Announcing Pachama’s $55M Series B

Today I’m thrilled to announce an exciting milestone for Pachama: our Series B round of funding. Just one year after Series A, we’ve seen tremendous enthusiasm from investors inspired by our mission to restore nature to tackle climate change. The latest $55M in funding brings our total funding to $79M, which will significantly accelerate our efforts to bring transparency and integrity to carbon markets.

Our Commitment to Restoring Nature

Today, the world faces twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Wildfires have ravaged forests from California to Argentina, nearly one million animal and plant species are now at risk of extinction, and decades of agricultural practices have destroyed millions of hectares of forest, upon which nearly 25% of the world’s population depends on to survive.

But nature is remarkably powerful and resilient.

It’s not too late to avoid catastrophic outcomes. Most solutions to the climate crisis are now technologically and financially viable, and forest conservation and reforestation remain some of the most impactful and cost-effective pathways today.

Business leaders are rising to the challenge. The world’s largest companies are recognizing that they must undergo a radical transformation, taking responsibility for their carbon footprint and reducing emissions across their value chain, quickly. What started as “greenwashing” has evolved into well-funded, impactful climate action, with nature as a core pillar.

We’ve seen this rising ambition first hand, working closely with the sustainability teams at companies such as Netflix, Salesforce, Shopify, Flexport, Microsoft, Amazon and Nespresso. They are approaching climate action with remarkable tenacity and responsibility, decarbonizing their operations while investing in restoring nature to remove carbon emissions. Best of all, they are sharing their journey at every step, empowering others to follow in their footsteps. It’s been an incredible journey to grow with them, helping them support impactful forest projects all over the world, which remove and keep carbon in the ground, protect endangered wildlife, and generate well-paying jobs for some of the world’s most vulnerable communities.

Our Journey

Pachama has grown from a small group of friends who were called to protect life on Earth, to an incredible team of 64 wildly talented people distributed around the world. We’ve attracted individuals with incredible expertise in remote sensing, machine learning, software development and design, forest science, carbon markets, business development and operations. I’m humbled every day by the talent and mission-drive of every team member. Together, we are building an incredible, purpose-driven culture where people can do the work of their lifetime.

Our Climate-Focused Investors

When it came time to raise additional funding, our biggest priority was to partner with investors who would be long-term thinkers, deeply driven by our mission and aligned with our core values. That’s exactly what we found in the team at Future Positive, a fund purpose-built to invest over the long term in companies that will help create a, well, positive future for the planet. The founders, Fred Blackford, who will soon join our board of directors, and Biz Stone (founder of Twitter), are both successful entrepreneurs themselves. I look forward to the insight they’ll share with me and the Pachama team.

This round, we were grateful to see many of our existing investors deepen their investments in Pachama. We’re delighted to receive the renewed support of leading climate investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, LowerCarbon Capital, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund and Saltwater Capital.

We also welcomed an amazing new slate of mission-aligned investors such as Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi, 20VC’s Harry Stebbings (one the most connected people in startup land!), ReGen Ventures (who counts Rose Marcario, the former CEO of Patagonia, among its partners), Claire Johnson (Corporate Officer at Stripe), Miguel Nogales (partner at Generation), Seth Goldman (co-founder at Beyond), Azeem Azhar (founder of Exponential View), Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit and 776), Matias Muchnick (founder of NotCo), Alex Will (founder of Calm), MCJ Collective, AirAngels, Seaya Andromeda, Wollemi Capital and other purpose-driven investors. Their knowledge and networks will help us extend our impact and visibility, and their continued support for our purpose and values will enable us to remain focused on the outcomes that matter most: the restoration of nature to protect life and help solve climate change.

Our Path Forward

With this investment, we will continue to grow our talented team of people called to tackle the most important challenge of our generation. We will continue developing advanced technologies and tools that will unlock the full potential of nature. These new tools will enable Pachama to do more in service of nature. We will go beyond evaluating existing forest projects, building new, high-quality forest conservation and restoration projects from the ground up, using technology at every step along the way. We will expand our partnerships with the leaders shaping carbon markets, ambitious corporations and local project partners who have been serving their communities for decades. And lastly, we hope to be an example of a new type of organization for the twenty-first century: purpose-driven, transparent, distributed and conscious.

Join us!

Inspired by our work? I invite you to explore our open roles, tell your company about us and spread the word about the importance of climate action and nature conservation. Together, we will overcome this challenge and build a sustainable, regenerative civilization for the long future ahead. Let’s do this!