Investment Notes: Sumday

We are thrilled to announce Blackbird has led a $2M pre-Seed round in Sumday. 

Sumday is building non-financial accounting software for accountants and, over time, a primary emissions database to enable any business in the world to accurately measure their carbon impact.

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A generational problem

Have you ever walked through your local supermarket or favorite department store and wanted to know what brands have the lowest carbon impact, not just a carbon neutral tick, but the actual number? 

Do you want to know who has invested in decarbonisation and who has sat on their hands? 

Businesses are starting to want the same thing, so they can make informed decisions about who they buy from and what they invest in. 

Most carbon calculators take a transaction and multiply it by an industry-average emissions factor; this, at best, provides a high-level estimate.

It’s impossible for businesses to shift to sustainable practices over the coming decades if they cannot understand how, and precisely to what degree, these changes will reduce emissions. 

Therefore, non-financial accounting must become as rigorous and transparent as traditional financial accounting.

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Crowdsourcing an auditable database

Sumday is built for accountants, to help them meet the growing demand for carbon assessments. 

Sumday attracts accountants with an educational onramp, which certifies them in carbon assessment provisioning using the Sunday platform.

Workflow tools leverage the accountants privileged access to transactional data, facilitating the frictionless gathering of primary emissions data from their clients’ suppliers.

When an assessment is complete, a Sumday emissions factor is created for the business. Every time that business shows up in a client’s supply chain, the conversion factor used is based on their latest emissions assessment.

In aggregate, this reporting network builds a trusted carbon database, which can replace industry averages with localised emissions factors backed by auditable data. 

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Embedded growth loops

Sumday is focused on accounting practices.

Onboarding just one practice introduces Sumday to 250+ clients; most of which have 200+ suppliers, representing 50K+ opportunities to be exposed to businesses along those suppliers’ supply chains. All this, while driving new revenue for the accounting practice, who can provide non-financial accounting as an additional service to clients.

This compounding lead generation growth loop is a unique advantage for Sumday, and it’s starting to show. In 3 months post MVP launch, Sumday has onboarded 25 accounting practices (who are progressing through the certification course) and 50 businesses.

There is also early interest from enterprise, including leading financial accounting platforms which could present scale partnership opportunities as their “non-financial accounting solution”.

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A fast moving, Tassie team

Co-founders Jess (CEO), Lindsay (COO) and Danny (CPO) all based in Tassie, embody a “run through brick walls” attitude, already magnetizing community support, customer interest and talent.

The trio bring a wealth of knowledge (35+ years combined!) in the accounting sphere, intimately understand the challenges that face their customers, and are relentless on their mission to make non-financial accounting transparent, accurate and accessible.

We are delighted to be supporting this powerhouse team as they set the new standard in carbon accounting.

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Know any businesses who would love to start measuring their carbon impact? Sign up here!

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Michael and Silk, on behalf of Blackbird

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