Brainforest's Winter Cohort - Venture Program Participants '24
Meet the companies participating Brainforest Winter Venture Program
Meet the companies participating Brainforest Winter Venture Program 2024
As we near the grand finale of our Winter 2024 Venture Program, we couldn’t be more proud of the seven incredible startups in this year’s cohort. Over the past few months, have been redefining what it means to innovate for nature and tackle some of the most pressing challenges in forest restoration and biodiversity.
The excitement doesn’t stop there! These startups will gather online & offline for the Final Pitch Event on December 6th in Zürich. This is your chance to witness their groundbreaking solutions and hear their inspiring stories. Whether you join us in person or online via our live stream, we’d love for you to be part of this milestone event.
Register here to save your spot!
Let’s meet the impactful ventures and read more about their motivations to join Brainforest's Venture Program:
🌱 Ceres Seeding (Brazil):
With illegal fires and degraded land threatening farming communities, Fernando De Lucca Pezella and his team are developing drone technologies to automate and scale ecological restoration. Fernando recalls, "We started this journey to bring more efficiency, versatility, and cost reduction to ecosystem restoration." From replanting to monitoring, Ceres Seeding is making restoration accessible and impactful.
We asked Fernando about his experiences:
🟢 What was your personal motivation to start with your company?
Since 2018, I’ve been developing projects with social and environmental impact in different communities, working with recycling cooperatives, public schools, and drug addicts. In one of those projects, I was visiting a small farmers’ community for the implementation of an ecological sewage system, but the farmers had bigger problems. There, they were suffering from illegal fires that spread quickly to their properties because of the huge number of degraded areas we have in the region. The city hall staff suggest the implementation of a forest restoration project to protect their properties, animals and plantings. However, the community of farmers is located in a mountain area, and ecological restoration projects are really expensive and hard to implement in those areas, so no project was done there. That was the moment when me and my co-founders started to develop technologies that bring more efficiency, versatility and cost reduction to ecosystem restoration.
🟢 Why did you join the Brainforest Venture Program?
We joined the Brainforest to take a deeper step into the international market, understanding how we can start to see the impact of our technologies in other regions of the world and how we can bring even more investment to land restoration in Brazil.
🟢 What do you enjoy most about the Venture Program so far?
Brainforest’s Venture Program has been different from all the other VPs in which we participated. The biggest difference of this program for me is the flexibility and personalization! It is amazing to have mentors that go deep into our startup problems and gaps. We really did an x-ray of our businesses, and we have the opportunity to tackle the most strategic issues we’ve identified. Not only that, but the opportunity to meet and even maybe collaborate with startups from all around the world is overwhelming as well.
🌊 Darukaa.Earth (India):
Darukaa.Earth is transforming how environmental metrics are calculated to drive effective climate finance. By focusing on permanence and additionality, their innovative solutions ensure impactful outcomes in forest conservation. The team is dedicated to creating tools that help protect ecosystems while unlocking funding for vital restoration projects.
☁️ Etherisc (Netherlands):
🇳🇱 Etherisc
"Traditional funding methods often miss the mark for smallholder farmers," explains Michiel Berende, Chief Inclusive Officer at Etherisc. This venture bridges the gap by connecting disaster risk transfer with carbon markets. Their approach not only secures livelihoods but also builds resilience among farming communities."
We asked Michiel about his experiences:
🟢 What was your personal motivation to start with your company?
I want to make a positive impact to the livelihoods and security of smallholder farmers around the world.
🟢 Why did you join the Brainforest Venture Program?
For an impact-driven startup, attracting funding can be challenging. Traditional investors expect 10x returns, while donor organizations often require you to adjust your goals to align with their criteria before providing support. Brainforest helps bridge this gap, connecting philanthropic funding with private investment.
🟢 What do you enjoy most about the Venture Program so far?
The very constructive weekly conversations and brainstorming sessions with our mentor!
🌾 Lensor.io (Finland):
🇫🇮 lensor.io
After hearing firsthand from farmers about their challenges, Lisa Theman was inspired to create AI and remote-sensing tools tailored to their needs. "It’s about supporting farmers with the tools they need to thrive in a changing climate," Lisa shared. Lensor.io’s digital climate-smart solutions empower smallholder farmers worldwide to enhance agricultural sustainability and adapt to environmental changes.
We asked Lisa about her experiences:
🟢 What was your personal motivation to start with your company?
I’ve always been passionate about entrepreneurship and creating impact innovations, but Lensor’s mission was born after learning directly from farmers about their challenges. Seeing their need for better tools inspired me to create impactful solutions to support them.
🟢 Why did you join the Brainforest Venture Program?
Our impact-focused mission aligns well with Brainforest, so we knew we could get valuable support. Additionally, the program’s international network is invaluable as we grow beyond Finland.
🟢 What do you enjoy most about the Venture Program so far?
The weeks have been intense yet rewarding, especially with hands-on support in strategy and validation. Brainforest’s open and transparent feedback has been crucial in refining our approach.
🌴 Nature Connect India Pvt.Ltd. (India):
🇮🇳 Nature Connect India Pvt.Ltd.
Jayant Sarnaik, the Director of Nature Connect, has spent over a decade developing certified value chains for sustainable forest use. His goal? To make biodiversity conservation an investible idea. "It’s exciting to share our experiences and explore scaling conservation efforts through innovative partnerships," Jayant reflects.
We asked Jayant about his experiences:
🟢 What was your personal motivation to start with your company?
To make biodiversity conservation and its sustainable use an investible idea.
🟢 Why did you join the Brainforest Venture Program?
To share Nature Connect’s experiences over the last decade in certified value chain development and its potential to scale up biodiversity conservation.
🟢 What do you enjoy most about the Venture Program so far?
How the Venture Program is trying to integrate advanced technologies such as AI to maximize the outreach for promoting the cause of biodiversity conservation among investors.
🌱 Proon-Tech (Romania):
🇷🇴 Proon-Tech
Co-founders Thea Gherdan and Alin Stefan are tackling reforestation with autonomous seeding technology and climate-friendly SCION seed pods. Thea shares, "It’s about leaving a legacy that lasts beyond our lifetime."
We asked Thea and Alin about their experiences:
What was your personal motivation to start with your company?
🙋🏻♀️: The opportunity to leverage my passion for nature & the knowledge I gained through my experiences in AgriTech and biotech. The time to start this venture seems just right and ripe to create positive impact within communities and leaving a legacy on this Earth to last beyond my lifetime.
Why did you join the Brainforest Venture Program?
🙋🏻♂️: We joined Brainforest because it is one of the few programs that really addresses the urgent need for biodiversity awareness when we are saving or creating new forests. Our tech has the capacity to be the core solution in solving these problems with high efficiency.
What do you enjoy most about the Venture Program so far?
🙋🏻♀️: The fact that we’re constantly & consistently acting on, communicating and progressing on insights, lessons and perspectives. The unique mix of experts catering to the reforestation & biodiversity space, combined with the diligent support of our mentor and coaches makes me feel quite lucky to be here. It’s a formidable & inclusive experience for us.
🌍 Understory Labs (United States):
Understory Labs combines cutting-edge space technology with the deep, ancestral knowledge of Amazonian communities. Founder Soheil Salehian describes their mission as a "new paradigm of co-creation," enabling long-term empowerment for forest monitoring. "It’s about reconnecting with the people and places that hold the solutions," he explains.
We asked Soheil about his experiences:
🟢 What was your personal motivation to start with your company?
I kept seeing this disconnect while working in conservation and tech - especially in the Amazon. Traditional conservation often feels like outsiders dictating solutions from above. But after speaking with many experts including indigenous leaders, technology and academic pioneers and explorers, things start to make sense: we have to go back to the place-based context and connect with the place and people again. We decided to do this by bringing together cutting-edge space tech with the deep wisdom and technology that Amazon communities have developed over thousands of years. That "ancestral algorithm," as we call it, is incredibly powerful. So we started Understory Labs to create a new paradigm - that real empowerment happens through co-creation, and we want to enable it for the long term.
🟢 What do you enjoy most about the Venture Program so far?
We wanted to amplify our work's impact through partnerships that truly understand the space that is nature tech. Over and over, our partners and mentors kept bringing up the venture program of Brainforest and at some point we had to apply
🟢 Why did you join the Brainforest Venture Program?
What stands out about this program is its rare combination of truly aligned incentives and candid feedback. In climate tech, constructive criticism can be hard to come by - everyone's hesitant to give it. But through weekly meetings with the team and mentors, we've consistently refined and improved our business which is the goal.
Each of these startups is on a mission to make a tangible difference for forests and biodiversity. Guided by tailored coaching, expert mentorship, and access to our network, they’ll soon showcase their work during our final pitch session—stay tuned!