WeWork Inc cofounder and former CEO Adam Neumann raised $70 million for launching carbon credit crypto startup


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