The renewable fuels industry stands as a beacon of hope in the global effort to mitigate climate change and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. By harnessing energy from renewable sources like agricultural waste, RNG from livestock manure/landfills, used cooking oil (UCO), and other bio-based feedstocks, renewable fuels provide a more sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative to traditional fossil fuels. However, this promise comes with a caveat: the production and distribution of renewable fuels must meet stringent environmental and regulatory standards to ensure they deliver on their sustainability potential.
Regulatory paperwork can overwhelm even the most efficient renewable energy companies. Endless requirements, data analysis, and compliance costs often stand in the way of their larger mission. Timothy Daniel, Co-Founder of Rimba, has a solution.
Through Rimba, Timothy is transforming how renewable energy companies handle compliance. His platform is innovative and makes it easy for companies to get to work advancing sustainable energy solutions. He emblazons sustainability compliance with an extraordinary career of resilience, leadership, and innovation.
A Legal Expert with a Sustainability Mission
His early professional life was just as ambitious. As in-house counsel for a coal and biomass energy conglomerate, Timothy saw firsthand the environmental damage caused by fossil fuels. Instead of remaining a bystander, he spearheaded the company’s sustainability department, achieving three global certifications— Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), and Green Gold Label (GGL). These accomplishments positioned the company as a leader in sustainability and demonstrated Timothy’s ability to implement transformative change.
More recently, he earned his MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where he focused on renewable energy and management. This experience served as a launchpad for understanding the challenges faced by renewable energy developers in the United States and ultimately led to the founding of Rimba.
Simplifying Compliance with Rimba, Inc.
Credits to Rimba Inc.
One of the biggest hurdles for renewable energy is compliance. According to the New York Times, companies spend 4%-6% of total project costs on compliance. As regulatory frameworks become more complex, it is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to stay abreast.
Timothy co-founded Rimba to solve this problem in February 2024. The platform allows for automated compliance by converting commodity operational data such as invoices, delivery notes, and meter readings into error-free compliance reports. Rimba helps reduce human error, reduce costs, and offer renewable energy companies a smarter way to be compliant.
Within its first year, Rimba achieved significant milestones:
- Secured $100,000 in pre-seed funding through the NFX Fast Competition.
- Signed six design partners in the renewable fuel market.
- Won 1st place in the Berkeley STEP incubator.
- Earned recognition as a standout startup in the UC Launch accelerator program.
Rimba is not just a platform—it’s a game-changer for companies that aim to maximize carbon credits, meet regulatory demands, and focus their resources on clean energy innovation.
Bridging Policy and the Energy Industry
Founding Rimba to solve complex compliance requirements and processes isn’t Timothy’s first rodeo in the regulatory landscape. He was a legal and policy adviser for Indonesia Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs in 2021.
He streamlined over 70 licensing regulations so that businesses could achieve compliance easily and transparently. This wasn’t merely bureaucratic reform—it was a critical step toward empowering businesses to operate effectively in a rapidly evolving regulatory landscape.
Why Simplifying Sustainability and Regulatory Compliance Matters
Credits to Rimba Inc.
Forbes says the energy industry is expected to grow to $2.15 trillion by 2030, driven by growing demand for sustainable solutions and government mandates. Because this growth is accelerating, so is the demand for innovative compliance automation software like Rimba.
Timothy’s vision is clear. Sustainability and regulatory compliance should be made more accessible and less costly for energy business operators to increase more supply of affordable renewable energy to Americans. He wants Rimba to be the leader in sustainability compliance automation over the next decade both in the United States and globally. By streamlining compliance reporting, reducing costs, and enabling companies to meet stricter regulations with ease, Rimba is poised to play a pivotal role in the renewable energy transition.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities
Timothy’s work provides a skeleton key to renewable energy companies drowning in regulatory red tape, and he sees the ‘obstacle’ of compliance as an opportunity. By creating tools that simplify processes and reduce costs, he empowers companies to focus on their mission: To promote renewable energy and fight climate change.
Rimba is not just a compliance tool; it represents a new paradigm in how companies approach sustainability and regulatory standards. By harnessing the power of AI and machine learning, Rimba transforms compliance from a burdensome obligation into a seamless and strategic component of business operations.
With Rimba, companies can reduce the time and cost associated with compliance, unlock new revenue streams, and focus on what matters most—innovating and driving the global transition to sustainable energy. As Timothy Daniel puts it, “Rimba is here to empower companies to meet their sustainability and regulatory compliance reporting so they could thrive in an increasingly regulated world.”
