Estonian company Timbeter, which is digitalising and bringing transparency to the forestry sector, has closed a seed round of approximately €920K. The round was led by TMT Investments and the Change Ventures, as well as being supported by EigenKapital, Toggl founders Ahti and Alari Aho, Contriber Ventures and Wiser.
Timbeter, founded in 2013, is a global industrial timber measurement, logistics and reporting platform. Timbeter’s precision forestry platform eliminates manual counting, measuring and tracking of timber assets, cutting measurement and documentation times by 10 and increasing accuracy by 5 times.
How does it work? Having built the world’s largest database of photometric measurements of roundwood, it can track timber assets in real time, down to individual shipments and piles throughout the forestry value chain. Compared to traditional methods, its algorithms use artificial intelligence to speed up forestry operations, raise transparency, increase employee safety and save resources.
The startup’s approach is also contributing to combating illegal forestry activities, which continue to be a problem, both in terms of undermining responsible wood fiber products and harming the environment and populations in many parts of the world. By combining precision forestry, forest governance and legal trade, Timbeter’s solution is helping to create conditions for a more secure trade and prevent illegal logging.
Additionally, the company has already snapped up some major local and international clients, such as CMPC (Chile), International Paper (Brazil), Faber-Castell (Brazil), Siam Forestry Group (Thailand), Mekong Timber Plantations (Laos), Port Blakely (USA), SEQH (Australia), among others.
Anna-Greta Tsahkna, CEO of Timbeter, explained that the new financing round will help Timbeter expand its sales activities in the target markets, and also to develop a bridge between companies and governmental organizations, by reducing the sector’s administrative burden in insurance, tax and regulatory reporting. “By facilitating smooth digital data exchange between the government and companies, it is easier to ensure sustainable forest management and fight illegal logging”, said Tsahkna.
“We are very excited about this investment, because we see Timbeter’s precision forestry platform bringing similar dramatic increases in profitability, transparency and efficiency to the timber sector that precision agriculture platforms have delivered in farming,” said Yrjö Ojasaar, founder and partner of Change Ventures.
