The Estonian precision-forestry startup, Timbeter, has closed a USD1 million seed round to fuel its expansion in Southeast Asia and Latin America.
The seed round was led by TMT Investments, the venture investing company listed on the London Stock Exchange, famous for its early bets in Bolt and Pipedrive; as well as the pan-Baltic seed fund Change Ventures. Also joining this round was EigenKapital, run by well-known tech entrepreneurs Ahti and Alari Aho, the founders of successful time-tracking platform Toggl. Contriber Ventures and Wiser also participated in the round.
Timbeter says of itself that it has “built the world’s largest database of photometric measurements of roundwood, which allows live online tracking of timber assets down to individual shipments and piles throughout the forestry value chain”. Compared with traditional methods, the company’s algorithms, it says, cut measurement and documentation times by 10 and increase accuracy by five times.
More secure trade and preventing illegal logging
The company’s clients include some of the largest companies in the sector, such as CMPC (Chile), International Paper (Brazil), Faber-Castell (Brazil), Siam Forestry Group (Thailand), Mekong Timber Plantations (Laos), Port Blakely (USA), SEQH (Australia) and others.
“Precision forestry, forest governance and legal trade have played a key role in the sector and are foundational elements to sustainability. Nevertheless, illegal activities continue to be a key problem for the forestry industry and undermine markets for responsible wood fiber products, harm the environment and people in many parts of the world. Timbeter’s solution helps create conditions for a more secure trade and prevent illegal logging,” the company says.
Cover: A screenshot of Timbeter app.
