Primary sector exporters to benefit from easier access to carbon removals in their supply chain, enabling low-carbon exports
Auckland, New Zealand - CarbonCrop, a technology company on a mission to accelerate forest restoration through carbon markets, welcomed new investors NZVC, Agnition (Ravensdown), and the Aspire NZ Seed Fund (operated by New Zealand Growth Capital Partners), along with existing investor K1W1, in their latest financing round. This funding supports CarbonCrop’s ongoing expansion within New Zealand, and its entry into international markets, building on earlier investments led by WNT Ventures and including Icehouse Ventures and Impact Enterprise Fund.
Jasper van Halder, Agnition CEO said:
“The NZ primary sector is coming under immense pressure from global consumers to reduce emissions attached to our primary sector, particularly export goods. CarbonCrop is building the infrastructure to enable the primary sector to count all supply chain sequestration, direct incentives back to their producers, and build transparency and accountability around how carbon removals are applied. It’s an exceptional product that we are excited to support.”
CarbonCrop intends to use the funding to refine and extend its data-driven forest carbon platform, with new collaboration and supply chain analysis features for all forest carbon market participants including landholders, forestry and agriculture professionals, and primary sector suppliers and processors. This supports progress towards net-zero by enabling efficient recognition and incentivisation of all ongoing durable forest carbon removals.
CarbonCrop Co-founder Nick Butcher said:
“We’ve proven that by putting the power of artificial intelligence and automation into the hands of landholders, you can transform their access to forest carbon markets and more effectively fight climate change. CarbonCrop’s expanded platform will bring these benefits to the broader sector working in forest restoration, and streamline collaboration, especially for those working to maximise the potential of our existing and future native forests. Working together to combine objective data, automation, and human expertise and insight, is critical to scaling our climate response - and we still have a long way to go”.
The technology platform includes AI-driven tools to quantify ongoing carbon removals across complex mixed species vegetation, and monitor claimed removals for durability. It also enables the precise differentiation of registrations in multiple different compliance and voluntary frameworks - essential functionality in the evolving domestic and international environment of overlapping carbon incentive mechanisms and claims. ‘Flossy’, CarbonCrop’s forest loss detection model, identifies disturbed or cleared forest areas. To further support integrity and auditability, CarbonTracer allows anyone to track their carbon removals back to the block of forest they originated from and check on the forest with recent satellite imagery. The platform’s ETS registration tools ensure units registered for the ETS are not separately recognised or claimed or used again for other purposes.
CarbonCrop has helped more than 300 landholders across New Zealand access the Emissions Trading Scheme, unlocking and distributing more than NZ$25m in carbon incentives in 2023 for predominantly native forests.
About CarbonCrop
CarbonCrop is a climate tech company applying AI to carbon forestry. Founded in Nelson in 2020 and growing rapidly, CarbonCrop is committed to setting new standards in carbon market integrity and making a lasting impact on both the climate and biodiversity crises. Their technologies support transparency, compliance, and integrity in carbon markets with a focus on high-integrity nature-based carbon removals. CarbonCrop received a repayable grant from Callaghan Innovation in April 2021, as part of their tech incubator program, through WNT Ventures.
Media Contact
For media inquiries and further information, please contact:
Rebecca Hunink
Head of Marketing - CarbonCrop
027 3743 519
rebecca.hunink@carboncrop.nz