ReGen 🤝 Pachama

ReGen backs Pachama to scale nature-based carbon markets globally

ReGen Ventures is thrilled to participate in Pachama’s $55M Series B alongside Future Positive, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, LowerCarbon Capital, Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Saltwater Capital, and others to scale transparent nature-based carbon markets globally. 

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The background 

By 2030, carbon markets will surpass $100B, with more than half of the credits coming from nature-based carbon removal or avoidance projects. In the past year alone, buyers' willingness to pay for credits derived from nature-based sequestration rose more than threefold.

The barriers 

Even with these tailwinds, the carbon exchange systems are inefficient, bureaucratic, and opaque - limiting the number of eligible projects ultimately financed and developed. For the subset of nature-based carbon credits packaged and sold, buyers typically have limited data availability and insight into the project progress.

The solution 

Enter Pachama, a company developing a proprietary suite of tools to digitize nature-based carbon markets. 

Since launching in 2018, Pachama has built its core capability in measuring real-time forest carbon sequestration via automated machine-learning models and remote-sensing data analysis. As we’ve already written about (here), unlocking the power of forests can provide 23 percent of the climate mitigation needed over the next decade to meet goals set in the Paris Agreement while providing a wealth of co-benefits to society at large.

Today, the company leverages relationships with the supply-side (forest project developers) and demand-side (corporate buyers, including Amazon, Salesforce, Slack, and more) of the market, in addition to 3rd party verification protocols (registries) to reduce the overhead costs, time, and complexity to generate forest credits while increasing market participation with a larger supply of high-quality credits. 

The Pragmatic Visionaries

Pachama was founded by Diego Saez Gil (CEO) and Tomas Aftalion (CTO). After growing up in Tucuman, north of Argentina, surrounded by the vast Yunga forests, Diego went on to build Bluesmart (acquired by TravelPro in 2018) and WeHostels (acquired by Flight Centre in 2013). After immersing himself in climate change and nature-based carbon removal on a sabbatical in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, Diego moved to the awe-inspiring redwood forests outside Silicon Valley. 

It was in this cabin, which Diego fondly looks back on as his “garage,” that he dove into research and was fortunate to meet Tomas, who had previously held roles as a machine learning engineer at Branch and MoneyLion. Together, the duo formulated a plan to turn natural capital into the most scalable, affordable, and synergistic solution to climate change. 

Today, Pachama has grown to 64 team members distributed around the world with experience building and scaling the most innovative companies of the 21st century, including SpaceX, OpenAI, Tesla, Airbnb, NASA, Facebook, Impossible, and more. 

Where to from here?

We envision a future where Pachama becomes the premier ecosystem services market for corporates, governments, and individual consumers across a portfolio of forestation (forest carbon), ocean conservation (blue carbon), and regenerative agriculture (soil carbon). 

But first, Pachama is harnessing its brand power and demand-side relationships to move upstream - originating and verifying carbon projects the same way that Netflix went from streaming movies to creating original, exclusive content.

Learn More 

Learn more about what’s next for Pachama here and its open roles to see how you can join the force of nature.