Advice to BNP Paribas on the investment round of a startup offering carbon footprint measurement

DZP’s client was Bank BNP Paribas, which together with the Tangent Line fund, Aligo VC and four Business Angels, invested in Envirly, a Polish startup developing a platform for managing an organisation's carbon footprint and reporting non-financial data. Thanks to the financing raised in this round, Envirly received a total of PLN 6 million, which will be used to develop the technology and expand the team. The amount of funds raised makes the venture one of the largest seed investments in Central and Eastern Europe in a company developing ESG compliance tools.

The platform being developed by Envirly enables the aggregation of non-financial data and the automation of reporting, supporting businesses in decarbonisation and green transformation. It is also the startup's response to key EU regulations on ESG (e.g. CSRD, CSDD), which will impact large and medium-sized companies in the near term.

The investment made by DZP's client is, however, another step in the implementation of the Bank of Green Changes programme, which is aimed, inter alia, at introducing changes in the functioning of the organisation (eco-improvements) and developing the offer of ecological products and services. It is also the result of the Office Hours competition, an in-house programme to introduce innovative solutions at BNP Paribas Bank.

DZP's advice to BNP Paribas, provided by Maciej Zajda and Katarzyna Wójcik, primarily involved negotiating the terms of the investment, reviewing the investment agreement and other transaction documentation and carrying out a due diligence study. Issues relating to a review of whether Envirly's software assumptions comply with the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard were handled by Joanna Róg-Dyrda, who coordinated all aspects of the ESG reporting requirements.