Salesforce launches a carbon credits marketplace as demand surges

Software giant Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) is getting into the carbon credits market with its upcoming Net Zero Marketplace launching in October. The marketplace is expected to host ~90 projects across 11 countries on release.

The carbon credit market is incredibly complex and opaque, with pricing and credit qualities varying all over the place.

Here’s how the marketplace aims to solve these problems:

• Connect buyers and sellers.
• Partner with rating agencies to verify and rate the quality of carbon credits.
• Allow buyers to see the project descriptions, third-party ratings and alignment towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

How does this impact Salesforce?

Salesforce is known for throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Example: NFT Cloud — their experimental NFT marketplace. But many of these experiments often end with nothing to show for it.

Salesforce has grown into a highly diversified software business with product experimentation and, in some cases, big acquisitions (Slack).

Market potential: McKinsey expects the carbon credit market to be worth as much as $50B by 2030. But there’s no shortage of carbon credit marketplaces launching in recent years.

In 2021, Nasdaq acquired Puro.earth, and Adam Neumann co-founded Flowcarbon, which launched with $70M in funding this year. Big markets tend to attract lots of competition. But in the end, few tend to dominate.