Ecotech startup and carbon credits platform Pachama has announced that it has raised $55M in Series B funding. The round was led by Future Positive along with the existing investors Breakthrough Energy Venture and LowerCarbon Capital. 

The new investors included Hollywood celebrities Ellen Degeneres and Portia De Rossi alongside Plus Capital, ReGen Ventures, 20VC, and Reddit’s founder Alexis Ohanian, bringing the total investment capital to $79M. 

The startup was founded in 2018 by Diego Saez Gill & Tomas and for the uninitiated, it measures the carbon stored in forests and monitors forest growth with time, enabling big companies to invest in high-quality forest conservation projects as part of their ESG.

Fred Blackford, Founder and Managing Partner of Future Positive, said, “Scaling carbon markets will play a critical role in our collective ability to decarbonise. 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.”

With the latest funding, Pachama intends to use the funding to continue to build a scientifically rigorous, technology-based approach to forest carbon credit verification to bring quality, integrity, and scale to carbon markets. The funding will also be utilised in hiring new talent, expanding efforts to reach both corporate and forest developers, accelerate research and development, and scale the technology needed to transform carbon markets. 

Talk-show host Ellen Degeneres and Hollywood actress 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.”

Future Positive would be also joined by new angel investors and venture capital firms, including Azeem Azhar (Exponential View), Miguel Nogales (Generation Investment Management), Seth Goldman (Beyond Meat) while existing investors include Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Ram Shriram (former Google board member), Joe Gebbia (Airbnb), Marcos Galperin (MercadoLibre).

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 honour. 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.”