Climate change: N26 founder among angels backing Lune’s $4m round

Climate tech startup Lune has raised $4m to expand on its mission to make every customer experience “climate positive”.

The company wants to expose CO2 calculations so that customers know their environmental impact when shopping online.

Lune aims to do this by using API and software tools so companies can easily integrate climate impact into the customer experience, starting by showing emission calculations and carbon removal.

Early-stage VC Crane led the funding round, with participation from 15 angels, including N26 co-founder Maximilian Tayenthal, Voi co-founder Fredrik Hjelm and Oyster HR and Nexmo co-founder Tony Jamous.

Lune says its research shows that over 70 per cent of European consumers want a “green payment method” that tackles climate change, and that in retail 75 per cent are more loyal to brands that offset their carbon footprint.

Eric Stadigh, formerly an investor at Crane, and Roberto Bruggemann, previously a principal software engineer at Freetrade, co-founded Lune in an effort to address these challenges and make all products and services climate positive.

“We founded Lune to make prioritising climate impact a no-brainer for growth-minded businesses,” Stadigh said.

“By integrating it into their customer experience, businesses increase customer acquisition, engagement, and loyalty – while having a measurably positive impact on the planet.”

He explained that with the company’s API and low/no code tools, there should be no excuse for companies not to do it. 

Bruggemann explained that the carbon footprint of an individual payments or software company is relatively small, and in the grand scheme of things reducing that would have minimal impact.

“However, by giving all of their customers an easy path to contribute to carbon removal, the positive impact is exponential – and far more effective than going it alone,” he said.

Lune’s customers currently include fintech companies TrueLayer and Yapidly, among other retailers and logistics firms.

“It is essential that every business becomes more climate friendly,” TrueLayer co-founder and CEO Francesco Simoneschi said.

“Lune was the easiest way for our business to take the first steps, have a real impact, and continue building the future of the payments industry,” he added.