Nico Girod, ClearBlue Markets' chief technology officer and co-founder tells Environmental Finance what the firm has been working on since it closed a Series A round of funding earlier this year.

Environmental Finance: Tell me a little bit about ClearBlue?

Nico Girod: ClearBlue is a long-time carbon markets company that empowers clients to take action, manage risk and realise value in the carbon markets via technology-enabled solutions.

Whether a company wants to achieve compliance targets, net-zero ambitions, or a combination of the two, our solutions optimise your portfolio. We've had the honour of helping some of the largest corporations in the world propel their climate initiatives forward. This is what inspires each of the ClearBlue team every day.

We closed a Series A raise earlier this year and that has allowed us to advance our efforts and round out our team of 'carbon geeks' with some marketing and technology horsepower.

EF: What has ClearBlue been working on since its Series A raise earlier this year?

NG: ClearBlue has been involved in the carbon market space for numerous years and has built a wealth of data, insights and networks. Building off this we have built out our technology platform, Vantage.

ClearBlue Vantage is our carbon intelligence platform. Leveraging AI technology, Vantage is a single, centralised source of reliable and decision-useful data, tools and insights that offer a clear view of market conditions so users can optimise expenditure, compare opportunities, mitigate risk, and operate strategically.

EF: Can you share an example of how a customer might use Vantage?

NG: To better understand the problems Vantage's AI solves, imagine that you are required to purchase millions of offset credits in the voluntary market to achieve your climate goals, but you have no way of knowing the fair market value of the credits you are buying. This is because voluntary market transactions happen over the counter, meaning the parties to the transaction alone know the price.

Vantage's Offset Price Discovery uses its machine learning algorithms to predict fair offset credit prices. This deep insight allows that company buying offsets to establish a basis for competitive negotiation and transaction, mark their books and assign value to portfolio holdings.

Another example would be a steel company owning multiple steel mills in different jurisdictions looking to spend its investment budget for new green projects wisely. Vantage would provide them with clear insight into the regulatory implications and carbon value of the different investments being considered.

EF: How does ClearBlue Vantage leverage AI? How might this provide customers with additional insights?

NG: Our carbon intelligence platform ClearBlue Vantage uses AI to empower decisive action in the carbon markets by providing a reliable, centralised source of information. Users can optimise expenditure, compare opportunities, mitigate risk, and operate strategically. ClearBlue Vantage's decision-useful data, tools and insights leverage our more than five million data points across environmental markets and over 55 data sets that inform supply, demand, and pricing forecasts. ClearBlue Vantage's data points include both the compliance and voluntary market activity.

EF: What market trends are driving this? Why is this insight important for your clients and potential clients?

NG: As the net zero deadline approaches, carbon offset demand will outpace supply. For your business to be one of those that has harnessed the value to be derived from environmental finance and carbon markets, your company must formulate and act on a well-informed plan. ClearBlue Markets is dedicated to clearing the obstacles between our clients and their climate ambitions to propel initiatives forward. ClearBlue Vantage is a crucial tool for making this clear path.

Whether a company wants to achieve compliance targets, net-zero ambitions, or a combination of the two, we believe our solutions create value across your portfolio through detailed market intelligence and data, including regulatory changes and economic outlook; dynamic carbon pricing forecasts that support a company's strategy; procurement strategies for compliance and voluntary markets; development of carbon offsets and market access, emission reductions optimisation, regulatory compliance; position tracking across compliance and voluntary markets and the ability to forecasting future position values.

EF: What can we expect from ClearBlue in the coming months and years?

NG: ClearBlue will relentlessly support its clients and build out products and services that will help them navigate the carbon markets globally. In fact, we are already building out new modules that will further build on the ClearBlue Vantage platform and support more users with additional use cases.

For more information, see: https://www.clearbluemarkets.com/