Aussie carbon tech company Sphere rolls out to 66m cardholders in Asia, while also helping local businesses automate climate reporting
Australian fintech Sphere today announced its carbon tech would soon be available to up to 66 million cardholders in Asia, with two new banks in Vietnam making services available to their customers.
Vietnamese bank Techcombank joins Malaysian banks Maybank and Public Bank to offer the Aussie-developed carbon insight and action technology to their Visa cardholders who want to manage their carbon footprint via their banking app. Another Vietnamese bank, Sacombank, will offer the service from May 2025.
Sphere CEO, Shaun Lordan (pictured), said Sphere was now working with merchants and payments platforms in Australia and Asia Pacific to help them automate their climate emissions reporting, while also providing services for their environmentally conscious consumers at the checkout.
Lordan will be showcasing the technology at the Fintech for Net Zero event at the Tank Stream Labs, Sydney on 12 March, 2025.
“It’s great to see our innovative climate tech being adopted by international banks who can offer millions of customers the opportunity to better understand their carbon footprint and take positive climate action,” Lordan said.
“Our tech is now being applied to help merchants and payments platforms automate climate-related ESG reporting requirements. Sphere helps them better understand their carbon impact with high quality data, reduce their emissions and invest in quality offset projects if they need to. These businesses also have the option to offer their own customers the ability to make more informed purchasing decisions and monitor their carbon footprint at the checkout.”
Sphere’s API and modular build allows financial institutions and merchants to easily and quickly integrate carbon action tech into their systems.
The solution couples card payments technology developed in Australia with the research prowess of Swinburne University of Technology, which has joined as an equity partner in the company.
Sphere is partnering with Visa’s APAC & CEMEA regions, providing the Sphere solution with access to hundreds of banks across 100 markets worldwide.
The climate tech helps cardholders manage their carbon footprint associated with their everyday card spending, while also having the option to offset their emissions with micro investments in quality carbon reduction projects with a minimum A rating.
Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, Sphere’s technology analyses the detail of a consumer’s everyday card spending to provide:
- an accurate estimation of their carbon footprint,
- tips on how to reduce emissions, and
- options to make micro investments in carbon reduction projects to live a carbon neutral life.
“Given that around 70 per cent of global emissions come from the things we buy every day, we want to drive genuine change at the individual level on the world’s path to net zero,” Lordan said.
“Consumers are looking for ways to make better and more informed buying decisions with around 95% of considering the sustainability of a product to be important, and 62% willing to change their purchasing habits to reduce environmental impact.
“If customers want to take further action, we provide them with the opportunity to easily offset their emissions with micro investments in quality environmental programs with a minimum A rating.”
