Vaayu

Vaayu is an AI-powered climate tech platform that provides automated software for businesses, primarily in the retail sector, to measure, monitor, and reduce their environmental impact in real-time. Founded in 2020 by Namrata Sandhu and Luca Schmid, the Berlin-based company aims to help the retail industry decarbonize. The name 'Vaayu' is the Sanskrit word for 'Air', reflecting the company's focus on climate and the environment.

The founding of Vaayu was driven by CEO Namrata Sandhu's extensive experience in the sustainability field. Growing up in Mumbai, India, she witnessed the effects of waste and climate change, which inspired her career. With over 17 years of experience, her background includes a Master's degree in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College London and executive leadership programs at Harvard University. Before Vaayu, Sandhu held key sustainability roles, including Head of Sustainability at major European online retailer Zalando and at the Arcadia Group. This firsthand experience revealed a critical gap in the market for a tool that could provide accurate, real-time data to help retailers effectively reduce their significant carbon footprint, as the sector is responsible for a large portion of global emissions.

Vaayu's platform integrates with point-of-sale systems like Shopify and uses proprietary AI and machine learning to analyze data across a company's entire value chain, including products, logistics, and packaging. Its database contains over 600,000 data points, allowing for detailed life-cycle assessments (LCA) and granular calculations of impacts like carbon emissions, water, and waste. The software provides clients with actionable insights, helps them identify emission hotspots, model reduction scenarios, and ensures compliance with evolving ESG regulations. This enables businesses to make data-driven decisions to lower their environmental footprint. The methodology follows the GHG Protocol and has been certified by TÜV Rheinland.

The company serves a range of retail clients, from fashion and apparel to electronics and consumer goods, including notable names like Klarna, Vestiaire Collective, On, and New Balance. Since its launch, Vaayu has raised a total of $13.1 million in funding over two seed rounds. A pre-seed round in July 2021 brought in $1.57 million, followed by a larger seed round of $11.5 million in April 2022, led by Atomico. These funds have been directed towards team expansion and platform optimization, with the goal of helping retailers reduce one gigaton of carbon emissions by 2030.

Keywords: carbon accounting software, retail sustainability, environmental impact tracking, real-time emissions data, supply chain decarbonization, life cycle assessment, ESG reporting, AI for sustainability, climate tech, carbon footprint reduction, automated impact calculation, sustainable retail, e-commerce emissions, product carbon footprint, carbon management platform, GHG Protocol, sustainable fashion technology, green tech, circular economy data, impact measurement