Dcycle, a Spanish platform that helps companies collect and manage sustainability data, acquired 100% of ESG-X, a Munich software startup that uses AI to prepare ESG reports. The deal was reported by the German startup site Startbase on February 9, 2026, and Dcycle published its own announcement on its blog the following day.
Neither company disclosed the purchase price or any other financial terms. Dcycle said the acquisition brings ESG-X's capabilities into its own platform, creating a single environment for non-financial reporting aimed at mid-sized companies.
The three ESG-X founders, Paolo Mazza, Valentin Aman and Jean Bauer, are joining Dcycle. According to Dcycle, they will help build out its business in Germany, which Startbase described as one of the most demanding ESG markets in Europe, particularly for industrial small and mid-sized firms.
What ESG-X built
ESG-X came out of the Antler startup programme and developed its own AI models for two time-consuming parts of sustainability reporting: materiality assessments, in which a company decides which environmental and social topics it must report on, and regulatory mapping, which links company data to the relevant disclosure rules.
Its customers were mid-market companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and its work centred on the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and VSME, the voluntary reporting standard for smaller companies. Dcycle said ESG-X's infrastructure is hosted entirely in certified data centres in Germany, and that the startup had offices in Munich and Düsseldorf.
Aman, who led ESG-X as co-founder and chief executive, told Startbase the product was designed for mid-sized companies that need to meet ESG requirements without building their own sustainability departments or buying complex software, and that the acquisition would let the team scale that model faster and in new markets. Neither company reported how many people ESG-X employed or how much outside funding it had raised beyond its time in the Antler programme.
“The European ESG software market is in a consolidation phase. Many solutions only cover partial aspects. With ESG-X, we are gaining access to one of the most important European markets, technical expertise and AI competence for SMEs.”
Why Dcycle is buying
Dcycle positions itself as a data layer for non-financial company information, such as emissions, supply-chain data and ESG metrics. ESG-X adds AI applications on top of that data. Startbase reported that the combined offering is meant to cover the whole ESG process, from automated materiality analysis through to CSRD-compliant reports and the evaluation of data a company already holds.
Dcycle listed several features it plans to build on the combined platform: AI-assisted double materiality assessments, image recognition for pulling data from invoices and other documents, help with improving EcoVadis supplier ratings, automated reporting under the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), and local data residency in Germany. Dcycle said its existing TÜV Rheinland certifications for ISO 14064 and ISO 27001 remain in place.
German data residency matters to many of the industrial and family-owned businesses Dcycle wants to reach, which are under pressure from CSRD supply-chain requirements and from customers who rate their suppliers on sustainability, according to Startbase.
The founders and their new roles
Dcycle described the roles each ESG-X founder takes on. Mazza, a software engineer, leads the technical integration of the two products and the AI work. Aman, who has a business development background, is responsible for commercial growth in the DACH region. Bauer, an ESG consultant, provides customer support in German from Düsseldorf.
Dcycle said the additions give it local support teams in Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom. The company lists its headquarters in Madrid, with offices in London and Munich.
Dcycle's growth plan
Dcycle raised a Series A round in December 2024 led by Samaipata. The company did not disclose the size of that round in its announcement. It said it now has more than 2,000 clients across Europe and close to 60 employees.
Startbase reported that the ESG-X deal is part of a strategy that combines organic growth with targeted acquisitions, with the goal of building a leading ESG platform for small and mid-sized European companies.
A crowded market starts to consolidate
Juanjo Mestre, Dcycle's chief executive and co-founder, said the European ESG software market had entered a consolidation phase, with many products covering only part of what companies need. He argued that CSRD, assurance requirements and closer scrutiny of supply chains are pushing buyers toward integrated ESG data systems that can stand up to an audit.
Mestre said that by buying ESG-X, Dcycle gained access to one of Europe's most important markets along with technical know-how and AI skills built for smaller companies. The deal follows a familiar pattern in fragmented software markets, in which a larger platform absorbs a local specialist and keeps its founders to run the business in their home market.
