Spain-based startup Reforestum has gained momentum after securing €750k funding from 13 angel investors across France, the UK and Spain.
The investment will enable Reforestum to grow their remote team and develop their interactive reforestation platform to address customer demand. The platform services both individuals and businesses, however special attention will be given to the B2B side of the business after being recognised as a key growth area.
Founded in 2017, Reforestum’s unique offering adds trust and transparency to forest-carbon offsets, by showing companies and individuals that offsets are real and measurable. A new development team will transform the reforestation platform to make it more interactive, notably through corporate profiles. The startup has been developing for over a year cutting-edge monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) tools to enable companies to follow the projects they fund in near-real time.
“With this first round of investment, Reforestum will be able to cement its product-market fit in this new era where claims about environmental outcomes need to be backed by more data and transparency, and enable final consumers to participate and trust in the success of environmental restoration on a global scale. Our focus is not to plant trees but to enable the creation, regeneration and protection of rich and biodiverse forests where they are most needed”, said Diego Sanz, CEO of Reforestum.
Reforestum has already got the attention of global partners including Microsoft through its AI for Earth programme, Ecosphere+ for the supply of vital restoration and conservation projects, and L’Oréal who are supporting through their accelerator programme at Station F. Reforestum and Ecosphere+ were recently joint winners of the Trillion tree challenge organised by the World Economic Forum and Uplink, and Reforestum is also part of the Tech4Climate program at Ship2B in Barcelona. Early adopters of the platform include the Padel sport division of the Adidas group.
“We are witnessing a real step-up in the willingness of corporates in Europe to take action and make investments in nature-based solutions to meet their net zero targets. Reforestum is building an end-to-end solution with our partners to create a strong link all the way from the forest ecosystems being financed, down to the final customer paying for the offset through the products they buy”, said Alban Bressand, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Reforestum.
Among the angel investors is Guillaume Houze, Director of Image and Communications at Groupe Galeries Lafayette, “As a leader of a business aiming to integrate sustainability in everything we do, I see the potential in Reforestum’s product to help companies make a positive climate impact beyond necessary carbon reductions. I have confidence in the team to make it a success and become a European leader in the field.”
Other investors cover a wide range of expertise which will be invaluable for Reforestum in this phase of early growth, and include notable renewable energy pioneer and angel investor Jean-Marc Armitano, as well as Florian Bressand, COO of Mirakl, global marketplace SaaS leader and latest French unicorn.
