A credit card that plants trees every single time you make a transaction. Started by a Peter Theil Fellow, with a strong background and track record – Jamie and his co-founders recently raised $5.1M after their waitlist has skyrocketed in sign ups.
New branded cards, Neo Banks and similar fin-techs are all they hype now days in the tech community – however it really comes down to how well can these new card providers really market their offering so that they have the volume to make money to keep growing.
Well the ones that succeed – like Brex – tend to solve a real customer pain point.
Faith & Usage of Carbon Offsets is low from a consumer end as the steps to get involved with it are too high. Too much research and more importantly a lack of trust.
So what does Tree Card do – besides giving you an awesome wooden credit card? For every single transaction they plant a tree using partner – Ecosia (a non profit that plants trees while you search on their search engine).
Why does this matter?
- The amount of capital 80% of profits go to tree planting efforts will scale the amount of global capital funneling into the space – especially with the volume of signups they have gotten
- While planting trees isn’t an end all be all solution to climate change – reforestation is an important part of climate restoration efforts
- Treecard makes it easy to get involved with reforestation in a way that Patch API makes it easy for ecommerce stores to automate purchasing of carbon offsets for every sale they make.
Thoughts
Fundamentally, Treecard is backed by a strong founding team and has already demonstrated significant demand.
Of all the current ways to purchase carbon offsets and be involved in the matrix of helping fund reforestation efforts – Treecard provides the lowest cost (it’s free) and easiest way for consumers to get involved.
It’ll be interesting to monitor their rollout over the coming months. Maybe they’ll even partner with Mr. Beast after he launched Team Trees.
About The Author
Swarnav has over 10 years of experience in the energy & climate tech space, holds 2 patents and is active in the tech, climate and media industries. He specializes in Product/Product Innovation as well as Go-To-Market and Growth Strategy.
By training he’s a Materials Engineer with a background in research from his time at Georgia Tech and University of Illinois (UIUC).
He founded TouchLight a utility backed energy company focused on developing IP for utilities and startups pushing electrification forward. He also serves as the appointed Chairman for the Town of Yorktown’s Climate Smart Communities Task Force, where he helps with drafting legislation and enabling sustainability efforts within the town.
Concurrently, Swarnav founded The Impact to help investors, emerging founders and driven climate enthusiasts discover and identify new climate-tech startups, technologies and opportunities before they hit the traditional media sources.