Newly launched startup Oka, The Carbon Insurance Company announced today that it has raised $7 million in funding aimed at scaling the new platform’s insurance offerings for the carbon credit market.

The funding comes as demand for carbon offset projects and related credits is expected to increase significantly over the next several years, as companies and businesses increasingly launch net zero ambitions, and turn to offsets as a bridge to their own absolute emissions reduction efforts, or to balance difficult to avoid emissions. The unregulated and rapidly growing market faces a series of challenges, however, with market participants unable to differentiate between high and low quality projects with insufficient or inconsistent data to assess the effectiveness of the projects.

Launched earlier this year by Founder Chris Slater and Co-Founder Laura Fritsch, Oka aims to address issues that may hold back the market, with insurance solutions to transfer carbon credit buyers’ risk, to help increase buyer confidence and drive demand for high-quality carbon removal solutions. Oka’s insurance solutions will replace credits if destroyed or invalid.

The seed funding round was led by early and growth-stage investor Aquiline Technology Growth, and also included participation from climate tech fund Firstminute.

Chris Slater, Founder and CEO of Oka, said:

“We are honored to have the support of Aquiline in accelerating the growth of our company and achieving our vision for making insurance an integral part of the voluntary carbon credit market. With their help, we are confident that we will accelerate the growth of our company and achieve our mission of insuring the transition to net-zero.”

Max Chee, Partner and Head of Aquiline Technology Growth, added:

“Chris and the team at Oka have a compelling vision for maturing the carbon credit market through its insurance offerings. We are excited about our partnership and look forward to seeing the lasting impact Oka will have on the voluntary carbon market.”