Wework Co-Founder Adam Neumann’s Crypto Project Secures $70M, Funding Round Led by A16z – According to a statement published on Tuesday, a project funded by Adam Neumann, the co-founder as well as former Wework executive, raised $70 million from strategic investors.
Neumann is a controversial character because of his participation in the company in 2019, when it was discovered the company could not turn a profit.
Wework filed an S-1 filing for an initial public offering (IPO) stock launch, in September 2019, and Neumann resigned as CEO. Neumann co-founded Flowcarbon with his spouse Rebekah, Dana Gibber, Carolina Klatt, and Ilan Stern.
Flowcarbon is a “pioneering climate technology business working to establish market infrastructure in the voluntary carbon market (VCM)” that aims at solving the global climate crisis. The startup raised $70 million in venture money and from the private sale of its carbon-backed token to tokenize the carbon credit industry. Flowcarbon’s funding was led by Andreessen Horowitz’s subsidiary A16z crypto unit, according to the company announcement.
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Invesco Private Capital, Samsung Next, General Catalyst, RSE Ventures, Sam and Ashley Levinson, Kevin Turen, and Allegory Labs also participated in the funding round. Celo Foundation, Box Group, and Fifth Wall were among the investors in the token sale.
The firm integrates carbon credits into the Celo blockchain and turns them into goddess nature tokens (GNT). According to the website’s overview, the goal is to make the carbon credit voluntary while also making it “more transparent, liquid, and accessible.”
According to Flowcarbon’s release on Tuesday:
“By establishing the first open system for tokenizing real, certified carbon credits from projects all around the world, Flowcarbon’s mission is to push billions of dollars directly to projects which reduce or remove carbon from the atmosphere.”
Dana Gibber, the CEO of Flowcarbon, noted that there are “strong economic incentives to destroy and deteriorate vital natural landscapes all around the world.” According to Gibber, a VCM like Flowcarbon’s could counterbalance those incentives.
In addition to Flowcarbon’s funding announcement, Arianna Simpson of Andreessen Horowitz (A16z) wrote a blog post on A16z’s investment in the company. The Flowcarbon project, according to Simpson, “unlocks a new economic flywheel for sustainability.”
Andreessen Horowitz’s general partner, who invests in cryptocurrency, added:
“Buyers can buy ERC20 tokens backed by a bundle of certified carbon credits from initiatives that protect and restore nature that were issued in the last five years.”
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The $32 million investment round for Flowcarbon was led by A16z and a small group of additional investors. The remaining $70 million came from the sale of goddess nature tokens (GNT).
GNT is 1:1 backed, according to Flowcarbon’s website, since “each GNT token is backed by 1 carbon credit from a carbon removal or reduction initiative.” Every carbon credit has “real-world value” and is “accredited by the main carbon credit issuers,” according to the company.
