Climate change has a profound impact on biodiversity, leading to a range of ecological, environmental, and biological consequences. In response to this threat, the Brainforest association has launched Biodiversity Lab in order to discover, support and transform projects into feasible business cases. Launched in January this year, the Biodiversity Lab seeks to create next-generation entrepreneurial solutions that address the triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and food security at scale. The program supports projects that use technology to protect and regenerate biodiversity, monitor biodiversity positive initiatives, creating new (or better) infrastructure to implement biodiversity projects at scale and incentivizing local communities to keep forests standing.
Around 30 applications were submitted from around the world for this first edition, and five were selected to join the venture program. Over the course of eight weeks, selected projects will work with the Brainforest Biodiversity Lab venture builders in various sessions including deep dives, peer-to-peer exchanges and 1:1 sessions. The workshops provide each team with the tools they need to define their strategy, design a business model and a go-to-market roadmap, all while developing their own entrepreneurial skills. The program will culminate with a pitch event for project leads to present their solutions and progress. One to two most promising projects will be selected for further acceleration. This part of the program is free of charge and equity free.
In the next stage, the Biodiversity lab team will collaborate with the selected winners to help them incorporate a business in Switzerland. The two parties will agree on the equity share, making Brainforest a shareholder in the jointly incorporated business. Moving forward, the startups will also receive additional benefits such as becoming an entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) with a living stipend for 6 months, initial capital to help them take their business to the next level and fundraising support.
“We are more than an accelerator”, emphasizes Thomas Gmeiner, Chief Venture Officer at Brainforest. “We aim to work with the projects in the long term and become part of their growth journey. Our vision is to create for-profit for-impact ventures that put biodiversity at the core of their business model”, he added.
Three of the current cohort projects are based in Switzerland and the remaining in Spain and the United Kingdom.
INVERTO (Switzerland) – is exploring a subscription model to adopt parcels of coastal wetland to support their restoration and conservation, providing meaningful climate, biodiversity and social impact data from the specific parcels of land adopted.
Terrabiom (Switzerland) – is building a hands-on solution to regenerate soil health and biodiversity. The resulting data elevates transparent and traceable insights, providing companies the foundation to restore their soils at scale.
Synature (Switzerland) – is pioneering bioacoustics technologies like a smart microphone that instantly detects species, primarily wolves, notifying biologists and rangers. They’re now delving into its potential for biodiversity analysis and reforestation project monitoring.
Jeev (UK) – is building the Google Maps for Nature to empower project developers globally to launch nature restoration projects faster and at lower cost.
Bonic (Spain) – is the first impact investment platform for anyone, including private individuals and organizations, in carbon and biodiversity credits, leveraging agroforestry systems.
Registration for the next editions will be announced soon.
(RAN)
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