Cnaught was founded by Mark Chen after he encountered confusion and inconsistency in the carbon credit market. The company searches for projects with available credits, vets them using third‑party ratings and other project information, and purchases high‑quality credits in bulk to hold as inventory. Cnaught sells those credits at a flat rate to customers and earns the spread between its buy and sell prices. Customers can specify which types of projects they want or choose a default mix Cnaught has developed, similar to an ETF offering. The startup targets smaller businesses that lack dedicated sustainability teams and aims to expand access beyond the large corporate buyers that currently dominate the market. Its customer base so far ranges from smaller firms like Seattle Chocolate Company to larger customers such as Palantir. CNaught offers a simple, science-backed marketplace that sells diversified, trust-centered portfolios of carbon credits with flat, usage-based pricing and deep project research and due diligence. The product is positioned to reduce buyer risk and simplify corporate purchases of offsets. Since a soft launch in April 2023, CNaught has retired more than 10,000 tonnes of carbon credits on behalf of dozens of customers, with those customers committing to thousands of tonnes of future purchases. Initial customers include Pure Insurance, DuckDuckGo, Homebound, Thrive Home Builders, Canopy, Hitch, and Zeelo. Investors and CNaught leadership stress early product-market fit and revenue growth. In the coming months the company plans to expand global sales outreach and build partnerships to offer offsetting to end users.

Total raised

$7M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Seed

Latest activity

May 2025