Key Features¶
Carbon Connect delivers four integrated capability areas that together create a complete carbon funding workflow -- from understanding your emissions to submitting a winning grant application.
Carbon Intelligence¶
The foundation of everything Carbon Connect does is a deep understanding of each company's carbon profile.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Carbon Footprint Calculator | Enter operational data (energy use, fuel consumption, travel) and receive GHG Protocol-compliant Scope 1, 2, and 3 emission calculations powered by Climatiq API |
| EU Taxonomy Classification | Automatic assessment of your activities against the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy objectives |
| Green Deal Alignment | Track how your operations and reduction plans align with European Green Deal objectives |
| CSRD Compliance Support | Identify which Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requirements apply to your business and how grants can help you meet them |
| Certification Tracking | Manage and display sustainability certifications (ISO 14001, SBTi, CDP, B Corp, EcoVadis) that improve grant eligibility |
| Reduction Target Setting | Set and monitor carbon reduction targets with year-over-year progress tracking |
Why This Matters
Carbon data is not just about compliance. On our platform, a richer carbon profile directly translates to better grant matches and higher match scores. The matching algorithm gives 25% weight to carbon alignment, meaning companies with complete carbon profiles discover more relevant funding opportunities.
Carbon Categories Supported¶
The platform classifies and matches across 14 carbon categories:
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Energy Efficiency | Building retrofits, industrial process optimization |
| Renewable Energy | Solar, wind, biomass installations |
| Clean Technology | Low-carbon manufacturing, green chemistry |
| Circular Economy | Waste reduction, material recycling |
| Sustainable Transport | Fleet electrification, logistics optimization |
| Green Buildings | Near-zero energy construction, renovation |
| Carbon Capture | CCS/CCU technology deployment |
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Hydrogen | Green hydrogen production and usage |
| Industrial Decarbonization | Heavy industry transition projects |
| Sustainable Agriculture | Low-emission farming, precision agriculture |
| Biodiversity | Nature-based solutions, ecosystem restoration |
| Water Management | Water efficiency, treatment technology |
| Waste Reduction | Zero-waste initiatives, upcycling |
| Climate Adaptation | Resilience infrastructure, risk mitigation |
Smart Grant Matching¶
The matching engine is the core differentiator of Carbon Connect. It goes far beyond keyword search to deliver genuinely relevant results.
Hybrid Matching Algorithm¶
Our algorithm combines five scoring dimensions to produce a single match score for every company-grant pair:
| Component | Weight | What It Measures |
|---|---|---|
| Rule-Based Criteria | 30% | Hard eligibility: country, NACE industry codes, company size |
| Semantic Similarity | 25% | How well your business description aligns with the grant's objectives, using AI text understanding |
| Carbon Alignment | 25% | Match between your emissions profile, certifications, and reduction targets and the grant's carbon requirements |
| Collaborative Filtering | 10% | Patterns from similar companies -- what have businesses like yours applied to? |
| Recency Bonus | 10% | Priority for grants with approaching deadlines so you never miss an opportunity |
Smart Disqualification
The algorithm does not waste your time. If a grant explicitly excludes your country or company size, it is immediately disqualified -- you will never see it. Carbon-focused grants receive a 1.2x bonus to surface the most impactful opportunities first.
Multi-Source Data Pipeline¶
Grant data flows into the platform from multiple authoritative sources, updated regularly:
| Source | API Type | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| CORDIS | REST API | EU research funding (Horizon Europe, EIC, ERC) |
| EU Funding Portal | REST API | Real-time EU tenders and calls |
| Cohesion Open Data | Socrata SODA API | European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), European Social Fund (ESF) |
| Innovate UK | REST API | UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funding |
| National databases | Web scraping | BAFA, KfW (Germany), Bpifrance (France) -- planned |
Sub-100ms Full-Text Search¶
The search engine (powered by Meilisearch) delivers results in under 100 milliseconds, even across 100,000+ grant documents. Features include:
- Typo tolerance -- searching "solar pannels" still finds "solar panels"
- Multi-language support -- English, German, French, Spanish, Italian
- Faceted filtering -- refine by country, funding amount, deadline, carbon category, and more
- Automatic fallback -- if the search engine is unavailable, the platform seamlessly falls back to database search
AI Application Assistance¶
Writing a competitive grant application is traditionally the most time-consuming and expensive part of the process. Carbon Connect's AI assistant changes that equation fundamentally.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Claude-Powered Generation | Uses Anthropic's Claude (Sonnet 4) to generate professional-quality application drafts |
| Section Templates | Pre-built templates for common grant sections (executive summary, project description, budget justification, impact assessment) |
| Profile-Aware Content | The AI uses your company profile, carbon data, and the specific grant's requirements to produce tailored content |
| Compliance Checking | Automatic verification that generated content addresses the grant's stated requirements |
| Token Usage Tracking | Transparent cost tracking for every generation |
Cost Comparison
| Method | Cost per Application | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional consultant | EUR 5,000 - 25,000 | 2-8 weeks |
| In-house (no experience) | Staff time + opportunity cost | 4-12 weeks |
| Carbon Connect AI | Under $0.001 | Minutes |
The AI does not replace human judgment -- it produces a high-quality first draft that your team reviews and refines, cutting the application process from weeks to hours.
Enterprise Features¶
Carbon Connect is built from the ground up as an enterprise-grade platform.
Multi-Tenant Architecture¶
Every customer's data is completely isolated through PostgreSQL row-level security (RLS) policies. This is not just application-level access control -- the database itself enforces that one tenant can never access another tenant's data, even if there were a bug in the application code.
Partner Program¶
A complete partner and referral system for sustainability consultants, industry associations, and financial institutions:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Partner registration and onboarding | Self-service partner portal |
| Referral tracking | Link-based tracking with click and conversion analytics |
| Commission management | Tiered commission structures with automated calculation |
| Partner dashboard | Performance metrics, referral history, earnings overview |
| Admin controls | Partner status management, tier upgrades, payout administration |
API Access¶
A full REST API with 60+ endpoints enables integration with existing business systems:
- Authentication -- JWT tokens with refresh capability
- Company management -- Full CRUD for company profiles
- Grant access -- Search, filter, and retrieve grant details
- Matching -- Trigger and retrieve match calculations
- Applications -- Create, update, and track applications
- Dashboard -- Statistics, activity feeds, and analytics
Notification System¶
Configurable alerts keep users informed without overwhelming them:
- Deadline reminders (7-day and 1-day warnings)
- New grant matches above a quality threshold
- Application status changes
- Email delivery via Amazon SES with professional templates