Q Insights #018

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This week’s read time: 5 minutes

Welcome to this edition of Q Insights — our bi-weekly newsletter for sustainability and ESG professionals looking to make smarter solution decisions.

Each edition brings you concise, relevant updates on the tools, trends, and technologies driving the sustainable transition. We filter the noise, highlight what matters, and help you navigate the sustainability solution landscape with clarity and confidence.

In this edition, we’ll cover: 

• Q Intelligence: KanataQ Market Intelligence Launching Soon 📊

• Q Thought Piece: 2026 Sustainability Solutions Outlook - thought piece by Nawar Alsaadi 💬

• Q Signals: Diginex acquired The Remedy Project, osapiens raised $100 million and reached unicorn status, and other news 🗞️

• KanataQ Corner: Newly Listed Providers on KanataQ ✅

• and other insights 💡

Q INTELLIGENCE

KanataQ Market Intelligence Launching Soon

📊 What if you could see what every sustainability buyer and provider is searching for - in real time?

Imagine knowing:
🔍 The most searched sustainability solutions and categories
💰 The average starting or average price of solutions in your category
📈 How prices and demand are shifting over time

This isn’t a “what if” anymore.

At KanataQ, we’ve built the first real-time Market Intelligence Platform for sustainability professionals - think Pitchbook or Bloomberg, but for ESG & Sustainability.

For the first time, providers and buyers will have transparent data on:
• Search trends from thousands of qualified buyers across 70+ solution categories
• Benchmark pricing and pricing changes
• Trust scores, leads, and watchlist activity
• Insights that help you compare, position, and win faster

Launching soon, so stay tuned ... 🚀

👉 Join the waitlist to be the first to see it.

Q THOUGHT PIECE

2026 Sustainability Solutions Outlook

By Nawar Alsaadi

2025 was the year sustainability procurement got tougher. Budgets tightened, cycles lengthened, and buyers prioritized finance integration, assurance, and real operational value.

So, the question is what does 2026 hold in store?

My read is that the sustainability solutions space will continue to progress unevenly in 2026 because it’s no longer one market. It’s multiple markets moving at different speeds. Broad ESG platforms and compliance-first tooling will likely remain choppy, especially where differentiation is thin and ROI is hard to prove. Meanwhile, Scope 3 analytics, assurance readiness, impact measurement, and climate adaptation are positioned for continued growth because they solve problems companies can’t postpone without taking on real financial and operational risk.

And the geographic center of gravity is likely to shift. Europe has led sustainability solutions adoption for years, but as policy momentum softens and timelines stretch, growth is likely to rotate toward faster-moving markets, particularly Asia and the Middle East, where decarbonization, industrial policy, and infrastructure buildouts are translating into real demand for implementation-grade solutions.

In 2026, the winners won’t be the companies with the loudest AI-enabled marketing. They’ll be the ones that reduce friction in real workflows. Supplier engagement, data reconciliation, audit trails, controls, integration with ERP and finance systems, and decision support that helps operating teams act, not just report. In a world of constrained budgets, automation only matters if it produces outcomes you can feel. Fewer hours spent cleaning data, faster cycle times, stronger defensibility, and clearer accountability.

This is exactly the shift we surfaced in the KanataQ December 2025 State of Sustainability Solutions report. Buyers are moving away from compliance tooling as a standalone category and toward integrated, decision-grade infrastructure. Systems that connect sustainability data to financial planning, risk management, procurement, and operations.

Finally, consolidation will accelerate, not as a trend headline, but as a necessity. Buyers are increasingly unwilling to stitch together five disconnected tools and hope the results align. They want fewer vendors, deeper integrations, clearer ownership, and implementation support that actually gets the solution adopted. That will reward platforms that operate as systems of record and systems of action, and it will pressure point solutions to either specialize, partner, or join larger ecosystems.

Obviously, no one has a crystal ball on what the future looks like. The sustainability solutions space is fast-moving, and with the advent of AI and a quickly evolving geopolitical landscape, uncertainty has never been higher. But what is indisputable is the practical necessity and the moral imperative to transition to a sustainable economy. And as that transition moves from ambition to execution, the market will keep rewarding what works.

Q SIGNALS

Latest developments, insights, and trends

📊 New tools, features, acquisitions, and funding rounds from solution providers

Diginex (KanataQ listed) acquired human rights advisory The Remedy Project to strengthen supply chain due diligence and remediation capabilities amid tightening global regulations. The deal combines Diginex’s ESG data and reporting technology with The Remedy Project’s expertise in labor rights, grievance mechanisms, and worker-centered remediation, helping companies comply with frameworks like the EU’s CSDDD. (link) Diginex also formally confirmed its acquisition of Plan A for €55 million, combining ESG reporting, carbon accounting, and decarbonization into a single end-to-end sustainability platform, while adding Visa and Deutsche Bank as shareholders and strengthening Diginex’s European footprint alongside Plan A’s expansion in Asia and North America. (link)

osapiens raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Decarbonization Partners, the BlackRock and Temasek joint venture, reaching unicorn status. The funding will be used to accelerate product innovation and international expansion of its AI-driven enterprise platform, which offers more than 25 solutions enabling companies to manage regulatory compliance, sustainability, and operational efficiency across complex global value chains. (link)

Climate software company ExpectAI launched a collaboration with Barclays to test AI-driven sustainability insights aimed at helping UK SMEs improve profitability, productivity, and competitiveness. Starting in early 2026, Barclays will pilot ExpectAI’s Una platform, which uses AI and public data to assess companies’ carbon footprints and generate tailored climate action plans, including energy-efficiency recommendations and links to verified solution providers and funding partners. (link)

Biographica raised £7 million in seed funding to accelerate the use of AI in developing climate-resilient, high-yield, and nutritious crops. The London-based startup will use the capital to expand its AI platform, speed up genetic trait discovery, and deepen partnerships. (link)

KANATAQ CORNER

What’s new on KanataQ?

📈 KanataQ Growing Family

Here is the list of providers that joined KanataQ since our last edition: Aclymate (Climate Action), and WeeFin (Digital Solutions & Analytics).

Come join us

Are you a sustainability solution provider? Join KanataQ, the platform where sustainability solution providers connect with high-intent buyers. Generate quality leads, gain market insights, and maximize ROI with our commission-free model. List with us today or contact us at [email protected] for inquiries.

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