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Executive Summary: Which are the Top 10 ESG Startups to Watch in 2026?
- Fortifai (Norway) – Builds an ESG compliance platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to verify outputs for risk, bias, and performance while enabling automated, continuous reporting.
- Climatta (Mexico) – Develops AI-driven ESG software for real-time utility monitoring, cost-saving goal tracking, and automated bill analysis in sectors like manufacturing and retail.
- Safeflows (Romania) – Offers an ESG copilot that uses smart contracts and dashboards for supply chain transparency, benchmarking, and alignment with CSRD and EU sustainability frameworks.
- LoneReport (USA) – Builds an ESG reporting platform that connects multiple data sources to automate disclosures.
- Carbonpunk (Czech Republic) – Makes real-time carbon tracking and auto-generated ESG reports using AI compliant with GHG Protocol, TCFD, and CDP standards.
- Daycisiv (France) – Enables AI-driven supply chain risk assessment by scoring suppliers, reducing audit burden, and supporting informed ESG and procurement decisions.
- AgroRisk (Denmark) – Builds a climate risk SaaS platform for agriculture. It uses satellite data for farm-level risk modeling for banks and insurers to make ESG-aligned decisions.
- Sustainly (USA) – Offers a carbon and ESG reporting tool for MSMEs that supports gap analysis, stakeholder-specific reports, and alignment with frameworks like GRI and VSS.
- Gain Momentum (Denmark) – Powers traceability for fashion brands with AI-based ESG data collection, digital product passports, and compliance with evolving EU regulations.
- Reegy (Germany) – Creates carbon intelligence software that automates Scope 3 carbon accounting and recommends decarbonization strategies with CSRD-compliant reporting.
Global Startup Heat Map highlights Emerging ESG Startups to Watch
Through the Big Data & Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered StartUs Insights Discovery Platform, covering over 7M+ startups, 20K+ technology trends, plus 150M+ patents, news articles & market reports, we identified 10 ESG startups.
The Global Startup Heat Map below highlights emerging ESG startups you should watch in 2026, as well as the geo-distribution of 3249 startups & scaleups we analyzed for this research.
According to our data, we observe high startup activity in the UK and the US, followed by Australia. The top 5 startup hubs for solutions aligned with the ESG framework are London, San Francisco, New York City, Bangalore, and Toronto.
Meet 10 Emerging ESG Startups to Watch in 2026
We hand-picked startups to showcase in this report by filtering for their technology, founding year, location, funding, and other metrics. These emerging ESG startups work on solutions ranging from supply chain risk management and carbon footprint analysis to double materiality analysis and ESG copilot.
1. Fortifai
- Founding Year: 2023
- Location: Oslo, Norway
- Use For: ESG for SMEs
- Funding: Secured EUR 1.7 million in a funding round led by Sure Valley Ventures (SVV), with participation from Midwich Ignite and Focal.
Norwegian startup Fortifai develops an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliance platform that aligns with the global sustainability framework.
It verifies outputs for risks, accuracy, bias, project progress, and performance to validate real-world claims. Additionally, the platform simplifies continuous ESG management via live dashboards and automation.
The platform adapts to organizations of different sizes to align with ESG compliance at multiple stages of growth. It also enables very small and medium-sized enterprises (VSMEs) to streamline sustainability reporting and meet stakeholder expectations.
2. Climatta
- Founding Year: 2024
- Location: Mexico City, Mexico
- Use For: Utility Management Platform
Mexican startup Climatta offers automated ESG software for utility bill management. It utilizes machine learning and data scrapers to collect and analyze utility data.
The software automatically retrieves utility bills and usage data from service providers. It monitors electricity, water, and gas consumption in real time and notifies users about unusual consumption patterns, equipment failures, or billing anomalies. These features support improved waste identification and cost reduction.
Users are also able to set utility bill saving goals, and the software monitors their progress automatically. This enables the manufacturing, retail, commerce, asset management, and food industries to comply with environmental regulations.
3. Safeflows
- Founding Year: 2023
- Location: Bucharest, Romania
- Use For: ESG Copilot
Romanian startup Safeflows provides an ESG copilot platform for sustainability reporting. The copilot uses smart contracts to bring transparency to the supply chain and mitigate sourcing-related risks.
It automates data collection from multiple sources. The platform also provides an overview of ESG performance through its dashboard. This allows businesses to compare their performance with industry peers and set benchmarks.
Further, the copilot supports companies aligning with frameworks like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), the European Union (EU) Taxonomy, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
4. LoneReport
- Founding Year: 2024
- Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
- Use For: Enterprise ESG Reporting
US-based startup LoneReport offers an enterprise ESG reporting platform. It utilizes AI to connect multiple data sources and automate disclosures like the CSRD, Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The platform facilitates real-time stakeholder engagement and clean audit trails. It also monitors material regulatory requirements for corporate users to achieve the necessary internal approvals. Further, it finalizes approvals with legal and communications teams before publishing. This reduces reporting time and improves compliance accuracy.
5. Carbonpunk
- Founding Year: 2024
- Location: Prague, Czech Republic
- Use For: Carbon Footprint Analysis
Czech startup Carbonpunk builds AI-based corporate carbon management and ESG reporting software. It tracks real-time carbon emissions from multiple data sources across a company’s supply chain.
Source: Carbonpunk
The software’s AI analyzes operations and makes recommendations for emissions reduction. Additionally, it provides auto-generated audit-ready ESG reports compliant with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) standards.
The platform also tracks the progress of the company’s sustainability initiatives to deliver automated carbon insights, cost savings, and regulatory compliance.
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6. Daycisiv
- Founding Year: 2024
- Location: Lyon, France
- Use For: Supply Chain Risk Management
French startup Daycisiv provides AI software for supply chain risk management and ESG compliance. The software centralizes supplier data to automatically assess ESG risks and score supplier performance.
It identifies supplier hotspots and eliminates audit duplication to reduce audit fatigue. This allows corporate social responsibility (CSR) and procurement departments to evaluate vendor operations, highlight high-risk areas, and make informed decisions.
7. AgroRisk
- Founding Year: 2023
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Use For: Agricultural Climate Risk Platform
Danish startup AgroRisk offers a SaaS platform for climate risk management in agriculture. It delivers data for compliance with the CSRD, Solvency II, and Capital Requirements Regulation (CRR), and Capital Requirements Directive (CRD).
The software leverages satellite imagery, along with financial and map-based data, to analyze location-specific climate risks. It generates value-at-risk assessments for individual farms and supports crop yield forecasting.
Source: AgroRisk
The platform also enables farmers to utilize climate scenario modeling to plan adaptive strategies and achieve farm resilience. This also allows banks and insurance companies to make informed decisions regarding credit provision, insurance coverage, risk evaluation, and ESG reporting.
8. Sustainly
- Founding Year: 2024
- Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
- Use For: Non-Financial ESG Tool
US-based startup Sustainly builds non-financial software for carbon footprint calculation and ESG reporting. It allows companies to align with the specific requirements of multiple stakeholders, such as banks, insurance companies, business partners, regulators, or customers.
The software facilitates the calculation and tracking of scope 1, 2, and 3 carbon emissions based on the GHG protocol. It supports emission reduction planning for effective ESG reporting.
It also conducts gap analysis to identify current missing practices. Moreover, Sustainly evaluates current ESG data against regulatory frameworks like the Voluntary Sustainability Standards for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
9. Gain Momentum
- Founding Year: 2024
- Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
- Use For: Fashion Traceability
Danish startup Gain Momentum creates an AI-based sustainability platform for fashion brands and suppliers. The platform automates ESG data collection, eco-footprint calculation, and life cycle assessment (LCA).
Its SupplierCheck feature gathers supply chain data directly from suppliers using this software to report carbon emissions. This information allows brands and suppliers to improve products and supply chains.
Moreover, the startup creates digital product passports (DPP), which illustrate a product’s lifecycle, materials, production processes, and recycling information. This ensures updated product data across all platforms in real time.
Source: Gain Momentum
The platform also integrates with product information management (PIM) or product lifecycle management (PLM) systems to eliminate information duplication and ensure coherence.
Further, the Compliance Hub feature enables brands to meet regulations like the CSRD, CSDDD, DPP, Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Green Claims Directive (GCD), Product Environmental Footprint (PEF), and Anti-Waste for a Circular Economy (AGEC).
This way, the startup enhances transparency, reduces manual work, and ensures real-time data consistency across systems.
10. Reegy
- Founding Year: 2023
- Location: Nuremberg, Germany
- Use For: Carbon Accounting
German startup Reegy offers AI software for carbon intelligence, ESG reporting, and energy management. The software measures scope 3 carbon emissions and automates carbon accounting.
Source: Reegy
Based on the collected data, it recommends custom decarbonization strategies to companies. The software creates CSRD disclosures to demonstrate compliance and support transparent ESG reporting. This allows companies to reduce their carbon footprint, energy consumption, water waste, and land use.
Discover All Emerging Circular Economy Startups
The circular economy startups showcased in this report are only a small sample of all startups we identified through our data-driven startup scouting approach. Download our free Circular Economy Innovation Report for a broad overview of the industry, or get in touch for quick & exhaustive research on the latest technologies & emerging solutions that will impact your company in 2025!
