SINAI Technologies raises $22 million backed by Energize Ventures

By Juliette Portala

(Reuters) - U.S.-based SINAI Technologies, which produces technology to help companies measure carbon emissions and recommends ways of mitigating them, has raised $22 million from investors including Energize Ventures to fund growth, it said on Tuesday.

The Series A - early-stage - funding round, in which Japanese-owned investment companies Presidio Ventures and NEC Translink Capital also took part, brings SINAI's total funding to $37 million, and will be used to speed up the firm's international expansion and grow its team of climate experts.

SINAI looks to help companies automate the way they are monitoring and pricing carbon analysis to better calculate their emissions, at a time when a growing number of corporations are committing to net zero.

"It's interesting how the financial sector all of a sudden now is demanding this kind of information to be disclosed," the group's Chief Executive Officer and Founder Maria Fujihara told Reuters, citing a high number of requests to join SINAI.

The company's technology allows its customers, including ArcelorMittal, Toshiba and Siemens, to collect financial and environmental data before recommending ways of mitigating emissions across thousands of projects per industry - steel, transportation, cement or agriculture.

"We decided to go after the hardest industries with the hardest solutions possible," Fujihara said. "But it's ultimately up to the (companies) to decide where they are going to invest."

Eileen Waris, principal at Energize Ventures, said that SINAI had cut through a climate space which could be considered as "crowded" by early-stage companies.

"I have no doubt they will make it to the next round of funding," she stated.

(Reporting by Juliette Portala ; Editing by Carolyn Cohn and Jan Harvey)