DroneSeed, a Seattle, WA-based climate tech and post-wildfire reforestation company, raised $36m in Series A funding.
The round was led by Social Capital and Seven Seven Six, with participation from with participation from DBL Partners, Tobi Lütke, CEO of Shopify, Resilience Reserve, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Spero Ventures, Gaingels with Flight.vc, HBS Lady Angels, Julia Lipton’s Awesome People Ventures, and the Coalition angels including Ashley Mayer, Massive, Drone.vc, and Rob Ness Syndicate. Katelin Holloway, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six, is joining the board as an observer.
The company used a part of these funds to acquire Silvaseed, a 130-year-old forestry company, and will use the rest of them to expand its seed collection and seedling cultivation services.
Led by CEO Grant Canary, DroneSeed is a company approved by the FAA deploying a fleet of heavy-lift drones to reforest after wildfires, enabling healthy forests to grow back. DroneSeed can drop seed vessels within 30 days after a fire. After it reforests burned land, the company sells the resulting carbon credits to organizations looking to go carbon neutral or negative. The company is actively developing projects in CA, WA, OR, ID, CO, BC, and Hawaii.
The acquisition of Silvaseed positions DroneSeed as a one-stop-shop for reforestation services including seed collection, seedling cultivation, aerial drone-based seeding, and financing with carbon credits. Its current reforestation customer projects include tribal nations, three of five of the largest timber companies, nonprofits such as The Nature Conservancy, government agencies, and family forests.
FinSMEs
02/10/2021