Nasdaq announced its acquisition of a majority stake in Puro.earth, a leading marketplace for carbon removal. Puro.earth is the world´s first marketplace to offer industrial carbon removal instruments that are verifiable and tradable through an open, online platform. The platform already provides carbon removal services to some of the world’s leading corporations, including Microsoft and SEB.

Exciting news at the carbon removal front! @Fortum and @Nasdaq are joining forces to accelerate the growth of our start-up @PuroCO2Removal – the world's first B2B marketplace for carbon removals. Well done both Puro and Valkea Growth Club team! https://t.co/akOv0VHmyq

— Arun Aggarwal (@_ArunAggarwal) June 1, 2021

The partnership with Puro.earth will scale the marketplace to address a growing demand for carbon removal by corporations, as well as enable new carbon removal methodologies as technology evolves. The addition of Puro.earth’s marketplace capabilities to Nasdaq’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG)-focused technologies and workflow solutions  gives Nasdaq’s corporate clients further resources to successfully achieve their ESG objectives. Fortum, a leading European energy company, will remain a minority owner and an important partner in the venture.

“The addition of Puro.earth to our growing suite of innovative ESG products and services extends our strategy into an increasingly important area for our 4,000+ corporate clients worldwide,” said Bjørn Sibbern, Executive Vice President and President of European Markets at Nasdaq. “The partnership with Puro.earth will provide our global network of corporate clients access to a unique marketplace for carbon removal and will allow Puro.earth to scale its platform through the Nasdaq network and technology platform. We look forward to working together with the Puro.earth and Fortum teams to create a global, transparent and authenticated market for carbon removal.”

Carbon removal is a process in which CO₂ is physically captured from the atmosphere and stabilized into a durable storage. Carbon removal is expected to play a critical role in keeping global warming below 1.5C degrees. Puro.earth maintains a rigorous process to approve and verify its removal methodologies. Leveraging its robust experience maintaining quality and compliance standards on both the issuer and supplier side, Nasdaq will work with Puro.earth to further strengthen the governance around new methodologies by establishing an external advisory committee with representation from the industry, academia, buyside and suppliers.

“This investment and strategic partnership with Nasdaq will enable us to realize our mission to support the transformation of the world’s economy to reward carbon negative emissions and help our customers reach their ambitious net-zero goals. So far we have seen the carbon removal industry take small steps, and with Nasdaq involved we have the potential to make much bigger strides”, said Antti Vihavainen, CEO of Puro.earth.

Leading Northern European financial services group SEB is committed to supporting its customers in their sustainable transformation and to limit its own emissions.

“To stop global warming, it is not enough to limit emissions, measures are also needed to remove carbon dioxide from the air,” said Joachim Alpen, Co-head of SEB’s division Large Corporates & Financial Institutions. “The market for carbon removals is still evolving. We appreciate initiatives to create economic drivers to accelerate carbon removal.”

Puro.earth will remain an independent company and brand following the investment. Terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Source: Nasdaq