The archive · Climate & Energy · Strategic decision · 2021–2025
Tanso's CSRD bet: €12M Series A as EU carbon reporting pulls in manufacturers
Munich's Tanso builds carbon-accounting software for mid-sized manufacturers, betting EU reporting rules turn compliance into procurement.
Tanso (Tanso Technologies)
What the business is
Munich-based B2B SaaS that helps industrial manufacturers calculate, manage and report carbon emissions at company (corporate carbon footprint) and product (product carbon footprint) level, with AI-assisted data collection and EU-compliance reporting.
Starting capital：€6.5M seed announced April 2023: a €4M round led by Capnamic with UVC Partners plus a €2.5M EIC Accelerator grant from the EU.
How it started
Till Wiechmann, Gyri Reiersen and Lorenz Hetzel founded Tanso in Munich in 2021, reading the EU's regulatory direction early: mandatory sustainability reporting under CSRD, emissions trading rules and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism were all heading toward the same demand - manufacturing companies would have to publish corporate and product carbon footprints in audited annual reporting. Their first product, the Tanso Climate Intelligence Suite, launched in autumn 2022 for industrial manufacturers in the DACH region.
What happened
Tanso raised a €6.5M seed in April 2023 - a €4M round led by Capnamic with UVC Partners, plus a €2.5M EIC Accelerator grant - and grew into double-digit customer numbers across automotive, machinery and steel. It then automated product carbon footprints for full portfolios and, with VDMA, released a PCF calculator beta-tested by more than 60 companies. In August 2025 it closed a €12M Series A led by henQ and Fortino Capital with existing investors Capnamic and UVC Partners, reporting 300+ customers in 40+ countries including Kärcher, Duravit, Paulaner Group and Goldbeck, and planning new modules for supply chain, compliance and risk.
How it ended up
Still independent and scaling: the August 2025 Series A funds European expansion and supply-chain and risk modules as CSRD's reporting waves and CBAM's January 2026 start bring a second, larger cohort of mid-sized manufacturers into scope.
Background
Tanso's bet is that EU regulation, not corporate conscience, would create the carbon-accounting market. Founded in Munich in 2021 by Till Wiechmann, Gyri Reiersen and Lorenz Hetzel, it sells software that lets industrial manufacturers calculate, manage and report emissions at both company level (corporate carbon footprint, CCF) and product level (product carbon footprint, PCF), with AI-assisted data collection and intelligent recommendations.
The regulatory timing was deliberate. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) was making ESG disclosures part of financial reporting - subject to auditor review and board liability - while emissions trading rules and the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) pushed carbon data into cross-border trade. Tanso argued this would force mid-sized manufacturing companies, responsible for roughly a third of Europe's industrial emissions but until then outside mandatory reporting, to build carbon accounting for the first time.
Tanso's Climate Intelligence Suite launched in autumn 2022. In April 2023 it raised a €6.5M seed - €4M led by Capnamic with UVC Partners, plus a €2.5M EU EIC Accelerator grant - and by then served double-digit DACH customers across automotive, machinery and steel, with a team of around 20. It also released a PCF calculator with VDMA, the German machinery-industry association, beta-tested by over 60 companies.
In August 2025 Tanso closed a €12M Series A led by henQ and Fortino Capital, with Capnamic and UVC Partners joining, reporting 300+ customers in more than 40 countries, including Kärcher, Duravit, Paulaner Group and Goldbeck. Its case studies claim Crespel & Deiters cut sustainability-process effort by 75% and motor-sports supplier Pankl achieved full CSRD compliance. The round funds European expansion and new supply-chain, compliance and risk modules as CSRD's later reporting waves and CBAM's 2026 start bring more manufacturers into scope.
What has to be true
- CSRD makes sustainability reporting part of audited financial reporting, so carbon data became a board-level obligation with real liability - a repeatable budget line, not a discretionary ESG project.
- The EU kept adding deadlines - CSRD waves, emissions trading, CBAM - so each year's compliance sale led to the next, giving a startup recurring revenue tied to a regulatory calendar.
- Mid-sized manufacturers lacked in-house carbon expertise, so automated data collection from ERP and logistics systems addressed a skills gap, not just a paperwork burden.
- Tanso built category proof before the market matured: VDMA partnership, household-name customers and case-study results positioned it as the DACH leader as compliance demand scaled.
What can be applied
A regulation with a deadline turns 'we should do ESG' into procurement: build the tool that converts months of manual carbon-data work into automated, audit-ready output before the deadline.
Aftermath
As of August 6, 2025, Tanso is scaling on the CSRD wave: its €12M Series A, led by henQ and Fortino Capital with Capnamic and UVC Partners, funds European expansion and new supply-chain, compliance and risk modules plus deeper AI Copilot integration. It reports 300+ customers in 40+ countries - Kärcher, Duravit, Paulaner Group and Goldbeck among them - with case studies including a 75% cut in sustainability-process effort at Crespel & Deiters. The next growth phase depends on CSRD reaching smaller companies and CBAM applying in full from January 2026.
Sources
- Germany's Tanso raises €12 million to expand their environmental compliance platform
- Tanso banks a seed for its CO2 footprint software for industrial manufacturers
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