News
Rubicon Carbon Launches as Next Generation Carbon Solutions Provider
12/1/2022
Innovative Platform, Backed by TPG Rise Climate, Channels Capital to Unlock At-Scale Decarbonization Projects and Delivers Enterprise-Grade Solutions for Carbon Credit Purchases
Corporate Sustainability Leaders Collaborate with Rubicon at Launch to Drive Broad Participation Across Industries and Geographies
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rubicon Carbon (“Rubicon” or “the Company”) today announced its launch as a market-based products and solutions platform to help lead the next generation of the carbon market. With an initial capital commitment of $300 million from TPG Rise Climate, TPG’s dedicated climate investing strategy, and TPG’s multi-sector impact investing strategy The Rise Fund, Rubicon was developed to deliver greater scale, confidence, and innovation across all facets of the carbon market and meet the growing demand for end-to-end, high-integrity emissions reduction solutions. Bank of America, JetBlue Ventures, and NGP ETP, the energy transition investing platform of NGP, are also expected to participate in Rubicon’s initial equity financing and intend to close on their co-investment by the end of Q4 2022. Including contributions from TPG Rise and co-investment, Rubicon is targeting total capital commitments of $1 billion.
“As demand for carbon credits grows, so too should the size and quality of the projects that underpin the carbon market”
The voluntary carbon market is an important mechanism for accelerating climate action with the urgency required in this moment. Effective, trusted markets can play a vital role in channeling capital to decarbonization projects around the world while supporting comprehensive emissions reduction plans for organizations at any stage of their sustainability journey, including helping close the emissions gap between an organization’s decarbonization strategies and reaching their climate goals.
While the steady increase in corporate net zero pledges and other corporate climate commitments has led to a rapid increase in demand for carbon credits, it has also exposed weaknesses and imbalances in the market. The addition of new carbon credit brokers, marketplaces, exchanges, and ratings agencies has not fully resolved persistent issues of limited supply, insufficient project financing, variable quality, and lack of accessibility. With a market-based approach, substantial backing from leading climate investors, and an ecosystem of customers, advisors, and partners, Rubicon leverages the latest technology to deliver proprietary curation and portfolio construction, enhanced monitoring and analytics, and a suite of other value-added services to address the market’s challenges at scale.
Rubicon seeks to promote integrity and confidence in its products and solutions by working with trusted platform partners including Anew Climate, Pixxel, Planet Labs PBC, and Rialto Markets. As part of its launch, Rubicon also formed a coalition of corporate sustainability leaders to help guide its platform and product development, including Aon, Bain & Company, Bank of America, Cushman & Wakefield, Dow Inc., General Electric Company, Genesys, Hertz, Honeywell, J.P. Morgan, JetBlue, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, McKinsey & Company, Momentive, SMBC, a member of SMBC Group, and TD Bank.
Rubicon is led by a management team who bring deep expertise in business building, markets, sustainability, and carbon finance. Tom Montag, the former Chief Operating Officer of Bank of America, is serving as Chief Executive Officer of Rubicon Carbon. Prior to Bank of America, Montag was a Partner at Goldman Sachs where he served as Co-Head of Global Sales & Trading and as a member of the Management Committee. Former Bank of America Vice Chair Anne Finucane is serving as Chairwoman of Rubicon Carbon. Finucane led Bank of America’s strategic positioning and global sustainable and climate finance work and is widely recognized for pioneering sustainable finance in the banking industry. Both Montag and Finucane also previously served as Co-Chairs of Bank of America’s Sustainable Markets Committee. Dr. Jennifer Jenkins is serving as Rubicon’s Chief Sustainability Officer. Along with Vice President Al Gore and a team of scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Dr. Jenkins received a Nobel Peace Prize for their team’s groundbreaking work on climate change.
“To deliver on net zero and keep as close as possible to a 1.5-degree pathway, companies must first reduce emissions within their value chain to the greatest extent possible. To balance any remaining emissions that cannot otherwise be eliminated right now, we must scale high-quality carbon credits in parallel. Rubicon addresses several market pain points and offers exceptional ease-of-access to vetted, high-integrity credits to further accelerate emissions reduction globally,” said Montag.
Rubicon’s initial product, the Rubicon Carbon Tonne (“RCT”), provides enterprise customers access to proprietary sets of both nature-based and non-nature-based carbon credits. RCTs are backed by an owned inventory of high-quality, verified, broadly diversified carbon credits which at launch amount to 20 million tonnes of CO2e. All RCTs will include an extensive suite of services, including quality-based curation, continuous hyperspectral monitoring, seamless retirement, detailed reporting, and more. The RCT is a unique end-to-end solution that reduces frictional costs in the carbon market through at-scale procurement and tech-enabled selection, pooling, and delivery of credits.
In addition to a diversified product set for enterprise-scale buyers, Rubicon is developing a scaled financing solution, Rubicon Carbon Capital, to partner directly with carbon credit project developers to catalyze the implementation of new carbon projects.
“The latest discussions from COP27 underscore the critical role that developed markets play in channeling capital towards a vast supply of high-quality carbon reduction or removal projects, particularly in developing countries. Rubicon is designed to be the market-based solution that allows both the supply and demand side of the global carbon market to scale responsibly. We look forward to working in cooperation with a growing consortium of businesses, governments, and foundations to accelerate the flow of capital to real emissions reduction solutions,” said Finucane.
“As demand for carbon credits grows, so too should the size and quality of the projects that underpin the carbon market,” Dr. Jenkins added. “Detailed project-level assessment, ongoing monitoring, and the adaptation of new data and methodologies are key to driving greater trust, participation, and outcomes in this market. Rubicon is addressing each of these areas with expertise, innovation, and rigor.”
Rubicon joins TPG Rise’s diverse portfolio of climate solutions focused on carbon emissions reduction and removal, including Anew Climate (“Anew”), the leading developer and marketer of carbon credits in North America. Anew is Rubicon’s supply partner and manages sourcing and procurement for Rubicon’s carbon credit inventory. As channel partners, Rubicon and Anew have a shared mission to expand the carbon market and make carbon products more accessible. Beyond launch, the two companies will continue to collaborate on innovative carbon solutions.
“The growing carbon market will need new tools and financing solutions in order to reduce friction, democratize access, and improve quality. Rubicon Carbon was not designed as a replacement for aggressive carbon emissions reduction but rather as an end-to-end solution for corporations that have chosen to include high-quality carbon credits as part of their overall decarbonization strategy. Enterprises in sectors where there are technological limitations to immediate emissions reduction are looking for solutions like Rubicon to close their emissions reductions gap with authenticity and ease,” said Jim Coulter, Founding Partner of TPG and Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate.
Angela Schwarz, CEO of Anew, added, “Our collaboration with Rubicon Carbon underscores the power of the TPG Rise ecosystem. Anew is uniquely positioned to provide the scale and breadth of carbon credits necessary to launch Rubicon’s first products. We look forward to our continued partnership with Rubicon and working alongside them to develop innovative carbon solutions that drive market evolution and meet the stringent quality standards of enterprise customers.”
For more information about Rubicon Carbon, visit www.rubiconcarbon.com or @RubiconCarbon on Twitter.
About TPG Rise Climate
TPG Rise Climate is the dedicated climate investing strategy of TPG’s global impact investing platform TPG Rise. TPG Rise Climate pursues climate-related investments that benefit from the diverse skills of TPG’s investing professionals, the strategic relationships developed across TPG’s existing portfolio of climate-focused companies, and a global network of executives and advisors. The fund takes a broad-based sector approach to investment types, from growth equity to value-added infrastructure, and focuses on climate solutions in the following thematic areas: clean electrons, clean molecules and materials, and negative emissions. Jim Coulter, TPG Founding Partner and Executive Chairman, serves as Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson serves as TPG Rise Climate’s Executive Chairman. For more information, please visit www.therisefund.com/tpgriseclimate.
About TPG
TPG is a leading global alternative asset management firm, founded in San Francisco in 1992, with $135 billion of assets under management and investment and operational teams in 12 offices globally. TPG invests across five multi-product platforms: Capital, Growth, Impact, Real Estate, and Market Solutions and our unique strategy is driven by collaboration, innovation, and inclusion. Our teams combine deep product and sector experience with broad capabilities and expertise to develop differentiated insights and add value for our fund investors, portfolio companies, management teams, and communities. For more information, visit www.tpg.com or @TPG on Twitter.