Carbon markets-focused standard platform Equitable Earth announced today that it has raised €12.6 million (USD$14.7 million) in a new funding round, with proceeds from the financing aimed at supporting the expansion of its certification programme for nature-based carbon projects.

Founded in 2020, Paris-based Equitable Earth aims to provide a global standard for conservation and restoration projects on the carbon markets. The company offers certification for nature-based carbon projects, certifying those that deliver real benefits for climate, nature, and livelihoods. Equitable Earth’s certification programme has been formally approved by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)’s Core Carbon Principles (CCPs).

The company’s model includes a fully digital certification platform to help enable developers to reduce costs and delays, centralized and standardized carbon accounting to ensure consistency across projects, the utilization of advanced remote sensing technology for transparent and cost-effective monitoring and reporting, and requirements for projects to deliver measurable benefits for climate, nature, and local communities, as well as measurable requirements for participation, protection, and equitable benefit sharing with Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

According to Equitable Earth, the company’s standard aims to help climate finance to reach threatened ecosystems more quickly and reliably, by enabling carbon markets to more trusted, transparent and scalable.

Thibault Sorret, CEO of Equitable Earth, said:

“Equitable Earth continues to focus on enabling organisations to protect and restore the natural world by certifying projects in a trusted, scalable way. This new round of funding allows us to continue to grow and establish ourselves as the global standard for nature-based projects.”

The company said that the new funding will be used to support investment into data systems, modelling, and user-centric tools, expand its R&D, Engineering, Commercial, and Certification teams, increase its supply of certified nature-based credits, and to expand its reach by building new methodologies to cover more threatened ecosystems.

The financing round was led by a U.S.-based family office, and supported by existing investors including AENU, noa and Localglobe. To date, the company has raised more than €25 million in funding.

noa Principal Arjun Jairaj said:

“The carbon markets need scalable, reliable projects that deliver real climate, ecological, and social outcomes. This funding helps Equitable Earth to meet that demand, cementing its position as a market leader in high-integrity, nature-based certification.”