Building a Carbon Accounting Platform from Ideation to MVP

Client

Energi.ai

Website

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Industry

Energy Tech

Service Line

Product management, Software development, Architecture, UI/UX Design, AI/ML

Overview

Energi.ai is an Oslo-based startup operating at the intersection of sustainability and financial data. Widely regarded as a global hub for energy innovation, they set out to build a SaaS platform that helps businesses measure their carbon footprint and take concrete steps toward net-zero.

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HBM joined as a technology partner at the ideation stage, which gave the team direct influence over core product decisions from day one. The engagement spanned the full product lifecycle with a cross-functional team of UI/UX designers, developers, a data scientist, a test engineer, and a product manager working in close collaboration with Energi.ai's founders.

Our customers love what we do

"I highly recommend HBM. We selected them as the technology partner for our portfolio startups, and that decision has paid off consistently. Their team is genuinely service-minded: responsive, technically strong, and pragmatic about delivery.

HBM has been with us since the earliest stages of our startups. That long-term partnership has allowed me to focus on the business and commercial side, knowing that product development is in capable hands.

To put it simply, HBM was instrumental in helping us scale our technical teams quickly and effectively."

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Anders H. Lier

^{CEO & Founder at Energi.ai}

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Client Needs and Challenges:

Energi.AI came to us as with a bold ambition: was to help businesses understand their real carbon footprint and move toward net-zero.

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But the underlying problem was hard to solve. Sustainability is still largely a data problem, and most businesses lack reliable ways to collect, normalize, and analyze their financial data in a way that translates into accurate carbon emissions reporting.

To move from vision to working product, the client needed both a delivery partner who could act as their core tech team and a solution that tackled the deeper data challenges head-on.

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Specific client needs and product challenges shaped the project scope:

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No scalable in-house dev team. As an early-stage startup, Energi.AI didn't have the engineering capacity to build and scale the platform on their own. Hiring a full team from scratch would have pushed the product back by months, so they needed an external partner with proven experience in SaaS products.
Fast path to pilot and MVP. The client wanted to validate the idea with real users as quickly as possible, starting with a working pilot, then moving to an MVP that could onboard first customers and support further fundraising.
Turning financial data into emissions calculations. The platform needed to quickly gather financial data with the help of AI, apply greenhouse gas accounting standards, and calculate a company's carbon footprint, fast enough to support real decision-making.
Breaking the twice-a-year reporting cycle. Most companies use carbon accounting tools only to prepare reports. The product had to shift CxOs from bi-yearly compliance to a continuous climate change mindset.
Building integrations and automating data flow. The platform needed direct connections to Norwegian ERP solutions, energy systems, and other relevant data sources to automate data collection and reduce manual input.
Setting up a scalable, AI-powered foundation. We had to build a solution capable of handling increasing data volumes and supporting predictive capabilities, including forecasting and image recognition with NLP, from day one.

Services Delivered

HBM operated as a full-scope technology partner, being responsible for translating the product vision into a working and scalable platform.

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Product Management

Created a product roadmap and release plan, transforming business requirements into tech ones for the development team, establishing clear priorities for the MVP and a path toward extended features post-launch.

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Architecture Design

Designed the system architecture and defined the tech stack with scalability as a core constraint, supporting rapid iteration during MVP and long-term growth.

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Software Development

Delivered a SaaS platform with scope-based emissions calculations aligned with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, extended analytics with industry benchmarking, and integrations with Norwegian ERP solutions, energy systems, and other relevant data sources to automate data flow.

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Software Testing

Ensured product quality across releases through thorough testing, validating emissions calculations, integrations, and dashboards to keep the platform reliable as new features rolled out.

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UI/UX Design

Designed and iteratively improved the interface, including analytical dashboards to visualize Scope 1, 2, and 3 data, focused on making complex carbon data accessible and actionable for non-technical users.

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AI/ML

Developed ML-powered data forecasting, enabling predictive insights beyond historical reporting.

Outcomes

HBM delivered a production-ready MVP of the Energi.ai platform, taking the product from ideation through to release with live users.

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‍Main project results:

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Product roadmap and release plan that gave strategic clarity to the team, investors, and stakeholders for both the MVP and future development phases.
MVP released and first users onboarded, with extended feature implementation already underway.
Scalable architecture to support growing data volumes and user demand as the platform expands.
Third-party integrations with Norwegian ERP solutions, energy systems, and other data sources automate what was previously a manual data collection process.
ML-driven analytics and forecasting that give businesses predictive tools to move carbon accounting from reactive reporting to proactive decision-making.
Continuous product improvement based on real-world user feedback and evolving product requirements.

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