The Paris-based startup Homaio opened the EU’s emissions trading market to private investors in 2024 and now aims to expand into energy, electrification, and other markets critical to the industrial transition, with new backing to support these efforts.
Valentin Lautier, inspired after reading about European Union Allowances on the Eurostar, noticed the steady rise in pricing and realized that individual investors had no easy access to buy them. The market, crucial to Europe’s climate policy, was nearly inaccessible to those outside industrial or institutional circles.
In 2023, Lautier founded Homaio to address this gap. The platform enables retail investors to purchase EU Allowances through a digital interface backed by these carbon permits.
Since its launch in September 2024, Homaio has attracted a broad user base across over 30 countries. Recently, the company announced a €3.6 million seed round, bringing total funding to over €5 million. This round was led by RAISE Ventures’ Raise Seed for Good fund and saw new strategic investment from Groupe Eren. Existing investors XAnge and Redstone also increased their contributions.
Homaio operates within the EU’s cap-and-trade system by facilitating trading of allowances that correspond to capped emissions. Companies exceeding their cap must purchase additional permits, while those below can sell them. This declining supply creates upward pressure on EUA prices, though they remain volatile short-term.
The new funding supports Homaio’s expansion plans, aiming to venture into broader energy transition markets and other traditionally institution-only asset classes. Homaio views this as building infrastructure for large-scale private capital participation in decarbonization.
However, it’s entering a competitive landscape. UK-based SparkChange CO2 has provided retail access to the EUA market since 2021 via mainstream platforms. Thus, Homaio’s claim of exclusivity is contested, though it differentiates itself with its physical holding model and ambitious market expansion.
The timing is critical, as EUA prices have faced recent volatility due to political pressures for reform. Homaio believes these are temporary issues overshadowed by a structural supply deficit supporting long-term investments. The challenge is whether retail investors agree and whether new markets targeted by Homaio are accessible to them, which is central to the latest funding round’s success.