Carbon offset startup Tree.ly has secured €5 million in seed investment.
Tree.ly develops forest climate protection projects in Austria, Germany and across Europe to maximize the potential of local forests and work with forest owners, municipalities, businesses and citizens to mitigate climate change.
Tree.ly is third-party certified and audited annually by TÜV. Their projects undergo rigorous monitoring, their scientifically proven methodology is ISO certified, and they have implemented measures to ensure additionality and manage permanence risk to prevent leakage.
The company uses a geospatial engine, ML-powered stock measurement, species detection, and stock change modelling.
In just one year, the company has won contracts to cover 105,299 hectares across Europe and stored more than 2.8 million tonnes of CO2.
Jodok Batlogg, co-founder and CEO of Tree.ly, explains:
“The market for voluntary emission certificates will grow to €15 billion globally and €3 billion in Europe within five years, driven by a strong trend towards local and high-quality projects.”
Tree.ly’s Certified project is the perfect response to this. As one of the fastest growing technology companies in the sector, this investment will significantly accelerate our growth in the European market, strengthen Tree.ly’s technological leadership and drive the development of new forest-based climate protection services.”
The funding was led by PortfoLion Capital Partners, with participation from aws Gründungsfonds, Symbia VC, Tyrolean Business Angel Network and others.
Aurel Pasztor, Partner at PortfoLion Capital, said:
“Voluntary carbon markets have demonstrated the potential to directly fund climate change projects. Multinational corporations, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises around the world, are interested in financing local, nature-based climate projects.”
However, concerns about poor project management and associated controversies have held them back. We believe that well-monitored local projects represent a huge business opportunity.
With deep roots in forest science and digital technology, the Treely team is ideally placed to lead this effort as a pioneer in Europe.”
“We are thrilled to be working with AWS Gründungsfond to bring this technology to market,” said Markus Jandrinitsch, Managing Director at aws Gründungsfond.
“Our decision to invest in Tree.ly stems from the company’s unique ability to create both environmental and economic value, helping to combat climate change and promote biodiversity by supporting local forests across Europe.”
Main image: Tree.ly founders Jodok Batlogg and Christian-Lutz. Photo: Julian Schmelzinger.
