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Dr. Erwin Stahl, Managing Partner at BonVenture, says, “As a High Impact Investment Fund, we consider nature and biodiversity as critical for our common future. The Landbanking Group has developed a market-innovating platform to monitor nature in a trusted and transparent way. Through our investment, we want to be part of this exciting journey from the beginning.”

Paving way for stewarding natural capital

Sonja and Martin Stuchtey founded The Landbanking Group in 2022 to popularise a new type of asset class named “Nature Equity”. Compared to other asset classes, Nature Equity shifts land-use incentives toward nature-positive economic practices.

The two co-founders were previously active in the global sustainability expertise, where Sonja previously participated as the technology investor behind the educational initiative ScienceLab and the pro-democracy platforms Alliance4Europe and Disarm.

Martin was a former Senior and Managing Partner of McKinsey & Co. with expertise in leading global sustainability practices before founding systems change company SYSTEMIQ.

The pair received inspiration to establish The Landbanking Group from their experience of owning and managing an organic family farm in Austria. During their tenure there, they discovered that the areas surrounding the farm suffered gradual soil degradation from unsustainable land-use practices.

The experience then spurred the two into giving natural capital, a set of renewable and non-renewable resources on the environment, proper care and management to prevent its degradation from unsustainable economic practices and natural disasters.

Platform for natural capital management

The new funding from investors will help The Landbanking Group expand customer bases from the agri-food sector and reach for new markets in infrastructure, energy, and financial services.

The funding will also allow Landler to extend the range of monitoring models to more biomes and ecosystem surface categories. Landler will also be able to conserve managed agricultural and urban lands.

In practice, Landler links earth observation, digital in-situ data, machine learning, and decentralised ledger technology to assess every track of the planet and give it a “natural capital account”. That account serves as an underlying for issuing so-called nature equity assets.

These assets are balance-sheet grade and attractive for agri-food, energy, resource, or infrastructure companies, insurance providers, and financial institutions.

Landler uses combinations of local sampling data and Earth observation satellite data, machine learning, and biophysical process modelling. Additional resources such as weather records are also essential in helping The Landbanking Group to provide scalable, independent, and affordable MRV services.