Local weather and ag tech startup FlintPro crops $13.5 million Sequence A

Local weather change and pure capital expertise firm FLINTpro has raised US$9 million (A$13.5m) in a Sequence A because it seems to be to ramp up its US development.

The spherical was led by Understorey Ventures with new participation from Pollination, Persei Enterprise and present buyers Ananta-OM and Synovia Capital.

FLINTpro is a pioneering software program system that integrates and analyses a spread of information and progressive earth-sensing methodologies to measure and handle carbon and pure capital throughout all land makes use of together with forests, agriculture, grasslands, coastal areas, and soils. It’s utilized by finance, authorities, and enterprise leaders to mannequin and perceive the alternatives and impacts of land administration choices.

The Canberra startup started life in 2014 because the land use consultancy agency Mullion Group, based by Dr Rob Waterworth.

The Eureka Prize profitable scientist is an an IPCC writer and professional on land monitoring and administration with a deal with greenhouse fuel estimation and coverage improvement.

Be started his profession within the 90s as a younger forester within the 90s, measuring and modelling carbon earlier than engaged on designing and constructing Australia’s nationwide greenhouse fuel reporting programs for the land sector within the 2000s.

After constructing a profitable consultancy enterprise, working in growing nations with the Clinton Basis,  he turned to expertise to scale that data, growing FLINTpro’s land evaluation software program, which permits customers to evaluate and report the worth of pure property as they search to deal with local weather change and the impacts of land makes use of.

“As local weather and pure capital reporting turns into mainstream, organisations are discovering that there is no such thing as a single expertise or information supply that may meet all their wants,” Dr Waterworth mentioned.

“FLINTpro solves this drawback by integrating a number of streams of information, together with finest in school soil and biomass estimates, to simplify pure capital reporting for carbon, greenhouse fuel emissions, biodiversity, water and soil.”

Whereas he was working in growing nations Waterworth realised that whereas loads of nice tech firms have been working within the house, utilizing satellites and different programs, not one was bringing the knowledge collectively in a approach that helped everybody make sense of the information, “so we mentioned, let’s construct that”.

From open supply to professional

FLINTpro started open supply platform earlier than taking up Seed buyers in 2018.

“They got here out to us – we weren’t in search of funding – noticed what we have been doing and mentioned ‘okay, that’s an important, that’s actually distinctive,” Waterworth remembers.

“We turned the software program into an internet platform known as Open Professional.”

The brand new named emerged throughout a drive by way of Kenya – he remembers they as they have been watching the US actuality TV present Cheaters.

“FLINT is a full lands integration device,” he explains including that it Professional is the business model which now sits alongside the open supply model of FLINT.

The contemporary capital will probably be used to assist FLINTpro’s world operations and buyer base enlargement after the enterprise relocated its headquarters to the US final yr.

The corporate counts the NSW authorities amongst its purchasers, and counts a number of “sub-national” governments on the entrance line of land use amongst its purchasers, and whereas FLINTpro helps carbon credit score market purchasers, the business alternative is across the pure danger reporting that’s coming by way of monetary disclosures and the necessity to report on scope 123 emissions and take mitigation actions.

“That’s the place the market has truly exploded,” Dr Waterworth mentioned.

“That company and monetary reporting want – then doubtlessly, whenever you come right down to the person farms, beginning to take a look at these in settings, so it’s actually scale dependent. Are you an enormous organisation that should report or bringing that proper right down to the person piece of land and the person farmer engaged on that?”

Most significantly, the platform additionally delivers information integrity to keep away from any risk of greenwashing for firms utilizing it.

Understorey director Jordan Soriot, who’s additionally on the FLINTpro board, mentioned the platform “drives greater integrity reporting and evaluation, which is vital to constructing belief in a rising and complicated sector” as the company website grapple with Scope 1,2 & 3 reporting.

“The expertise has huge potential to unlock nature-positive outcomes and GHG emissions drawdown at scale,” he mentioned.

“FLINTpro’s mission to disclose nature’s worth will allow organisations to map and quantify their land-based impacts successfully and precisely, permitting them to take higher management over their methods to satisfy or exceed more and more advanced and bold reporting necessities, stakeholder expectations, and emissions discount targets”.

Martijn Wilder, co-founder and CEO of Pollination mentioned:  “We’ve seen a quickly growing demand for applied sciences that may present correct information to assist local weather and nature reporting. Pollination has been working with FLINTpro over a few years and see their potential as a powerful market chief on this house.”