The co-founder and CEO of Sumday Jessica Richmond has shed light on the Tasmanian carbon accounting startup’s plans to expand its reach in the UK and US markets, following the successful closure of a $5.3 million seed funding round.
Planeteer Capital, a New York-based venture capital fund founded by climate tech investor Sophie Purdom, led the seed round, with local VC funds Blackbird Ventures and Wedgetail, and Canva co-founder Cameron Adams, also participating.
The latest round means Sumday, which was founded by Jessica Richmond, Lindsay Ellis and Danny Hoare, has now secured a total of $7.3 million in funding.
This includes $2 million in pre-seed funding raised in March 2023, from Blackbird, Adams and Wedgetail Ventures’ Lisa Miller.
Acknowledging the challenging capital raising market at the moment, Richmond says Sumday was thrilled by the success of the seed round.
“I think the fact that Sumday has been able to raise from such fantastic investors actually really shows that we’re getting into a space where I think businesses that have impact and this vision for a better way of doing things from an environmental perspective are being really highly valued in the market,” she told SmartCompany.
“We have been primarily focused on Australia and New Zealand, from when we did our first release. So we’re really using the funding now to continue pushing outside of Australia.
“We do already have some partnerships in the US and we have a global partnership with Xero.
“So we do have that relationship in the UK. But this really allows us to build the product team and push into those other markets as well.”
Sumday’s global partnership with Xero was announced in September 2023, with the startup at the time unveiling its goal to make carbon accounting an extension of financial accounting and reporting for businesses on a global scale.
The average company’s supply-chain greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are 5.5 times higher than the direct emissions from its own assets and operations, according to a report by the Rocky Mountain Institute.
For Sumday, the starting point is turning traditional accountants into carbon accountants, with Richmond telling SmartCompany the startup has a real focus on accounting firms.
“We often say not every business has a sustainability consultant, but nearly every business has an accountant. So we want to leverage them and make sure that they are able to provide this support,” she says.
“Sumday already works with over 50 accounting firms around the world. But we basically span from the Big Four through to boutiques and single person consultancies.
“We work with public companies like Xero, who use Sumday for their own carbon accounting, right down to the smallest SMEs in the supply chain.
“Builders and plumbers use Sumday as well. That’s really quite unique, and I think demonstrates that we’re really serious about making sure that this is accessible to everyone.”
Richmond says it is an exciting time for Sumday to be expanding into the UK and the US.
“For the first time we’re really seeing strong compliance requirements or regulations coming into these jurisdictions,” she explains.
“Particularly in the UK, and across Europe, we’re starting to see that there is a regulatory obligation for large organisations to report on their emissions.
“One of the biggest challenges globally, but particularly in these markets where they are starting to report on scope three emissions is trying to bring a supply chain along on that journey.
“Sumday makes sense here.”
Accounting firms in these regions are at a similar stage in their journeys to those in Australia, says Richmond.
“They’re starting to see that there is a real opportunity for them to provide new services and to really be part of redefining what the new economy is and the type of support that they provide to clients in that world,” she says.
“In terms of the US, we’re really seeing that the US is home to an extraordinary amount of large companies.
“Whilst they also have had regulations recently passed down, they might not be extending fully to a requirement to report on scope three emissions, but what we’re seeing is those companies needing to comply for many different reasons, [such as] employees (or) customers doing businesses overseas.
“So the US, just by nature of the size of that market, and the extent to which those businesses do operate globally, just means that it makes a lot of sense for us as well.”
