Sonepar family's impact arm leads seven million euro bet on cleaner rice farming
CarbonFarm, a Paris-based climate technology startup that works on cutting methane from rice farming, has closed an oversubscribed Series A round of seven million euros. Colam Impact led the round. It is the impact investment arm of Colam Entreprendre, the holding company of the French family-owned group Sonepar. Vassily Carantino and James Hastwell founded CarbonFarm in 2021, and it now operates in nineteen countries.
The capital comes with a named destination rather than a general appetite for growth. It is meant for expansion across Asia, Africa and Europe, a faster push into Latin America, and the tools to certify rice projects for corporate supply chains and regulated carbon markets. Vassily Carantino, CarbonFarm's co-founder and chief executive, says scale will come from equipping local value-chain players instead of replacing them.
Source: EU-Startups · October 13, 2026