B.C. climate tech startup veritree raises $6.5M and lines up pledges to plant 100 million trees globally
Veritree, a Vancouver, B.C.-based climate tech startup supporting reforestation, announced $6.5 million in new funding on Tuesday. The company also hit a milestone of lining up commitments to fund the planting of 100 million trees worldwide within five years.
The startup's projects are being done at sites including areas damaged by wildfires, mangroves and terrestrial forests, marine kelp beds, and agroforestry initiatives that include crop production. Current planting projects are underway with locally-based partners in Canada, Haiti, Senegal, Kenya, Brazil, the United Kingdom and multiple U.S. states.
Veritree uses blockchain technology to provide a public ledger documenting tree planting and details about restoration efforts.
Once trees are planted, the startup uses a suite of tech tools including satellites and drones for surveys, remote sensors for monitoring, and artificial intelligence to analyze information. Veritree is even using acoustic monitoring of bird songs as an ecosystem health indicator, and it reports on the community impacts of the work. Through the different tools, customers are able to keep tabs on projects they've helped fund.
'Data integrity in reporting is critical for nature-based solutions to scale,' said Derrick Emsley, CEO and co-founder of veritree, in a statement. 'While corporate investments in nature are on the rise, many lack the technology to confirm and authenticate the impact they are making — and that's where veritree comes in.'
A worker using veritree's Collect App software to capture an image of a monitoring device called a dendrometer at the startup's Alberta site. (veritree Photo)
The climate sector has struggled to come up with a robust, science-based approach to verifying and quantifying nature-based carbon removal efforts. Veritree avoids some of that debate by marketing tree planting and survival — but not selling carbon credits for specific volumes of carbon dioxide that's removed through reforestation.
The startup spun out of a sister company called tentree, which is a sustainable apparel brand that planted trees for each item it sold. The tentree founders built a platform to verify its reforestation efforts, leading to the launch on veritree in 2022.
The Series A round was led by Pender Ventures, with participation from Garage Capital, Northside Ventures and Diagram. The startup has raised a total of approximately $11 million and has 60 employees.
Its customers include Samsung, SleepCountry, tech businesses and hotel companies, among others.
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