“We are a team that has been working for many miles in startups and in the field of technology,” says Andrés Cester, one of the four co-founders of Manglai. Andrés Cester, Jaume Fontal, Jesús Cabezas and Jordi López Ramírez have traveled some of these kilometers at the successful online florist Colvin, where they met.
Your new business adventure was born as a result of a market need. “We realized that for companies to measure, reduce and certify their carbon footprint, as they are required to do, is a complex and expensive process. We saw the opportunity to create software that would speed up and simplify the process thanks to artificial intelligence and hence the origin of Manglai,” explains Cester.
After about four months of development, the entrepreneurs launched a first version of their solution in October 2023. The clients of this Barcelona startup are small and medium-sized companies with large carbon footprints, belonging to the transportation sector, livestock farming or the chemical industry. , among others. They operate in different countries of the European Union and now also in Mexico.
With the aim of growing more quickly, Manglai has closed a financing round of 500,000 euros, which has been led by the All Iron Ventures fund. The capital injection, which is added to the 100,000 euros of initial investment made by the partners, is aimed at strengthening the sales teams and improving the platform technologically. The ultimate goal is to become profitable as soon as possible.
Since October last year, Manglai has designed about 40 decarbonization plans. “We transform financial information into environmental information automatically thanks to artificial intelligence and, from there, we create a decarbonization plan with the objectives set by the company,” Cester specifies. This year, which will be their first full year, the founders expect to invoice a minimum of half a million euros.
