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DBL Partners, Marc Benioff's TIME Ventures, Spero Ventures, and Others Seek Major Returns from New Carbon Finance in Reforestation.
Fremont, CA: DroneSeed's Series A financing round totaled $36 million. Social Capital and Seven Seven Six led the round, including participation from new and current investors. A portion of these assets gets utilized to purchase Silvaseed, a 130-year-old forestry firm, to extend DroneSeed's seed collection and seedling growing services.
DroneSeed, a leader in climate technology and post-wildfire reforestation, is the only business authorized by the FAA to deploy a fleet of heavy-lift drones to reforest after wildfires, allowing healthy forests to regenerate. Wildfires in the United States have already burnt almost six million acres of land this year, showing the rising demand for a comprehensive range of vertically integrated regeneration services like those provided by DroneSeed.
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Silvaseed, which grows millions of trees each year, has been extended by DroneSeed to become the leading private seed bank west of Colorado. The purchase establishes DroneSeed as a one-stop-shop for forestry services such as seed collecting, seedling nurturing, airborne drone-based seeding, and carbon credit finance. DroneSeed intends to double its capacity by the middle of next year to meet the growing demand for reforestation services.
"Recent data has shown that natural forest regeneration is in significant decline due to the size and severity of fires which destroy seed sources. Fire season is expected to only get worse because of climate change," said DroneSeed CEO Grant Canary. "This funding round, coupled with the acquisition of Silvaseed, enables us to scale up the infrastructure needed for reforestation to meet this skyrocketing demand and customer need. That starts with seed."
DroneSeed can drop seed vessels within 30 days of the fire, but traditional techniques might take years to replant. DroneSeed offers the carbon credits generated by reforestation of burnt land to groups seeking to achieve carbon neutrality or negative emissions.
"DroneSeed is using technology to restore forests faster and help save our planet. Their team's mission-driven approach is what made this investment and partnership a natural fit for Seven Seven Six," said Katelin Holloway, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six. She is joining the board as an observer. "DroneSeed has recruited fantastic talent from diverse communities and disciplines, and we are thrilled to support them as they take on an incredibly important global challenge: climate change."
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