Single.Earth — a tokenization platform that enables forests, wetlands, and other planetary resources to generate profit for landowners by selling them as carbon and biodiversity credits, instead of raw materials — has raised a $7.9 million seed round, one of the largest seed rounds ever in Estonia.
The round was led by EQT Ventures, with participation from existing investor Icebreaker and Ragnar Sass and Martin Henk, founders of Pipedrive. The funding will be used to launch its marketplace for nature-backed MERIT tokens and for hiring.
Single.Earth is building a digital twin of nature that reveals how much any area of ecological significance in the world absorbs CO2 and retains biodiversity. Using satellite imagery, big data analysis, and machine-learning to build global carbon models, Single.Earth tokenizes the planet’s resources including forests and swamps, partnering with nature directly to unlock ecological value without destruction.
“Nature conservation is scalable, accessible, and makes sense financially; what’s more, it’s vital to engineer a systematic change. We were drawn to EQT Ventures as the team shares the same values, with sustainability at their core.”
Merit Valdsalu, CEO and cofounder of Single.Earth
Registration for the interest in pre-sales of Single.Earth’s MERIT tokens has now officially started. Companies and investors can register their interest for the pre-sales at www.single.earth to be among the first to get access to the MERIT tokens in Autumn 2021. The platform opened today also for landowners and the research community.
“Following this milestone, we are thrilled to introduce the MERIT token to the world, a unique way of protecting our planet commercially by mining tradable tokens from intact nature — creating the world’s first financial system backed by nature. “
Andrus Aaslaid, CTO and founder of Single.Earth
The tokens generate profits through carbon compensations, emitting a new MERIT token for every 100 kg of CO2 sequestered in a specific forest or biodiverse area. The tokens can be used to trade as an investment instrument, compensate for CO2 footprint, or contribute to climate goals (as the token is ‘used up’ and cannot be traded anymore). Companies, organisations, and eventually individuals can purchase these tokens and own fractional amounts of those lands and natural resources, rewarded with carbon and biodiversity offsets.
Single.Earth was co-founded in 2019 by CEO Merit Valdsalu and CTO Andrus Aaslaid after winning the Garage48 Future of Wood hackathon for proving that nature can be commercialised without being sold as raw material.
