In our Winter Venture Program Cohort 6, in 2025, we worked with an ambitious group of eight early-stage nature-based startup teams building bold solutions for forests and biodiversity.

After ten intensive weeks of hands on work, expert sessions, and countless Miro boards, the program culminated in the final pitch event on 4 December, where eight startups pitched in front of the jury. The Brainforest Investment Committee decided to invest in Nature Perspectives.

Brainforest was inspired by Nature Perspectives' work on a different layer of the puzzle. They use the latest generative AI to turn nature into a conversation partner, creating experiences that feel personal, emotionally evocative and information rich. It is not just about sharing information. It is about creating relationships.

Therefore, we are excited to announce that Nature Perspectives has been selected for investment and joins the Brainforest portfolio as our ninth company. Co founders Gal Zanir and Abhik Palit are building an AI driven platform that enables conversations with simulations of natural entities, designed to spark curiosity, empathy, and a deeper sense of care for the living world.

With this investment and partnership, we will support Nature Perspectives in scaling the product and expanding distribution, especially through museums, science centers, exhibitions, and education partners, so these experiences can reach many more people.

To mark the start of this journey together, we sat down with Gal and Abhik to hear the full story behind Nature Perspectives. We spoke about the first experiments that sparked the idea, what they learned from early public pilots, and why conversation can be such a powerful way to help people feel closer to the living world. Read on to discover how Nature Perspectives began, what they are building today, and what comes next as they scale.

Two founders and one shared question

Gal is a wildlife biologist and conservation entrepreneur. Abhik is a social scientist focused on community driven conservation and the role of storytelling in shaping what people value. They met during their Masters in Conservation Leadership at the University of Cambridge, where long conversations became a habit.

Their friendship grew through a shared love of music, constant debate, and one question they kept circling back to. Why does nature feel far away, even when we know it matters.

“Conservation has long struggled with the gap between knowing and caring, and between caring and acting.”

The houseplant named "Monty"

After Cambridge, Gal began exploring how emerging technologies could support conservation. In the early days of GPT-3, he was asked to test what conversational AI might enable in the nature space. He spent weeks experimenting. Then something unexpected happened.

He realised that simply having a conversation made him feel a sense of connection.

So he tried a small experiment at home. He looked around his flat and chose the closest nonhuman. A Monstera plant.

That night, he built a protocol that gathered scientific knowledge about the species, combined it with the story of that individual plant, then repackaged it from a first person perspective. By morning, Gal was speaking with “Monty the Monstera.”

Monty told stories about its ancestors in the rainforests of Mexico, and described what it feels like to live and photosynthesise in a living room in Cambridge.

“The experience was so moving that Gal immediately called Abhik to make sure it wasn’t just him.”

That call became the start of Nature Perspectives.

Bonus. They turned their origin story into a comic strip, absolutely worth a scroll.

What is Nature Perspective?

Nature Perspectives enables anyone, anywhere to have meaningful conversations with the nature around them. Imagine taking a photo of a ladybug in your garden, a tree on your street, or a bird you spot on your commute, and within seconds being able to speak with it in a way that feels personal and real.

The team’s goal is not to replace education or interpretation. It is to add something that standard formats often struggle to create.

Connection.

“Our core medium is not broadcast storytelling, it is dialogue.”

They anchor their ambition in a powerful idea from philosopher Hanna Pitkin. To represent those who are ignored means “making them present again.” Nature Perspectives aims to bring nature’s perspective back into places where it has been absent, including the way people learn, decide, and act.

Why generative AI, and why now?

Museums and nature education have done incredible work for decades. But much of it is one way. A visitor reads a panel. Watches a film. Follows a guided path. Conversation is different. It lets people start from their own curiosity, language, background, and emotional state, then follow a path that feels immediate.

"Conversation lets each person start from their own curiosity, background, language and emotional state. AI unlocks something that traditional storytelling rarely can."

AI makes that possible at scale. It can adapt to a five year old, a scientist, or a casual visitor, without needing a facilitator each time. It also creates a learning loop. By analysing anonymised conversations, the team learns what people are wondering, feeling, appreciating, and learning. That feedback can help partner institutions improve interpretation, programming, and engagement.

“The result is a form of engagement that is both emotionally resonant and measurably informative.”

A pilot that confirmed interest

One early pilot in Cambridge became a turning point. In partnership with the University of Cambridge, the team placed QR codes across the city inviting people to speak with nature around them.

A pigeon in the square. A tree in the park. A swan on the River Cam. Hedgehogs in local gardens.

Nearly 1,500 people signed up, resulting in more than 1,600 conversations.

“If we can help people move from observing nature to relating to it, we can unlock a new kind of engagement.”

Where are they today?

Nature Perspectives has already enabled more than 10,000 conversations with more than 5,500 people from over 140 countries. The product lives in real world deployments such as the 14 month deployment at the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology. They have also collaborated with institutions to bring the experience to public events such as the Big Bang Gala at the California Academy of Sciences and the New Forest Show at New Forest National Park.

The team is also exploring formats beyond museums and visitor settings. At our Pitch Event, Nature Perspectives teamed up with Habitat XR to bring a 3D extended reality rhinoceros on stage. The rhino appeared live on screen, introduced the session, and even responded to real time questions from the room. It was a memorable moment for Brainforest, and a powerful glimpse of how nature’s perspective can be made present in spaces where important decisions are shaped.

Watch the experience here for yourself.

In the coming months, Nature Perspectives will launch collaborations with the BBC Live Lessons programme, the Cambridge University Botanic Garden, the Hase Helden nature trail in Germany, and EcoPeace Middle East, alongside a growing pipeline of partners exploring deployments worldwide.

Their biggest learning is simple, but important.

“People want unmediated, meaningful engagement with nature around them. By 2030 we hope to have enabled more than 1 million conversations with simulations of natural entities and ensure they have a demonstrably positive impact on learning, attitudes, mindsets and the connection people feel with nature.”

How is impact measured?

Nature Perspectives measures success at three levels.

First, reach and adoption. How many meaningful conversations they enable, and how consistently people choose to engage.

Second, the impact of the conversations. Each interaction is anonymised and analysed for signals like learning, curiosity, empathy, and attitude shifts. The team also monitors quality and safety, including factual grounding, respectful tone, and clear boundaries. They invite feedback after each interaction to understand whether people felt connection, whether something shifted, and whether they would recommend it.

Third, expansion into new settings. Over time, they want to bring the same mechanism of perspective taking into decision making, education, media and the arts.

By 2030, the team hopes to enable more than one million conversations with simulations of natural entities, with demonstrably positive outcomes for learning, attitudes, and connection to nature.

Working with Brainforest

Brainforest’s investment will allow Nature Perspectives to grow the team and accelerate product development, so they can deliver more deployments in parallel and expand across institutions and geographies.

Beyond capital, the team highlighted the value of credibility and access.

"Brainforest’s support adds legitimacy, visibility and access to a network that is closely aligned with our mission. That combination of resources, guidance, and relationships would let us grow faster, learn faster, and accelerate the impact of our work. Becoming part of the Brainforest portfolio means a lot to us. It is a privilege to be selected from amongst a cohort of incredibly talented teams whom we admire and learned a lot from throughout the venture program. It is also a strong signal that our approach has significant value and relevance, which matters deeply when you are building something that asks people to think differently."

Advice for founders joining the next Venture Program?

Their advice is practical and generous. Come in knowing what you want to learn, and be ready to challenge your own assumptions. Treat the program as a rapid testing ground for your story, strategy, business model, and theory of change. And invest in the community around you.

"Make the most of the community. Talk openly about what works well, what is not working, ask for specific help and share what you are learning as you go. The more you contribute, the more you will get back and some of the most valuable outcomes come from peer conversations, not only the formal sessions."

Final thoughts?

Nature Perspectives is building a new kind of interface between people and the living world. One that feels personal and emotionally resonant, while still grounded in science and built for scale.

We are proud to welcome Nature Perspectives into the Brainforest portfolio, and excited to support Gal and Abhik as they bring nature’s voice into more places where it belongs.

Brainforest’s Venture Program is open twice a year, and we’re always looking for bold, nature-based startups like Nature Perspectives. If you're interested in joining our ecosystem of innovators, you can already sign up on our website to join the waiting list.