A new Estonian startup, called Arbonics, has launched a data and science-driven tool to make calculating the potential carbon income of land and forests quicker and easier for landowners in Europe to help fight climate change.
Founded by Kristjan Lepik and Lisett Luik in early 2022, the company enables nature-based solutions to fight climate change, focusing particularly on forestry.
“By transforming how landowners analyse and calculate their carbon sequestration potential – the process of capturing, securing and long-term storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere – Arbonics will unlock new income sources for forests and landowners, while improving the voluntary carbon market,” the company said in a statement.
Carbon credits have become a means for carbon emitters to offset emissions by investing in projects that remove or reduce emissions from the atmosphere. The 160 million hectares (395 million acres) of forested land in the European Union alone has the potential to capture and store up to two gigatonnes of additional carbon annually – equivalent to 73% of the EU’s total CO2 emissions in 2021. Demand is set to grow by a factor of 15 by 2030 as more businesses and consumers want to be able to invest in carbon reduction schemes to offset their emissions, according to the company.
The company raised €1.8 million in a pre-seed round
“Arbonics will make it easier for landowners to analyse and calculate the ability of their land to absorb carbon. It takes less than one minute for the platform to analyse the carbon opportunity of a given area of land or forest, using a dozen data sources combined with the team’s forest expertise. It can carry out analysis of unused land and also provides a custom solution for existing forests which generates carbon credits through adapted forest management practices.”
“This enables landowners to generate additional income while also providing proven, high-quality nature-based carbon credits that are certified by leading verification providers like Verra for the voluntary carbon market.”
“Through this, Arbonics is at the forefront of a movement towards a more localised impact by providing opportunities for European credit buyers to invest in European forests through carbon markets,” the company said.
Earlier this year, Arbonics raised €1.8 million in a pre-seed round from Taavet Hinrikus, a co-founder of Wise, with Plural, an investment firm, to spearhead the development of the platform.
