Cultivo wants to scale investment in nature-based carbon projects. It just raised $14 million with this 11-slide pitch deck.
- Cultivo just raised $14 million to scale investment in nature regeneration projects.
- The cash injection comes from MassMutual Ventures and Octopus Energy Generation.
- Check out the redacted pitch deck it used to secure the Series A.
A startup that helps financial institutions and corporations invest in nature regeneration projects has raised $14 million in Series A funding.
San Francisco-based Cultivo, founded in 2019, has developed a platform to channel pre-financing into nature-based carbon credit projects that it helps to set up. Carbon credits represent one metric tonne of CO2 removed from the atmosphere, typically bought up by companies looking to reach net zero.
The startup, which counts ex-Bank of England governor Mark Carney among its board members, assesses degraded land and its regeneration potential and then forecasts its potential carbon sequestration, biodiversity gains, and community impact. Potential investors — financial institutions and corporations — can then choose to back a regeneration project on that land.
The project is implemented by NGOs and local partners working with Cultivo.
The voluntary carbon market, where carbon credits are traded, has become popular in recent years as companies race to reach their climate commitments. Morgan Stanley tipped the market to reach $250 billion by 2050.
However, a string of bad press over carbon credit quality saw a general retreat last year. Many startups are now working to ensure thorough due diligence, monitoring, and verification of nature-based project impacts to bring greater trust and transparency to the market.
Cultivo taps into remote censoring, such as satellites, and field data, including soil samples and community data, to measure the project's impact. Its proprietary database also considers biodiversity, soil health, water storage, and carbon sequestration.
"The core use of AI in Cultivo's platform starts when projects are originated for investors including their due diligence," CEO and cofounder Manuel Piñuela told Business Insider.
"We are processing vast amounts of data, and machine learning kicks in to continue to train our algorithms with ground truth data, making our forecasts and algorithms even more precise."
In addition, Cultivo uses AI to speed through the verification and audit process as well as all the communications needed with third-party verifiers."
To further de-risk projects to investors, "Cultivo also secures advance market commitments, such as forward contracts or long-term offtake agreements, for those nature-based carbon removal credits," Piñuela said.
The startup charges fees for project assessments and due diligence. It also takes a slice of carbon credits sold by projects it helps to set up.
The round was led by MassMutual Ventures and Octopus Energy Generation, with the latter also committing up to $40 million in investment into nature projects. Latin American investors Salkantay Ventures and Peña Verde also participated in the round.
Piñuela noted that Latin America is "natural capital-rich," and investors based there are increasingly deploying capital into the space.
The cash injection will be used to further develop its platform and deliver its project pipeline to customers.
Currently a team of 30, Cultivate will add another 10 roles across science, technology, and project operations this year.
It brings the startup's total raised to $20 million.
Check out the 11-slide pitch deck of the startup used to raise the funds below.