James Richards and Luke Whiting on their carbon offtake startup

SHACK15 members James Richards and Luke Whiting recently launched their new startup, Evergrow, the world’s first carbon offtake company. Having recently raised $7m in seed funding from XYZ ventures, Evergrow aims to ensure our future on Earth by enabling and accelerating every project that reduces humanity’s carbon footprint. At the back of their launch party at SHACK15, Richards and Whiting spoke about their new company and their goal of removing 1 billion tons of Co2 by 2030.

SHACK15: What is Evergrow and what inspired you to found this company?

Richards & Whiting: Evergrow unlocks low-cost project finance for projects that reduce or remove carbon emissions. Right now, projects that reduce and remove CO2 emissions have a hard time getting funded because they’re expensive and carbon markets are seen as risky. We're building Evergrow to fix this problem and unlock project finance for carbon reduction. Our goal is to catalyze a flywheel of carbon project development and enable the permanent avoidance and/or removal of 1 billion tons of Co2 by 2030.

SHACK15: Evergrow recently launched publicly. What were the main challenges you faced and what are your next steps?

Richards & Whiting: The response to our launch has been phenomenal. Our current challenge is finding enough time in the day to respond to all the interest that's come our way! We’re also hiring aggressively.

SHACK15: For many, combating climate change and the effects of CO2 emissions can seem like a gargantuan task. What motivates you to tackle this enormous problem and why now?

Richards & Whiting: The challenges we face are indeed enormous, but I'm heartened by the incredible project developers I've met. They are heroes - they’re literally building the facilities and installing the equipment that will decarbonize our world. Our whole team is excited to help these developers succeed and go faster.

SHACK15: What is your advice to other climate-focused start ups and what unique set of challenges do you face? How do you overcome these?

Richards & Whiting: We put a lot of thought into our culture and creating the conditions for each of us to do our best work. This makes it easier to face and overcome challenges, because we set ourselves up for success as a team.