Xpansiv, the infrastructure provider for environmental markets, completed a $125m capital raise in January this year with Bank of America and Goldman Sachs as new strategic investors.
The raise was linked to the recent $400m capital raise led by Blackstone Energy Partners which closed last August.
Jim DeMare, President of Global Markets at Bank of America, said in a statement: “Sustainability is part of discussions in boardrooms and with investors. Robust technology, reliable data, and accessible spot markets are crucial to promote liquidity and scale growth in voluntary carbon trading and environmental commodities.”
Henrik Hasselknippe, head of XMarkets and head of European operations at Xpansiv, told Markets Media last year that for the first time in environmental markets, Xpansiv offers full integration of a trading market, registry operator, and market data provider for environmental commodities such as renewable energy certificates.
The platform operates a spot exchange and registries, portfolio management systems, a marketplace and a market data business. Registries allow environmental projects to be reported and tracked. For example, carbon offset registries track offset project information that has been verified by independent third parties including credits generated, ownership, sale, and retirement. Market participants who have accounts in multiple registries can view and manage their holdings and their portfolio in one place at Xpansiv.
Hasselknippe continued that trading had grown across all Xpansiv’s markets and the platform had onboarded over 125 participants in 2022. He added that Xpansiv’s role is to be the place for spot market price discovery for environmental commodities which can connect into the derivatives markets through partnerships and continuing to build the ecosystem.
Last December Xpansiv announced first trades of the Sustainable Development Global Emissions Offset (SD-GEO) on Xpansiv market CBL. First day volume totaled 210,000 mtCO2e, an all-time high for a product launch.
Xpansiv generates market data that feeds into some licensing arrangements that the firm has with futures exchanges, such as CME Group. In March last year CME launched CBL Core Global Emissions Offset, C-GEO futures, that were jointly developed with Xpansiv. The contract allows the physical delivery of energy, renewables and other technology-based voluntary carbon offset credits that meet quality and integrity criteria based on the Core Carbon Principles.
Acquisitions
In January this year Xpansiv also announced the completion of its acquisition of Evolution Markets Inc., a provider of transaction and advisory services in global carbon, renewable energy, and energy transition markets with more than 2,000 global clients. The combination will allow Xpansiv to expand service offerings and product development capabilities while Evolution Markets can integrate with Xpansiv’s technology infrastructure, market, and data platforms.
Evan Ard, CEO of Evolution Markets, said in a statement: “As our clients manage risk in global energy and environmental markets, we are eager to leverage the capabilities of both organizations to improve overall client outcomes.”
In 2022 Xpansiv also acquired APX, which provides registry infrastructure for energy and environmental markets.
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