It’s not every day you meet a young entrepreneur driving meaningful environmental change, but George Wade is one of them. In 2021, he co-founded Zevero with Ben Richardson, creating a carbon management platform to make it faster, easier, and more affordable for organisations to measure, reduce and report their emissions.
Their mission? To empower organisations to spend less time on data collection and more on implementing solutions that deliver tangible impact.
Born out of frustration with the complexity businesses face in managing their carbon footprints, Zevero tackled two key issues head-on:
- Simplified Data Collection: Streamlining the process of gathering and calculating emissions data.
- Transformed Insights into Action: Equipping businesses with tools to not only measure and report emissions but reduce them effectively.
This clarity of focus led to rapid growth, culminating in Zevero’s acquisition by Singapore-based climate-tech company Level Up in February 2024. The acquisition transformed Zevero into a global business, expanding its reach and impact in the fight against climate change.
In the latest episode of TechTalks with TFN, we spoke with George about how Zevero is leveraging AI to drive sustainability, the journey from startup to acquisition, and his advice for other founders navigating the climate-tech space.
Watch the full episode on YouTube here, and don’t forget to like and subscribe to Tech Funding News!
AI’s Role in Fighting Climate Change
A critical part of Zevero’s success is its innovative use of AI to tackle the growing business demand for carbon accounting. As Wade explains, “AI allows us to shift resources from merely collecting data to taking meaningful action.”
He shares an example: “When we work with a drinks company, we calculate emissions not just for the can but for everything—from sourcing ingredients to downstream customer impacts.” For some clients, this means managing over 20 million records, a scale that traditional methods simply can’t handle. “Think of it as an AI-powered analyst for your carbon emissions,” Wade says, describing how Zevero pinpoints areas for reduction with precision.
Scaling Globally with Purpose
Before its acquisition, Zevero was already growing rapidly. However, Wade insists that growth wasn’t the goal in itself. “Our focus was always on building the best product and leveraging the climate expertise within our team,” he explains.
The acquisition has supercharged Zevero’s growth, granting access to key Asian markets like Japan and Singapore. In just over three years, Zevero expanded its reach across over 20 countries.
Collaborations, such as one with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to develop a Product Carbon Footprint tool to help companies reduce their product level emissions will help scale their mission in a changing market.
“Carbon accounting is ever-evolving,” Wade notes. “It’s about staying ahead of the curve and growing sustainably.”
Customer-Centric Growth
For Wade, customers have always been at the heart of Zevero’s success. “We were really focused on how to win customers, we knew that with customers, we don’t dilute our equity,” he says. This customer-first approach helped Zevero reach break-even early and spent time focusing on delivering revenue.
His advice to aspiring founders? “Go where your customers are,” he says. “You’ll learn far more and make a bigger impact by understanding the real-world challenges these industries face…rather than going to a green tech forum”.
He is also realistic about the financial side of the business, and the need to ensure that investors come on board, specifically asking what they would see as success. “You can follow up in six months’ time and say, ‘Hey, we said that we’d do this, here’s what’s happened,’” he suggests. “That showcases the ability for you to effectively go from, ‘this is where we are’ to ‘where we want to be’. They [investors] want to believe in execution.”
Making a Climate Difference
One thing that George is quick to explain is his passion for the environment. “I’d say that one of the biggest things for any aspiring founder is to focus on why you do something,” he told us. “For Ben [Richardson, his co-founder] and me, it was always about climate, and we didn’t care about working sixteen hours a day.”
Wade’s passion for Zevero, and addressing climate change is clear, but he’s also clear on the need to empower businesses to tackle it. Zevero’s approach allows businesses to fully understand their impact, and where they can take the most effective action.
And he’s optimistic that they can make a difference. “We’ve got a big, big problem ahead of us,” he told us, “but, ultimately, that’s what we are as a company: focused on helping companies reach that net-zero target.”
With AI at its core, partnerships on a global scale, and a relentless focus on impact, Zevero is delivering meaningful environmental change.
This article is part of a media partnership with Zevero. For partnering opportunities, contact akansha@techfundingnews.com or sales@techfundingnews.com.
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