Vaayu, a retail carbon tracking company, has raised $1.6 million in pre-seed funding.

The round was led by CapitalIT, supported by a number of angel investors including Atomico’s Angel Program, Planet Positive LP, Saarbrücker 21, Expedite Ventures, and NP-Hard Ventures.

According to the World Bank, the fashion industry is responsible for 10 per cent of annual global carbon emissions, more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.

Vaayu integrates with various point-of-sale systems, including Shopify and Webflow, to pull data on logistics, operations, and packaging so retailers can monitor, measure, and reduce their carbon emissions in real-time.

The funding will be used to hire new staff, optimise the platform, and support its public launch.

Vaayu, which was founded last year, aims to help retailers reduce one gigaton of carbon emissions by 2030 – equivalent to the annual emissions of both Germany and France combined.

The business was established by the former head of sustainability at Zalando, Namrata Sandhu, alongside Anita Daminov and Luca Schmid.

“We have only nine short years left to achieve the UN’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and as the third largest contributor to global emissions, retailers need to take action – and fast,” said Namrata Sandhu, chief executive of Vaayu. “Vaayu is here to help retailers measure, monitor and reduce their carbon footprint at scale across the entire supply chain – something that I know from my own experience can be complex and expensive.”

Sandhu added: “We are delighted to be backed by female-led CapitalT who understood us and our vision right from the start. We look forward to developing Vaayu further in the coming months so we can reach as many retailers as possible and help put the brakes on the impending climate crisis.”

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