Tyson Ventures, the venture capital arm of Tyson Foods (NYSE: TSN), has made a seed investment in Athian, the world’s first cloud-based carbon credit marketplace for the livestock sector, joining other investors like Elanco Animal Health (NYSE: ELAN) and Newtrient.
The capital injections will speed up the launch of Athian’s transactional carbon credit inset program for the livestock industry, which is the first of its kind, the company said in a press release. According to the statement, the solution will offer economic incentives for producers to implement on-farm sustainability practices, while at the same time advancing the food system’s overall sustainability and helping address issues like climate change and global warming.
The solution has already been backed by sustainability-focused investors across the livestock production chain, including farmers, packers and processors, and animal health companies.
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Commenting on the next steps, Athian’s CEO Paul Myer said the company plans to launch its carbon credit insetting platform in the second half of 2023, which would help livestock farmers earn revenue to fund their carbon management practices “for the first time.”
Athian seeks to aggregate, validate, and certify greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, and then monetize them through the sale of carbon credits in a bid to assist the beef and dairy value chains in capturing and claiming carbon credits from their sustainability efforts.
“Climate change presents a profound systemic challenge to the livestock industry. Athian is positioned to work with market leading companies to quantify, gain third party certification for and reward farmers for a range of sustainability practices executed at the farm level,” Mr. Myer explained.
In connection with Tyson Ventures’ investment, Rahul Ray, who is Investment Lead at the company, will be an observer to the Athian Board of Directors.
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