B partnerships to channel large-scale demand.
- Provides a suite of API integrations that allow customers to embed climate action directly into their own products and user experiences (e.g., integrating offsetting into transactions or services).
By simultaneously adding value to both supply and demand, Patch helps solve the classic “chicken-and-egg” problem of two-sided marketplaces in the VCM.
Competitive Landscape
The VCM has become crowded, with several notable peers such as:
- Klimate (Denmark, female-led),
- Chooose (Norway),
- Lune (UK).
Patch stands out through:
- A growing and diversified portfolio of carbon removal credits (not just avoidance).
- Deep, nurturing relationships with carbon removal project developers.
- Strong global connectivity across market participants and the broader policy ecosystem.
- A clear focus on continuous product and infrastructure innovation.
These factors position Patch as a key enabler in the emerging carbon removal economy and increase its potential to drive impact additionality—funding projects that would not otherwise happen.
Team & Execution
Patch was founded by Brennan Spellacy and Aaron Grunfeld, both of whom have prior experience scaling digital marketplaces as early employees at Sonder, where they helped grow the company into a unicorn in a highly competitive environment.
Execution highlights include:
- Rapid team growth from fewer than 10 employees to over 50 in under two years.
- Establishment of a new European headquarters to support global expansion.
This track record and pace of execution were central to the investment thesis.
Funding
Patch raised $55M in a Series B funding round led by Energize Ventures, with participation from new and existing investors including AENU, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Version One Ventures, B Capital, MCJ Collective, GIC, Contrary, and Blue Impact.
Overall, Patch is positioned as a core infrastructure and marketplace player in the VCM, aiming to unlock large-scale, high-quality carbon removal and avoidance by making the market more transparent, accessible, and integrated into everyday products and services.
The Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) is becoming a critical tool for achieving Net Zero in a world where fully eliminating emissions is unrealistic. As global, corporate, and individual actors seek to offset residual emissions, demand for carbon credits is projected to grow at least 15x by 2030, potentially reaching a $50 billion market. At the same time, the IPCC indicates that carbon removal capacity must scale by a factor of 1,000,000 by 2050, underscoring the massive gap between current capabilities and what is needed.
Despite this growing importance, today’s VCM suffers from low transparency, limited accessibility, and inconsistent quality. The market has evolved in a fragmented, organic way, enabling intermediaries to charge high margins and making it difficult for buyers to identify and access high-quality, additional carbon credits. This erodes trust and slows the flow of capital into the very projects—especially carbon removal—that are essential for long-term climate goals.
Patch addresses these structural issues with a marketplace and infrastructure-first approach that serves both sides of the market. On the supply side, Patch supports carbon removal and avoidance projects with inventory management, sales infrastructure, and operational support, allowing project developers to focus on their core competencies rather than administrative overhead. On the demand side, Patch aggregates and curates a broad portfolio of credits and provides a suite of APIs and integrations that enable companies to embed climate action directly into their products, services, and customer experiences. This two-sided, infrastructure-driven model helps solve the classic “chicken-and-egg” problem of marketplace liquidity and accelerates the scaling of high-quality carbon removal.
The VCM has become increasingly competitive, with notable peers such as Klimate (Denmark), Chooose (Norway), and Lune (UK) also working to improve access to climate solutions. Patch stands out in this landscape due to its strong focus on impact additionality, its growing share of carbon removal credits, and its deep, nurturing relationships with project developers. Its global connectivity across market participants and policy stakeholders, combined with a culture of continuous innovation, positions Patch as a key enabler in the emerging carbon economy.
A major part of the investment thesis behind Patch is the strength and experience of its founding team. Co-founders Brennan Spellacy and Aaron Grunfeld bring a proven track record in building and scaling digital marketplaces from their time as early employees at Sonder, where they helped grow the company into a unicorn in a highly competitive environment. Under their leadership, Patch has scaled rapidly from fewer than 10 employees to over 50, including the establishment of a European headquarters, in under two years.
Patch’s $55M Series B round, led by Energize Ventures with participation from AENU, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Version One Ventures, B Capital, MCJ Collective, GIC, Contrary, and Blue Impact, reflects strong conviction in both the company’s business model and its potential climate impact. By bringing transparency, accessibility, and robust infrastructure to the VCM—particularly for carbon removal—Patch is well positioned to channel significantly more capital into the projects needed to meet global climate targets.
Source: AENU – “Why we invested in Patch”
