Eco tech firm Pawprint exceeds £400k crowdfunding target in days

Edinburgh-based eco tech business Pawprint – whose backers include BrewDog co-founder James Watt – has exceeded its latest £400,000 crowdfunding target in less than a week.

Pawprint previously raised more than £1m from 1,200-plus investors including entrepreneurs Oli Norman of Itison and Kevin Dorren of Dietchef. Picture: contributed.

The firm launched its second crowdfund on November 18 on Crowdcube, and has already raised nearly £430,000 from 241 investors – who can give their input into the development of the product.

Pawprint’s aim is to help people measure, understand and reduce their carbon footprints – using technology, behavioural science and carbon data on one platform that enables a tailored approach.

It was founded by veteran entrepreneur and Lingo24 founder Christian Arno, saying it is scientifically backed by carbon data expert Mike Berners-Lee, and “the first eco companion tool that encompasses all aspects of life – combining home, work and beyond”.

It was founded in 2019 and says it has seen demand for its online tool ramp up during 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic has “shone a spotlight on the need for urgent climate action”. The free Pawprint consumer product, launched earlier this year, has attracted 2,500 registrations and has about 4,000 unique monthly visitors.

The business has, to date, raised more than £1 million from angel investors including early backers of Tesla, Amazon and Spotify and a 300 per cent overfunded crowdfund in May of this year that attracted backing from the likes of former Aberdeen Asset Management senior executive Hugh Little as well as Mr Watt of BrewDog.

Alongside the current crowdfund, Pawprint also announced that global investment company Standard Life Aberdeen has joined BrewDog in using Pawprint For Business to engage employees on sustainability.

As a "Pawprint Pioneer,” Standard Life Aberdeen will initially target a representative sample of 500 staff around the world to use the Pawprint for Business app. This will provide data on emissions created when working from home, enabling the company to offset them as part of its carbon neutral commitment.

Arno said: “If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that collective effort has the power to change the world and tackling an issue on the scale of climate change needs everyone, all of us working together united against climate change. Pawprint allows us all to become experts, informed on how to take action but to do this on our terms and in our own way.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We're more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers.

If you haven't already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription.