osapiens Spends Its Unicorn Round After Brussels Cut the Mandate

$100 million from Decarbonization Partners took Mannheim software firm osapiens through a $1B+ valuation in January 2026. The BlackRock and Temasek joint venture led a US$100 million Series C that the company billed as fuel for product work and new markets.

The check was a wager on software that sells against EU sustainability rules. Brussels then shrank those rules. osapiens spent the year hiring in Britain and buying Nasdaq’s Metrio reporting stack anyway.

BlackRock and Temasek Wrote the Check Anyway

Decarbonization Partners is the late-stage climate vehicle of BlackRock and Temasek. Its own site lists $1.4 billion raised since inception, a close in April 2024, 30 limited partners across 18 countries, and 14 portfolio companies. osapiens sits in that book as enterprise software for compliance, sustainability, and supply-chain work.

Dr. Meghan Sharp, global head and chief investment officer, said osapiens is “redefining how companies achieve transparency, compliance, and operational excellence across increasingly complex supply chains.” She added that firms want “trusted, scalable software to meet rising regulatory, sustainability and decarbonization expectations.”

Existing holders stayed on the cap table. Goldman Sachs Alternatives had led a $120 million Series B in July 2024. Armira Growth had led a $27 million Series A in September 2023. Those two rounds total $147 million. Add the Series C and osapiens has raised $247 million. That is the money behind the January unicorn funding round.

THE OSAPIENS FUNDING LADDER

The January release said proceeds would speed product work and growth in markets the firm already had, plus new ones. Co-CEO Alberto Zamora called the incoming backer “an exceptional partner” because of BlackRock and Temasek’s reach. Co-CEO Matthias Jungblut said the fund “understands both the regulatory dynamics companies face today and the business opportunity of AI-driven efficiency that comes with it.”

A Round Priced for Doors, Not Cash

Zamora told an interviewer the firm did not need the capital. The Series C still closed. Jungblut said the new names could “open doors for us,” and he pointed at the United States and Asia.

We didn’t need the money at all. That’s why the round turned out to be smaller.

Alberto Zamora, co-CEO and co-founder, osapiens

He also said osapiens grew by almost 100 percent in 2025, then declined to give figures and declined to say whether the company was already profitable. In the same sitting he argued that thinner sustainability teams help his product, because “sustainability departments in companies have fewer employees and smaller budgets than they did a few years ago.”

That is the bet in plain terms. Decarbonization Partners did not need osapiens to be short of cash. It needed a software layer its climate thesis can sell to the same corporates that already file under EU rules, California climate laws, and customer questionnaires. If the statute shrinks, the software still has to earn the seat.

1,000 Staff and €450 Million to Stay In

The statute did shrink. Directive (EU) 2026/470, the Omnibus I amending directive, is dated 24 February 2026, ran in the Official Journal on 26 February, and entered into force on 18 March 2026. It rewrites who must publish sustainability reports.

Mandatory reporting at company level now applies to undertakings with an average of more than 1,000 employees during the financial year and net turnover exceeding €450 million. The Commission’s own proposal said that change would take about 80 percent of undertakings out of scope. Thimo Stoll, a KPMG partner in Germany, put the drop in the number of companies that must report at up to 90 percent.

WHAT BRUSSELS CHANGED

• Who files: CSRD now needs more than 1,000 staff and more than €450 million of net turnover, both tests together.
• When they file: Newly in-scope firms report on financial year 2027, with first reports due in 2028.
• How much they file: Revised European Sustainability Reporting Standards cut mandatory datapoints by more than 60 percent, the Commission said after the July 2026 adoption, with first use for years beginning 1 January 2027.
• What still bites: Packaging rules under PPWR began on 12 August 2026, and deforestation due diligence, product passports, and US forced-labor import bans were never on the Omnibus chopping block.

A unicorn priced on a widening reporting net now faces a narrower one. The founders already knew a relief package was coming when the round closed. Zamora still said, “We will become the market leader if we don’t make any mistakes,” and “We now have the best cards of any company worldwide.”

What the $100 Million Bought After the Close

The first public spend was geographic. On 27 March 2026 the company announced a €35 million UK hiring plan and more than 150 skilled jobs over the following years. It already counted BAT, Tesco, and DS Smith as British customers and said it would grow the local team, infrastructure, and partnerships.

That UK note also restated 2025 run-rate. In Q2 2025, osapiens said it had doubled annual recurring revenue year on year, the 42nd straight month above 100 percent growth, and had added more than 400 enterprise customers in the first half of 2025.

The UK Plan for 150 Jobs

Britain is not a CSRD member-state story. It is a customer story. Tesco and DS Smith were already on the books when the Series C landed. The €35 million is a bet that UK grocers, packagers, and manufacturers will keep buying supplier data, packaging files, and audit trails even when Brussels lets mid-size EU issuers off the hook.

Nasdaq Metrio and the American Door

The larger move came on August 19, 2026. osapiens Services GmbH completed the purchase of the Nasdaq Metrio platform and its customers. Financial terms were not disclosed. Evercore advised Nasdaq. Hogan Lovells Cadwalader advised osapiens. Skadden advised Nasdaq.

Nasdaq had launched Metrio in 2023 after buying the Montreal software shop. The product collects, checks, and files environmental, social, and emissions data against CDP, GRI, IFRS, SASB, and California climate disclosure rules. Most of its clients sit in North America. Michael Bartels, Nasdaq’s senior vice president for capital access platforms, said Metrio had become “a leader for non-financial reporting and carbon accounting in North America,” and that the sale lets Nasdaq concentrate on investor-relations and governance tools for listed firms.

Very few acquisitions fit this precisely. More than 2,500 customers already run and automate their compliance processes and conduct supplier intelligence on the osapiens HUB, with non-financial reporting and carbon accounting being centrally integrated. With the acquisition of the Nasdaq Metrio platform and customers, we are now able to further deepen our functionalities to offer even greater value to our customers. At the same time, it allows us to accelerate our entry into the U.S. market.

Matthias Jungblut, co-CEO and co-founder, osapiens

THE 2026 SPEND AFTER THE ROUND

1. January 14, 2026: Decarbonization Partners leads the $100 million Series C and osapiens crosses a $1B+ valuation.
2. March 18, 2026: Omnibus I enters into force and CSRD’s headcount and turnover tests jump.
3. March 27, 2026: osapiens pledges €35 million and 150 jobs in the UK.
4. August 19, 2026: osapiens closes the Nasdaq Metrio platform and customer buy, terms undisclosed.

An American exchange stepping out of carbon accounting, while a German vendor steps in, is the other half of the wager. Washington has been hostile to European sustainability rules. California and ISSB-style filings still need a system of record. The vendors that already had to survive EU file formats are the ones with a product to plant in that gap.

Companies Dropped From CSRD Still Plan to Report

osapiens tried to prove the point with its own study, “Beyond Compliance: Sustainability Reporting After the Omnibus,” fielded in December 2025 and January 2026. It polled 403 senior people at firms with 1,000 or more staff: 100 in the UK, 100 in DACH, 101 in Benelux, and 102 in France. After the new tests, 24 percent of that sample were expected to fall out of CSRD and 76 percent to stay in.

WHAT THE OMNIBUS SURVEY FOUND

• Dropped firms: 90 percent of companies taken out of CSRD said they still intend to maintain or expand sustainability reporting.
• Standards: 86 percent of those dropped firms said they can still produce reports aligned with CSRD-level standards.
• Budgets: 88.9 percent of all companies in the sample expected to raise spending on reporting tools and automation over the next 12 months.
• Finance link: 90 percent of all companies said sustainability reporting is already partly or fully tied into financial reporting.
• Staffing risk: 84 percent expected reduced regulatory scrutiny to mean fewer resources for the work over time.

The last figure is the one that can break a software thesis. If nine in ten dropped firms want to keep filing, but 84 percent also expect the headcount and budget for that work to shrink, the buyer is a smaller team that needs more automation, or the contract gets cut. Zamora’s comment about thinner sustainability departments is the same tension from the other side of the table.

Treat the 90 percent as a vendor survey, not a census. osapiens sells the software those respondents would keep using. The sample is also large companies only. The Omnibus was written to spare firms below 1,000 staff. Those firms were never in this poll.

The Mannheim Shop Next to SAP

osapiens was founded in 2018 in Mannheim by Stefan Wawrzinek, now chairman, and co-CEOs Jungblut and Zamora. The three had worked at SAP. Jungblut has said they picked Mannheim, about 30 kilometers from SAP’s Walldorf campus, because large corporates and technical universities sit next door, and because German startups too often default to Berlin or Munich. The city housed the early team in the Mafinex technology centre. osapiens won the German Founder’s Award in 2022.

The current company page puts more than 2,500 customers in over 60 countries on the osapiens HUB, with a team of 550+ people and 70+ nationalities across Europe and the United States. In January, at the time of the round, the firm put headcount at about 550 and customers at more than 2,400, including Otto, Edeka, and C&A. Coca-Cola North America has used the platform for route planning to cut CO₂. Other named accounts have included Lidl, Carrefour, and the Acciona-Nordex Group.

The HUB is sold as one multi-tenant platform. The January materials counted more than 25 cloud modules. The current site groups the work into seven suites: supplier intelligence, product compliance, disclosures and reporting, carbon management, maintenance and repairs, audit and quality assurance, and distribution. Reporting is one slice. A large share of the catalogue is operational software that still sells if CSRD never applies.

That mix is how a German compliance vendor can absorb a North American carbon ledger. Metrio files the report. The HUB already claims supplier records, product files, and maintenance jobs. If the Omnibus kills a reporting SKU, the rest of the invoice can remain.

Where Price Pressure Hits ESG Software

Stoll, the KPMG partner, warned that a smaller mandated market meets “a large number of providers in the market with very similar solution portfolios,” which “increases price pressure,” and that established software firms now offer comparable products that slot into existing stacks. Julian Riedlbauer, a partner at investment bank Drake Star, called the unicorn a good sign that German AI companies can still raise large cheques.

Those two views can both be true. A $100 million round from BlackRock’s climate vehicle is a vote that this category still compounds. A crowded field of reporting tools, plus SAP-class incumbents, is a warning that the vote can be lost on price. Workiva, Sphera, Persefoni, Diligent, Enablon, and SAP itself already sell overlapping disclosure and carbon products in Europe.

Nasdaq’s exit is a data point in that shakeout. The exchange kept investor-relations and governance software and sold the sustainability ledger. osapiens paid an undisclosed sum to inherit that ledger and its US logos. If Metrio’s book renews on the HUB, the January cheque bought a North American channel that Goldman and Armira could not open on their own. If those customers churn in the switch, the round bought a press release.

Jungblut said the Metrio close lets osapiens speed its US entry. Terms stay undisclosed, profit stays undisclosed, and the 150 UK jobs are still a plan. The statute that was supposed to mint this category is now a 1,000-person, €450 million club. The software has to sell to everyone else without the law in the room.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis of a private company’s funding, product moves, and the EU rules that sit behind its market. It is for information only and is not investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security, fund interest, or other instrument. Readers who are considering an allocation to private technology companies, climate funds, or related public stocks should consult a licensed financial adviser who can review their objectives and risk limits. Headcounts, customer counts, valuations, and deal terms reflect the company statements, EU legal text, and other sources cited here and can change with later filings or disclosures.