Andres Gonzalez Co Founder & CEO, Rodrigo Vega Co Founder & CMO, Andres Silva, Europe Manager

01. Describe the problem/the industry that you are trying to mediate.

The use of fossil fuels to power our homes, cars, and daily lifestyle emits an egregious amount of carbon dioxide. The emissions of this greenhouse gas contributes to the increase in the world’s global temperatures and leads to sea level rise and extreme weather events, endangering ecosystems and human well-being. Thus, carbon emissions must be reduced at a more accelerated pace if we truly want to reduce the consequences from climate change. Carbon credits are supposed to help, however this market is so inefficient and unfair for green project developers, that there are cases in which only 1/9 of the total funds invested went to their green projects, while the rest went to other players that made a profit.

We have developed a blockchain platform that transforms Carbon Credits into an efficient new investment tool and Asset Class; accessible to any kind of investor, which increases the demand for green projects that issue Carbon Credits, with a fair price that is secure and traceable, and has a much quicker return on the investment (ROI).

eGreen´s platform is directly solving the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

#11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

#12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

#13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impact.

And indirectly, by helping Carbon Offset project development, eGreen is supporting the other fifteen SDGs.

02. How did the idea to create the company come to mind? How did your team come to be?

After exploring the market and trying to design footprint registration software for companies, Andrés Gonzalez started to discover a much larger problem, “the current Carbon Credit market was focussed on trading for offsetting emissions, and not those green projects that make a real positive impact on the environment”. Andrés had observed that “the ecosystem had become so inefficient and unfair, that one project developer in Peru had received just 1/9 of the total funds invested, while the rest was profit and benefits going to other players”. 

Andrés dug deep into the problem, researched the available tools and their effectiveness in different industries, and saw that many of the opportunities to expand and accelerate investment in green finance were being wasted because, “carbon credit certificates were tied to the sole interaction of companies and their consumption”, missing a huge opportunity to create more positive impact and improve Return on Investment (ROI), by opening up to a secondary market of eager investors.

Andrés met Canadian co-founder Jason Scherpenisse years ago, shareholder and previously entrepreneur and angel investor, equally interested in solving the pain points Andrés was seeing in the market. Chilean co-founder Rodrigo Vega was invited by another shareholder; a great fit given his expertise in successfully launching new projects in different fields. There was an immediate and clear team chemistry, with “something very important in common: we wanted to be a part of a start-up that would help the environment, and eGreen could fulfill that purpose”. In this journey Andrés added Gabriel Silva, French-Chilean, to lead the European Market. Andrés met Gabriel 15 years ago as VP of eCommerce at Cencosud, Latam´s largest retailer. Silva, had launched several startups and was Santander Bank's Chief Digital Officer, acquiring experience in Fintech and Blockchain. Gabriel currently lives in France.

03. Why did you choose to participate in the Paris Techstars accelerator program? What are you looking forward to the most? 

First and foremost, being accelerated by Techstars Sustainability Paris means being part of an institution, with global recognition as an accelerator that takes disruptive startups to the next level! eGreen is excited to be a part of ´22 cohort, and challenged by an incredible program that is focussed on sustainability at the core. 

Andres explains, “We are looking to refine our current business model, make sure that it is globally scalable, so that we may change and improve the Carbon Market! We are confident that the Techstars Sustainability Paris accelerator can take us there, and feel that the relationship is synergic because of our common goals. We appreciate the unique experience and culture at Techstars, an awesome network and the vast pool of knowledge”.

eGreen sees the culmination of the acceleration as a seal of quality, that will allow the team to show that they are serious about transforming Carbon Credits into something accessible to anyone and that is profitable, which will ultimately accelerate green projects making sure trading is at fair price, secure and traceable.

04. What are you the most proud of in your initial journey with your company?

At Techstars Sustainability Paris, we found ourselves immersed in a very intense first week: moving to France, going on the team retreat, meeting all the other founders in the program, and engaging in all of the diverse activities. From the very beginning, we had an immediate landing into Techstars´ global network, which demanded a high level of commitment, what was expected and which has pushed us to perform. We are proud of the fact that, within this short timeframe, we quickly overcame a steep learning curve, and adopted every tool and resource that Techstars made available. Throughout the process, we could feel the value and insights provided by the Techstars team and mentors! These experiences have all been so valuable, and are already reflecting on our growth.

It is not easy to create something new in the world, especially coming from an under-developed country such as Chile. Throughout our journey, we had to convince so many people that what we were doing was for the greater good. We became evangelists and in the global scene found other start-ups with something similar in mind, but none doing it as we were, with the larger impact in mind. We are proud of the attention we are getting, and the interest coming from many development projects in Latam, because we are really addressing those pain points we discovered throughout the entire ecosystem.

05. How do you plan to measure the positive impact of your company in the next 5 years? Environmentally focused question.

We are going to measure the amount of CO2e reduced through investments made on eGreen´s primary market of voluntary Carbon Credits, where we have complete visibility and can measure positive impact “first hand”. This means that with eGreens platform we will be able to count and trace exactly how many tonnes of CO2e are reduced and go towards those green development projects that are making the real positive impact.

Also, since our platform includes carbon footprint registration and compensation services, which is tied to an ecosystem which is strictly focused on environmental impact, we will achieve our own carbon neutrality in the process. This impact will be measured once we complete the development of our own impact indicators, for our stakeholders and management team.

For the latest news on our applications, please visit our page.

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