Edinburgh eco start-up looks to double headcount to 60 after smashing crowdfund target

Pawprint said the successful fund-raise wrapped up an “incredible year of growth” for the carbon reducing employee engagement platform.

The past 12 months have seen the business attract more than 18,000 users, sign up 31 businesses, achieve B corp status and more than double its headcount from 12 to 30 full-time employees with plans to double that next year.

The firm’s £700,000 Crowdcube crowdfund is already overfunded at nearly £900,000.

Pawprint founder and chief executive Christian Arno.

Pawprint for Business is an employee engagement platform that combines technology, carbon data and behavioural science to help businesses “unite, engage and support their employees in tackling climate change”. It works by empowering employees to take control of their carbon footprints using the Pawprint app, encouraging participation through “eco-sprints”, teams and leaderboards.

Founder and chief executive Christian Arno said: “2021 will undoubtedly go down in history as the year of the pandemic but I believe it will also be remembered as the year that climate action went mainstream.

“COP26 really highlighted the need for urgent action and I’m delighted that Pawprint has been able to support so many on their carbon reduction journey and continues to scale to meet the growing demand.”

The start-up said that its app had already led to more than 500 tonnes of CO2 being saved - the equivalent of driving a small petrol car to the moon and back six-and-a-half times.

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