London-based carbon credit ratings agency BeZero Carbon has acquired New York-based AI-powered climate data startup Cedar, with the transaction designed to advance BeZero's platform due diligence capabilities and expand its self-service analytical tools across the carbon markets.

As reported by ESG Today, Cedar was founded in 2025 by Farouq Ghandour, Piotr Kosiński, and Raphaël Haupt and provides solutions to automate complex sustainability tasks including carbon accounting, climate due diligence, emissions reporting, and renewable energy analysis using AI agents. All three Cedar co-founders will join BeZero as part of the transaction.

Farouq Ghandour, CEO and co-founder of Cedar, said: "BeZero has built the kind of ratings rails that underpin more mature markets, with a level of scientific rigour we deeply respect. We're joining to make that scientific intelligence more accessible and to expand their platform due-diligence tools that let more of the market act with confidence."

Tommy Ricketts, CEO and co-founder of BeZero Carbon, said: "This acquisition will offer our customers better tools to access insights, interrogate data, and have greater confidence when making investment decisions."

BeZero said the acquisition comes at a time of increasing demand for expert-led carbon ratings to inform purchase decisions across voluntary and compliance carbon markets. The company added that it expects to become regulated under the European Union's ESG regulations later this year, a development that will place additional weight on the rigour and transparency of its ratings methodology.

BeZero's existing platform provides subscribers with access to carbon ratings analysis, a suite of self-service data and analytical tools, an AI assistant, pre-rating scorecards, and geospatial tooling to support project risk assessment. The Cedar acquisition is expected to accelerate development of more sophisticated capabilities across those offerings.

The transaction reflects growing recognition that credible, data-driven carbon market infrastructure is essential to scaling voluntary carbon markets and ensuring that credit purchases translate into genuine, verifiable climate outcomes.

Examine the full details of BeZero Carbon's acquisition of Cedar and its carbon market strategy in the complete article.