Few launches have been as timely. Over the past month, those of us on the west coast have been dealing with forest fires… if anyone ever doubted climate change, let us be the first to tell you that the orange, fiery, smokey skies and the ash raining down from it are all very real.

At Version One, we’ve been focused on energy and climate since last year and have ramped up as we welcomed Max to the team in January (some of his writings and our thesis here). So as a follow up to yesterday, we are excited to officially introduce Patch, a platform for negative emissions.

We first met co-founders Brennan Spellacy and Aaron Grunfeld in March. We were at the beginning of a pandemic and few of us were thinking about or prioritizing climate change. But credit to the team for predicting that this would be top of mind for everyone in a matter of months… and they were (unfortunately for the world) right.

So what does Patch do and how does it work? 

Patch helps businesses of all sizes automate their sustainability goals with just a few lines of code. It integrates with businesses to calculate their carbon footprint and systematically compensates by funding verified carbon removal projects.

The Patch API gives developers the opportunity to leverage data already captured to neutralize their carbon impact via a diverse selection of carbon sequestration projects. As a result, businesses can ship climate positive products, whether at an additional opt-in cost to the customer or built-in to their pricing strategy. You can read more about Patch here.

Why are we excited about Patch? 

First and foremost, we believe in their mission. The health of our planet and the future of humanity are inseparable. 

We’re also excited about their approach. Earlier this year, we introduced the idea of an api-as-a-marketplace. Patch falls into this category. We can see a future where every developer will use a “negative emission access” LEGO block to build software. This will be as prevalent as payments or shipping are today because carbon neutrality will be essential for any business in the future. 

We also believe that defensibility comes with the aggregation and “digitization” of quality supply. When we view Patch as a marketplace, we believe that businesses (demand) care about the type of projects (supply) they purchase to neutralize their emissions. For example, a company might choose their sustainability legacy to be linked with forestry or mineralization projects. Patch is partnering with the best carbon removal developers and the latest negative emission technologies to build a network of low-cost, impactful projects.

The team is now looking for beta users for their API. If you’re interested in learning more and getting early access, visit their website and follow them on Twitter.