The Landbanking Group raises $11M to launch eco-fintech platform

Munich, Germany – October 26, 2023. The Landbanking Group has raised $11 million in Seed funding. The round was led by High Impact Fund BonVenture known for its investments in Circu Li-ion and Resourcify together with André Hoffmann, a thought leader of the natural capital movement. Venture capital funds 4P Capital, Vanagon, and Planet A will contribute their expertise in marketing, ReFi, and impact measurement.

In addition, the SUN Institute of the Deutsche Post Foundation and ten individuals and families such as Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein, Alexa Firmenich, Jan-Hendrik Goldbeck, and Fabian Strüngmann, supported the company’s development.

The funds will allow The Landbanking Group to expand its customer base in the agri-food sector and to address new markets in infrastructure, energy, and financial services. Furthermore, it allows a further expansion from managed land (agriculture and urban land) to conservation.

Launch of Landler platform

Besides the investment, the company announced the launch of Landler.io, its first management and investment platform for natural capital (biodiversity, carbon, soil, and water). It can measure every track of land on the planet through satellite images and novel software, turning nature into a new asset class for businesses. Furthermore, they focus on nature holistically, not just carbon dioxide.

The platform links earth observation, digital in-situ data, machine learning, and decentralized ledger technology to assess every track of the planet and give it a natural capital account. That account serves as an underlying for the issuance of so-called nature equity assets. These assets are balance-sheet grade and attractive for agri-food, energy, resource, or infrastructure companies, and also increasingly for insurance providers and financial institutions.

Brainchild of serial entrepreneurs

The Landbanking Group was founded in 2022 by SYSTEMIQ founder and Ex-McKinsey Senior partner Prof. Martin Stuchtey and serial entrepreneur Dr. Sonja Stuchtey, with a mission to improve land-use decisions hectare by hectare, every day, worldwide.

“If nature is critical infrastructure”, said co-founder Dr. Sonja Stuchtey “we must invest into its maintenance and improvement. Our company was founded in response to that challenge: We enable asset-grade investments into nature outcomes.”

The Landbanking Group has grown into an international team of 40 experts in ecology, ecosystem modelling, data science, AI, engineering, financial engineering, and business building.

“As a high-impact investment fund, we consider nature and biodiversity as critical for our common future. The Landbanking Group has developed a market-innovating platform to monitor nature in a trusted and transparent way. Through our investment we want to be part of this exciting journey from the beginning,” says Dr. Erwin Stahl, Managing Partner at BonVenture.

“In the 21st Century, natural capital is wealth. We need to shift from a compensation to an asset market view on nature”, added co-founder Martin R. Stuchtey. “Our solution is the attempt to provide the scientific, technological and legal infrastructure for trusted investments into nature outcomes.”