Aramaco backs Singapore clean energy certificates player
Aramaco Ventures, a VC unit of Saudi oil giant Aramaco, has led a USD 10m Series A round for Singapore’s Redex, an early mover regionally in renewable energy certificates (RECs).
RECs are similar to carbon credits in that they are tradeable market-based instruments that encourage environmental outcomes. Whereas carbon credits represent offset emissions through external reductions, RECs represent renewable energy generated.
Each REC represents one megawatt-hour of renewable energy, but unit price can vary depending on the details of the power generating facility. The concept is seen as a means of achieving neutrality in scope-two emissions, which includes an organisation’s emissions footprint based on purchased energy.
Founded in 2018, Redex claims to be the Asian leader in this space with a full suite of REC management service offerings covering asset registration, verification, trading, and retirement. It will use the new funding to expand beyond Asia as well as introduce more efficiency and digitalization into the issuance and trading of RECs.
“We are witnessing tremendous growth in the adoption of RECs by brand owners striving to be 100% renewable, both for themselves and their supply chains,” Redex CEO Jen-Wee Kang said in a statement. “The demand for green energy is very real, and the number of RECs issued and retired is more than doubling year on year.”
In April, Redex established an account on I-REC, the world’s largest REC registry. In June, the company announced a partnership with China Southern Grid, supporting the grid operator in its role as an I-REC issuer in China.
Aramaco Ventures has been active since 2012, with an initial focus on familiar energy sector technology development gradually evolving into more tangential themes. The next phase of this diversification came in 2020 when the oil company set up Prosperity7 Ventures, a parallel VC programme, that has backed start-ups in areas like cell-cultured meat and autonomous trucking.
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