CNaught - Seed Round
$4.5M Raised
When your 12-year-old asks for carbon credits for Christmas and you realize the market’s more confusing than your in-laws’ group texts, you’ve got two options: laugh it off or build a company that untangles the mess. Mark Chen chose the latter, and the rest is carbon-offset history.
Founded in 2022, CNaught emerged from one of those “wait, what?” moments that only a founder with both grit and engineering chops could turn into gold. With co-founders Steven Siger and Dan Kokotov by his side, Mark took a chaotic, opaque carbon market, one built for mega-corps and sustainability departments with NASA-grade dashboards, and made it digestible, reliable, and accessible for everyone else. Think, the ETF of carbon credits. Clean, diversified, backed by science, and sold at a flat rate that doesn’t make your accountant sweat.
Fast forward to May 2025. CNaught just locked in $4.5M in seed funding, led by Bow Capital with solid backing from FJ Labs, Silence VC, Karman Ventures, and Marketplace Capital. Add that to the $2.25M pre-seed round from Greycroft, Carthona Capital, Long Run Capital, and angel investors, and we’re looking at $6.75M raised to simplify one of the most convoluted markets on the planet. Not bad for a startup with fewer than 10 employees.
Let’s be clear, this isn’t another “we care about the planet” pitch slapped on a website footer. CNaught has already retired over 10,000 tonnes of carbon credits on behalf of its customers since launching in April 2023. Clients like Palantir, Asana, Harvard Business School, and Seattle Chocolate Company aren’t here for warm fuzzies. They’re here because CNaught brings integrity, due diligence, and transparency to a market that’s been doing trust falls with no spotter for far too long.
What makes them dangerous, in the best way, is the tech. From end-to-end automation and real-time project monitoring to an API that lets businesses integrate climate action into every transaction, they’ve built the “easy button” for carbon offsets. Their AI powered integration, Operator (shoutout to OpenAI), takes it a step further, set it, forget it, and offset like a boss.
This funding isn’t just about scale, it’s about impact. CNaught’s not trying to impress ESG consultants or win branding awards. They’re giving every business, from mom-and-pops to multi-nationals, the same tools once reserved for Fortune 50 sustainability teams. Risk mitigation. Verified quality. Transparent reporting. All in one place.
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