Nori targets first-time carbon buyers
Paul Gambill, CEO of Nori, on tokenized projects for social good
This shows Nori was trying to expand the carbon market, not just compete for existing budget. Instead of selling into the usual Fortune 500 sustainability team, Nori built for first time buyers who wanted a simpler purchase, lower minimum commitment, and a clearer link between dollars spent and farmers getting paid. That put Nori closer to an on-ramp product, while traditional registries remained the system larger companies used for more formal, reputationally managed procurement.
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Nori removed a lot of the old market friction. Farmers paid about $4,000 for third party verification, which was described as about 90% cheaper than traditional registries, and buyers could purchase tonnes directly while Nori took a 15% fee above the carbon price. That is much easier than the broker, consultant, and custom diligence workflow common in legacy offsets.
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The pattern was not unique to Nori. Patch reported that 98% of its customers had never invested in carbon removal before, and 60% had no prior sustainability program. That suggests API driven and software led carbon products were opening demand from newer, smaller, and non specialist buyers rather than mainly displacing incumbent registry purchasing.
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Larger companies still tended to stay with traditional registries because carbon buying inside an enterprise is often tied to brand risk, employee pressure, customer expectations, and formal disclosure processes. That is why Nori described Patch as a direct competitor, but saw accounting tools like Persefoni and GreenFeet as complements that could feed new buyers into its marketplace after emissions were measured.
The market is heading toward a split model. Carbon accounting software will keep pulling more companies into disclosure and target setting, while marketplaces and APIs turn those newly aware companies into first time buyers. The winners will be the platforms that make buying carbon feel less like bespoke consulting and more like a standard software checkout flow.