Start-up Provenance gets new funding to help brands avoid greenwashing

By

Nigel TAYLOR

Published
Mar 8, 2022

UK start-up Provenance has secured €4.6 million in funding to tackle greenwashing via its transparency technology.

With its mission “to empower billions to choose products that better match their values”, the new capital boost comes from investors across the “impact, consumer brand tech and Web3 ecosystems”. 

The funds will be used by the firm to develop its software product and supercharge brand and shopper reach. The company also plans to scale its team size to 50+ in 2022, investing in talent across product and engineering, sales, marketing and partnerships.

Jessi Baker, founder and CEO, said: “Provenance is helping brands unlock commercial value from their positive social and environmental impact. We’re already driving results for small independent brands and global brand groups alike, and we can’t wait to expand our community. This funding will help us grow our first-class team and product and accelerate our goal to empower 1 billion citizens to choose products that match their values.”

Baker added: “Provenance wants to enable consumers to make positive purchases for people and the planet, by surfacing trustworthy, proof-backed sustainability claims at the point of sale through its pioneering Proof Point tech.” 

Proof Points are digital sustainability claims that sit in e-commerce pages and enable shoppers to click through to view relevant evidence or independent verification. At the same time, the London-based startup enables brands and retailers that are making a positive social and environmental impact to grow market share by increasing shopper engagement, conversion and trust.

It’s claimed that this transparency tech solution is already driving a 27% increase in conversion and a 2.8x increase in engagement at the point of sale.

The company works with brands including Cult Beauty, Douglas, Ganni, Napolina, Arla and Unilever. 

The funding round was led by Working Capital Innovation Fund and Nordic Eye with participation from The Brandtech Group and Digital Currency Group. Strategic angels include Nicolas Cary of Blockchain.com, Jon Reynolds (SwiftKey) and Peter Gabriel (musician and activist).