Latest investment demonstrates commitment to advancing the scale and integrity of carbon markets and the role of technology in accelerating deployment
SAN FRANCISCO, California, May 05, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pachama, a technology company on a mission to restore nature to solve climate change, has announced that it has raised $55M in a Series B funding round led by Future Positive, with participation from existing investors Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and LowerCarbon Capital. New investors in this round include Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi alongside Plus Capital, ReGen Ventures, 20VC, and Alexis Ohanian, bringing the total investment secured to $79M.
Future Positive is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that invests in companies using innovative technologies to solve the world’s most pressing problems. The firm’s founding partner, Fred Blackford, has also been appointed as a member of Pachama’s Board of Directors.
Fred Blackford, Founder and Managing Partner of Future Positive, said: “Scaling carbon markets will play a critical role in our collective ability to decarbonize. Pachama is building the infrastructure to support functioning carbon markets by providing vital transparency and accountability around how carbon credits are issued and transacted. Diego is an exceptional leader at the helm of an incredibly impressive team. We’re delighted to partner with him on this journey.”
Pachama intends to use the funding to continue building a scientifically rigorous, technology-based approach to forest carbon credit verification to bring quality, integrity, and scale to carbon markets. The funding will help support talent acquisition, expand efforts to reach both corporate and forest developers, accelerate research and development, fuel the origination of new forest projects, and scale the technology needed to transform carbon markets. The latest investment demonstrates a large-scale commitment to high-impact natural climate solutions to address one of our world’s most pressing challenges.
Speaking of their investment, Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi said: “Forests are truly remarkable. Protecting them can not only address climate change but preserve wildlife and provide good jobs for indigenous communities around the world. We were inspired by Pachama’s innovative work to use satellites and remote sensing to measure the carbon stored in forests over time. This will be a transformative way to help anyone invest in restoring nature and play their part to solve climate change.”
Joining Future Positive are new Angel Investors and venture capital firms, including Azeem Azhar (Exponential View), Miguel Nogales (Generation Investment Management), Seth Goldman (Beyond Meat), Matias Muchnick (NotCo), Alex Will (Calm), Claire Hughes Johnson (Stripe), Khaled Naim (Onfleet), Toby Lutke (Shopify), Zinal Growth, Seaya Andromeda and Wollemi Capital. They are joining existing investors including Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Social+Capital, MCJ Collective, AirAngels, Sweet Capital, Saltwater Capital, Serena Williams, Manu Ginobili, Tim O’Reilly’s OATV, Ram Shriram (former Google board member), Joe Gebbia (Airbnb), Marcos Galperin (MercadoLibre), Fabrice Grinda, Sahil Lavignia and Aglae Ventures (LVMH venture arm).
“It’s not a secret that forests are essential to removing carbon from the atmosphere, and yet the current afforestation market is fragmented and expensive,” said Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Pachama’s technology—which uniquely combines AI and advanced remote sensing—is enabling afforestation at scale and making carbon removal accessible for companies of any size. As decarbonization and emission disclosures continue to become the norm for organizations, Pachama’s platform will be key to documenting carbon removal and accelerating carbon neutrality and negativity.”
Despite the prevalence of remote sensing, machine learning and widely accessible internet, few companies have successfully applied these technologies to the unique challenge of forest conservation and restoration. Pachama was purpose-built to restore nature to solve climate change and has brought together experts across these discrete disciplines to design solutions that will bring transparency to opaque carbon markets, improve the quality of carbon credits, and reduce the speed and cost of credit issuance to scale carbon markets at the pace that climate change demands.
Diego Saez Gil, CEO and co-founder of Pachama, said: “Today is a big day for Pachama. Closing Series B with the support of an ecosystem of accomplished climate and business pioneers is an honor. Their commitment recognizes and reinforces the role of nature-based solutions to climate change and demonstrates a collective duty to bring greater integrity to carbon markets. The funding signals the enormous opportunity for technology to unlock a sustainable, regenerative, and abundant civilization that protects life in our only home, for the benefit of all beings alive today and in the long future ahead.”
In just 3 years, Pachama has worked with 46 of the most sophisticated forest project developers in 14 countries, reviewed over 150 forest projects globally and counts more than 800 sustainably-minded organizations as customers, including Salesforce, Microsoft, Nespresso, Airbnb, Netflix, Softbank, Vuori, and Flexport.
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About Pachama
Pachama is a technology company on a mission to restore nature to solve climate change. Harnessing the latest advancements in satellite imagery, remote sensing and machine learning, Pachama measures the carbon stored in our forests with unprecedented precision and monitors forest growth over time. Through the Pachama platform, responsible companies can confidently invest in high-quality forest conservation projects verified by Pachama’s rigorous evaluation process.
About Future Positive
Founded by Fred Blackford and Biz Stone, Future Positive is a San Francisco-based multi-stage venture capital firm that invests in companies using innovative technologies to lead generational transition. Previous investments include Pinterest, Beyond Meat, NotCo, Upside Foods, and Belvo, with angel investments including Square, Slack, Intercom, Nest, and Blue Bottle Coffee. For more information about Future Positive, please visit www.futurepositive.com
About Breakthrough Energy Ventures
Founded by Bill Gates and backed by many of the world’s top business leaders, BEV
has raised more than $2 billion in committed capital to support cutting-edge companies that are leading the world to net-zero emissions. BEV is a purpose-built investment firm that is seeking to invest, launch and scale global companies that will eliminate GHG emissions throughout the economy as soon as possible. BEV seeks true breakthroughs and is committed to supporting these entrepreneurs and companies by bringing to bear a unique combination of technical, operational, market and policy expertise.
BEV is a part of Breakthrough Energy, a network of investment vehicles, philanthropic programs, policy advocacy and other activities committed to scaling the technologies we need to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Visit www.breakthroughenergy.org to learn more.