Follows Emirates NBD’s recent investment in climate FinTech venture Erguvan 

Pilot project launched with EKOS Electric in Türkiye 

Program to include UAE SMEs in next phase 

 
Dubai, UAE: Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye) region, has announced that Erguvan, a climate and financial technology venture it recently invested in, has successfully launched a pilot program to deploy its carbon management solution, “Azalt” among regional SMEs.

The proof-of-concept project was conducted with EKOS Electric, an SME client of DenizBank, a fully owned subsidiary of Emirates NBD Group. Azalt emerged as a vital tool for EKOS Electric, aiding in identification of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission hotspots and implementing data-driven emission reduction campaigns.

The successful pilot highlights the significant potential of Erguvan’s SaaS product Azalt, in supporting businesses and their financial partners in understanding and mitigating emissions. Emirates NBD and Erguvan announce plans to expand the programme to UAE-based SMEs to measure, reduce and offset their GHG emissions.

SMEs significantly contribute to GHG emissions, however, are unaware of their carbon footprint due to low awareness and organizational capacity for sustainability and a lack of cost-effective digital tools for climate action with easy deployment and use. In this context, Erguvan aims to equip SMEs with a user-friendly digital tool to initiate their journey into emissions accounting and reporting, ultimately driving emissions reduction. The climate FinTech startup also aims to establish linkages between the decarbonization efforts of SMEs and sustainable finance instruments to accelerate progress.

To be launched officially in early 2024, Erguvan’s carbon management SaaS product Azalt is designed to streamline data collection and management efforts, enhance data reliability, and accurately measure, reduce, and offset a company’s carbon footprint (i.e., Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions). Azalt also offers an efficient and scalable carbon accounting infrastructure for financial institutions, enabling a strong foundation for the sustainable products they offer.  

Vijay Bains, Group Chief Sustainability Officer and Group Head of ESG at Emirates NBD, said: “With the intensified focus on climate action, it is imperative for financial institutions to offer and implement advanced digital tools to meet the evolving needs of businesses and individuals. The introduction of Erguvan’s carbon management solution underscores the bank's commitments to being a catalyst for the green transition in the MENAT region.” 

He added, “Emirates NBD aims to bridge the digital gap and empower its customers in the region to embrace more sustainable practices, aligning with global environmental goals. By offering digital resources that facilitate ESG management, Emirates NBD seeks to aid its clients to reduce their environmental footprint, thereby contributing to the bank's broader climate goals and reinforcing its position as a responsible and forward-thinking financial institution.” 

Barış Balat, Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder of Erguvan, stated: “A driving factor behind our partnership with Emirates NBD is the essential role financial institutions play in the decarbonization of business sectors. As financial institutions address the critical issue of financed emissions by setting targets and making commitments, there is an escalating emphasis on data quality to ensure accuracy of decarbonization across lending portfolios and other asset classes. Erguvan’s Azalt solution provides a user-friendly carbon management platform to businesses of all sizes while fulfilling the emerging requirement in the financial sector to collect high-quality, actionable emissions data. We believe that at scale deployment of our solutions will also help bridge the data gap in the MENAT region and accelerate climate action.”

Tunahan Akbaş, Vice President at EKOS Electric, said: “We firmly believe that an integral part of our commitment to both our esteemed clients and the broader society lies in understanding and actively reducing the environmental impacts arising from our operations. This collaboration and the deployment of Erguvan's Azalt software marks our company's inaugural step in quantifying our carbon footprint, which we pledge to vigilantly monitor and manage. Through this initiative, we pinpointed key emission hotspots, setting the stage for direct emission reduction measures. This proof-of-concept project also allowed us to engage with DenizBank in a new way, fostering a rejuvenated discourse around decarbonization and its associated financial avenues.”

Verda Beril Yüzer Oğuz, Executive Vice President & Head of FI and ESG Coordination at DenizBank, remarked: “DenizBank is deeply committed to accelerating the green transition in Türkiye. To break new ground in this domain, we highly value the opportunities to work with promising start-ups, and NEOHUB (DenizBank's subsidiary) continues to play a fundamental role providing this access. Our collaboration with Erguvan has particularly been helpful in making tangible strides in decarbonization and this proof-of-concept project executed with EKOS Electric paints a vivid picture of the larger, bank-wide ambitions we harbor for climate action."

About Emirates NBD 

Emirates NBD (DFM: Emirates NBD) is a leading banking group in the MENAT (Middle East, North Africa and Türkiye) region with a presence in 13 countries, serving over 20 million customers. As at 30th September 2023, total assets were AED 836 billion, (equivalent to approx. USD 228 billion). The Group has operations in the UAE, Egypt, India, Türkiye, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Austria, Germany, Russia and Bahrain and representative offices in China and Indonesia with a total of 853 branches and 4,213 ATMs / SDMs. Emirates NBD is the leading financial services brand in the UAE with a Brand value of USD 3.89 billion.  

Emirates NBD Group serves its customers (individuals, businesses, governments, and institutions) and helps them realise their financial objectives through a range of banking products and services including retail banking, corporate and institutional banking, Islamic banking, investment banking, private banking, asset management, global markets and treasury, and brokerage operations. The Group is a key participant in the global digital banking industry with 97% of all financial transactions and requests conducted outside of its branches. The Group also operates Liv, the lifestyle digital bank by Emirates NBD, with close to half a million users, it continues to be the fastest-growing bank in the region.

Emirates NBD contributes to the construction of a sustainable future as an active participant and supporter of the UAE’s main development and sustainability initiatives, including financial wellness and the inclusion of people of determination. Emirates NBD is committed to supporting the UAE’s Year of Sustainability as Principal Banking Partner of COP28 and an early supporter to the Dubai Can sustainability initiative, a city-wide initiative aimed to reduce use of single-use plastic bottled water.

For further information on Emirates NBD, please contact: 
Ibrahim Sowaidan
Senior Vice President
Head - Group Corporate Affairs
Emirates NBD
Telephone: +971 4 609 4113 / +971 50 6538937
e-mail: ibrahims@emiratesnbd.com

Safa Yakoob 
asda’a bcw; Dubai, UAE
Tel: 971-4-4507600
Email: safa.yakoob@bcw-global.com