Climate startup Arbonics raises €1.8M in a pre-seed funding

The Estonian-based climate startup Arbonics has raised €1.8 million in a pre-seed funding from Taavet Hinrikus and Plural. The startup makes calculating the carbon income of land quicker and easier to help landowner fight climate change, PR Newswire reports.

• Founded in early 2022 by Kristjan Lepik and Lisett Luik, Arbonics provides a carbon and ecosystem platform. It allows foresters and landowners in Europe, aimed at unlocking carbon income, to fight climate change.
• The Arbonics data-driven tool can calculate initial carbon income in less than a minute. It does so by combining dozens of data sources with the team’s forestry expertise. This expertise also comes from working closely with a team of geospatial data scientists from the University of Tartu.
• Plural Platform and Taavet Hinrikus led the €1.8 million pre-seed funding. Plural is an early stage venture capital, investing in a new wave of world leading tech from Europe. Taavet Hinrikus is co-founder and CEO of TransferWise. He is also one of the World Economic Forum’s Tech Pioneers.

“I am a big fan of technologies that can speed up carbon capture — direct air capture is one example. But those technologies are only a small part of the solution; we need to empower nature and combine it with data-based technologies to help nature-based solutions scale,”

Taavet Hinrikus comments on the investment.

• The fresh funding will let Arbonics to transform the analogue world of forestry with technology. The launch of its platform will also unlock new income sources for forests and landowners.