Ecosapiens, a creative tech company that develops corporate and consumer products that positively impact the environment, announced its new enterprise product: customized digital collectibles enabling businesses to offset their carbon footprints. Ecosapiens is inaugurating the new offering in collaboration with the Celo Foundation, the nonprofit organization supporting Celo, a carbon-negative, mobile-first, EVM-compatible blockchain ecosystem. Through the partnership, Ecosapiens is introducing its custom carbon-backed NFT called a “Celosapien,” which offsets 100 percent of Celo’s annual carbon emissions.
The Celosapien facilitates carbon offsets for the Celo blockchain and sources its credits from Celo’s carbon credits providers. Ecosapiens also works with its own carbon credit providers it can source credits from for future enterprise collaborations. The Celosapien NFT will evolve over time, becoming more artistically intricate as it facilitates additional carbon offsets. Ecosapiens is also producing an open edition NFT series of the Celosapien, which folks can mint for free on the Celo network.
“There are lots of companies today that prioritize sustainable business practices and are looking for ways to not only accomplish their climate goals but to also share and allow their customers, partners and community to participate in that collective impact,” said Ecosapiens CEO and co-founder Nihar Neelakanti. “This collaboration with the Celo Foundation is a major milestone for us as the first partner for our corporate carbon-backed NFTs, and we hope it will inspire leadership from other businesses to easily and elegantly offset their emissions.”
Inspired by the Celo ecosystem’s participation in Kenyan forest and mangrove protection projects, the collectible reflects the region’s natural features; the fully evolved Celosapien will have a cheetah-like body, antelope horns and wings made of the mineral selenite, and be adorned in orchids, baobab and Socotra dragon trees.
“We are very excited to be partnering with Ecosapiens in developing the first iteration of their corporate climate collectibles,” said Nikhil Raghuveera, Celo Foundation’s Head of Strategy and Innovation. “NFTs are a still untapped opportunity for galvanizing climate action and this collaboration is a next step towards our community’s mission to promote scalable regenerative design through blockchain technology. Our joint effort will provide organizations and enterprises with novel and user-friendly opportunities for climate action at scale on the Celo blockchain.”
This collaboration follows Ecosapiens’ alpha collection launch in February that has offset more than 3,000 tons of carbon, the equivalent of planting about 120,000 trees. In April, the company also announced a $3.5 million seed fundraise led by consumer web3 fund Collab+Currency with gmoney joining as an advisor. Additional investors in the project include Alex Witt, former COO of Moonbirds Ryan Carson, co-founder of Boost VC Brayton Williams, Boost VC, Slow Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund.
About Ecosapiens
Ecosapiens is an eco-conscious collective that defends the climate through creative tech, beginning with a perpetual carbon capture digital collectible series, through which carbon projects are funded. The platform’s namesake collection, Ecosapiens, represents a new iteration of the human species that is more connected to and thoughtful about its impact on the planet. Key Ecosapiens investors include Boost Ventures, Slow Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Alumni Ventures Blockchain Fund, Charles River Ventures and Collab+Currency.
About the Celo Foundation
The Celo Foundation was founded to support the growth and development of the decentralized, open source, mobile-first Celo platform to help build a carbon-negative financial system that creates the conditions of prosperity for all. The Foundation is guided by the Celo community tenets and contributes to education, technical research, environmental health, community engagement, and ecosystem outreach—activities that support and encourage an inclusive financial system.
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