Sustainable Supplier Marketplace Novi Raises $10.3M

B2B marketplace Novi has raised $10.3 million in a Series A funding round, Forbes reported.

Novi, launched in 2019 by Founder Kimberly Shenk, provides a market for sustainable suppliers, according to the report. With Novi, brands can get data to source cleaner ingredients. The platform can also inform buyers of the sustainability in their products and include recommendations of how to do better.

Novi is cost-free for brands that have interest in researching ingredient options, looking for suppliers or researching data, but there are paid options to upload product road maps for designing new products from scratch, for example, the report stated.

In addition, the platform can assess whether a product can be deemed vegan or if it’s instead compliant with sustainable programs such as Clean at Sephora or Target Clean. Novi has these guidelines built directly into its application, according to the report.

The new capital will be put toward building the company platform and expanding into verticals for home goods and food, the report stated.

The round was led by Greylock with participation from Defy Partners and angel investors Thomas Layton and Yannis Skoufalos, according to the report. In total, Novi has raised $11.5 million.

Sustainability has been a popular topic as of late, with Delivery Hero introducing plant-based, sustainable packaging last month.

Read more: Delivery Hero Woos Sustainable Shoppers With Eco-Friendly Packaging

Restaurants in eight markets have access to the packaging thus far. Studies have found that 60% to 70% of consumers would be willing to pay more for sustainable packaging.

“We are in a unique position to make sustainable packaging accessible and economically feasible due to economies of scale,” Delivery Hero Director of Sustainability, CSR and Safety Jeffrey Oatham told PYMNTS in an interview. “The Sustainable Packaging Program is an effective and scalable way to reduce plastic waste and carbon emissions produced by the delivery industry.”