AI-enabled SaaS startup Accacia raises $6.5M to help companies reduce their carbon emissions

Accacia is a decarbonization platform that provides innovative solutions tailored for the real estate and infrastructure sectors.

Founded in 2022 by INSEAD alumni Annu Talreja, Piyush Chitkara, and Jagmohan Garg, The startup aims to help companies in these industries manage and reduce their carbon emissions effectively. 

With its AI-enabled SAAS platform, Accacia enables asset managers, owners, and developers to precisely track emissions and create strategies for their decarbonization journey.

Closes $6.5M pre-Series A round

Recently, Accacia announced the closure of a $6.5 million (approximately Rs 54 crore) pre-Series A funding round. 

The round was led by Illuminate Financial, a venture capital firm specializing in fintech solutions for the financial services industry. Southeast Asia-based AC Ventures, along with existing backers Accel and B Capital, also participated.

"This funding comes at a crucial juncture as the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and Singapore Exchange (SGX) have announced regulations on carbon emissions’ reporting, underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive and real-time climate risk data. We have already deployed our solution to over 25m sqft of real estate and are poised to leverage this opportunity and scale globally," said Annu Talreja, Founder and CEO at Accacia. 

How does Accacia's platform work?

Accacia’s platform is designed to seamlessly integrate with existing systems, such as Property Management, Energy Management, and Procurement systems.

The integration facilitates the automation of data capturing and tracking in real time, making it one of the quickest and most cost-effective solutions for real estate companies aiming for net zero emissions.

The platform not only measures and benchmarks transitional risks across portfolios but also employs an AI-driven recommendation engine that suggests practical decarbonization strategies at both the asset and portfolio levels.

Why is Accacia's solution vital?

The importance of Accacia’s solution has been heightened by recent regulations from entities like the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX), which now require rigorous carbon emissions reporting.

Accacia has already implemented its technology across more than 25 million square feet of real estate, positioning it well to capitalize on these new regulatory demands and scale its operations globally.

Enhancing technological offerings

Accacia is set to leverage this fresh injection of capital to expand its reach and enhance its technological offerings.

The real estate sector, responsible for nearly 40% of global Greenhouse Gas emissions, presents a significant opportunity and challenge for decarbonization efforts.

Rezso Szabo, Partner at Illuminate Financial, said, "Measuring and managing climate risks has become imperative for large financial institutions, especially real estate, which is one of the most significant and most affected asset classes in their portfolio. With Annu’s background and industry experience in real estate, we felt Accacia is the right fit to take on a leading position in the global real estate decarbonization market and are pleased to partner with the Accacia team."

"While real estate is one of the single largest contributors to GHG emissions, it is also a very hard-to-decarbonize sector given the complexity of value chain emissions (construction vs operations) and the variety of asset uses. Given our deep interest in climate, we were confident that the sector demanded a custom solution designed for nuances of the real estate sector and loved what Accacia has built," said Helen Wong, Managing Partner at AC Ventures.