WeWork Inc co-founder and former CEO Adam Neumann have raised $70 million from venture capitalists and others for launching his co-founded carbon-credit crypto startup Flowcarbon.

The new venture focuses on bringing the voluntary carbon market to the blockchain. Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm, General Catalyst who are investors in payments processor Stripe, decentralized music platform Audius, along with Samsung Next (LON:0593xq) who have invested in Axie Infinity, Dapper Labs, and 166 2nd Financial Services provided traditional funding for the startup. By selling tokens, called the Goddess Nature Token Flowcarbon also raised money. Recently, the company has also closed a $32 million venture capital round led by a16z. Another $38 million was raised through a private presale of the company’s Goddess Nature Token (GNT). In October the last investor is the Neumann’s family office reportedly manages $700 million. Prior to the company's initial public offering Adam Neumann resigned amid controversy.

To conceive the idea for the startup Neumann helped who stepped down as CEO of WeWork in 2019. Through an email Flowcarbon’s head of communications, Nicole Shore confirmed that people can apply to participate in the presale on the company’s website. Carbon credits are sold by Flowcarbon through the blockchain, which keeps track of the transactions. As per a report that the carbon-credit market is notably opaque, often leading to low-quality credits sold and purchased that have little effect on carbon reduction.

According to Flowcarbon over the past five years, a bundle of certified carbon offset credits issued by nature-based projects backed the token. A voluntary carbon market with a projected value of $700 million is expected to emerge by 2027. An offset's environmental impact can be claimed by the end-user when the credits are redeemed by that person or company. As per Flowcarbon GNT can be sold, used for borrowing and lending, or redeemed for an underlying real-world credit. GNT will run on the Celo blockchain when it gets launched. Now, only Test Goddess are being showed by the block explorer.

In an interview with The Business of Business in March, Flowcarbon CEO Dana Gibber said that the Neumann family asked the 166 2nd team to come up with a company that would enhance their conservation efforts and makes money. Result of which is Flowcarbon.

“We connected with them through their extensive conservation work, which has been quiet but spans many years and millions of hectares,” Gibber told The Business of Business in March. “They have been great partners.”

Nature Token and Test Goddess Nature Token Plus. With Gibber, COO Carolina Klatt and Ilan Stern, Neumann and his wife Rebekah, co-founded the company. Stern used to work for the George Soros family office. He left General Catalyst in 2019 to lead the Neumann’s family office. After disclosures in WeWork's $47 billion IPO filing drew investor criticism, Neumann resigned from WeWork in 2019. The IPO was officially withdrawn after his departure. WeWork went public in 2021 by merging with BowX Acquisition Corp. at a $9 billion valuation. In Flowcarbon Neumann is listed as a founder and an investor.

Indrani bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA