Nature took the spotlight at the HackSummit as early-stage founders showcased their solutions across nature and biodiversity restoration as well as biodiversity monitoring, reporting and verification.
Following a global call for entries, 4 startups were selected to pitch in the grand Finale at the HackSummit to the investor jury:
- Sophia Martin of Raise
- Till Hoelzer of FoodLabs
- Xavier Lorphelin of Serena
- Kevin Webb of Superorganism
- Lena Thiede of Planet A Ventures
“The inaugural NatureTech Challenge was a chance to showcase some of the industry’s rising stars who are on a mission to restore biodiversity through the power of technology. We are excited to support and see the progress of these 4 Founders who pitched promising solutions on the HackSummit stage,” Emilie Dellecker, Co-Founder and Director at HackGroup
And the winner is…
Sylvain Vaquer at Mozaic Earth
Live on stage, Sylvain showcased how they can transform the ecology sector by empowering 1 billion people to become custodians of nature.
“We are super proud Mozaic Earth has been selected as the winner of the NatureTech Challenge! We're building this ambitious venture on the belief that we won't solve the climate x nature crises if we do not fundamentally rethink the human-nature relationship. Our ultra-scalable community-based monitoring approach not only increases access to accurate, ground-level nature data for the public and private sectors, but it also incentivises people to become custodians of our most valuable asset: Nature. We hope that the growing momentum in the nature capital markets and increasingly favourable regulatory environment - the EU Nature Restoration Law is game-changer - are a call to action for investors globally. NatureTech's time is now.”
Mozaic Earth and the 3 runners up were all commended by the Jury for their fresh approaches to restore nature and accelerate biodiversity MRV.
Oliver Bolton at Earthly pitched how their project quality assessment is helping derisk investments into nature and shared the launch of their new government linked Voluntary Biodiversity Credit registry.
“Earthly pitched at HackSummit about the urgent need to close a $700BN annual funding gap in nature conservation, a challenge exacerbated by trust issues and varying quality among nature-based projects. We address this with our rigorous evaluation process, where we examine 106 quality indicators across carbon, biodiversity, and social impacts. Our comprehensive approach enables organisations to confidently invest in leading nature-based solutions that align with their environmental and social goals. Out of 400+ projects assessed worldwide, only 8% meet our stringent minimum quality criteria. Our mission is driven by a commitment to protect and restore at least 1% of the planet by 2030, directing investments to the most impactful projects and ensuring maximum benefits for carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and communities.”
Cameron Dowd at Inverto Earth demonstrated how they can offer holistic nature restoration with a “units of nature” measurement targeting high impact coastal ecosystem, backed by data.
“In our pitch for the NatureTech challenge we wanted to convey the importance of integrating nature and biodiversity metrics into restoration projects, carbon alone isn't going to restore ecosystems. The increased awareness on the importance of biodiversity for businesses and investors that we’re seeing leaves us optimistic for such regenerative business models.”
Romain Fau at Kanop presented how their advanced satellite imagery and AI can deliver precise, scalable, and affordable data analytics for monitoring biodiversity and climate impacts.
“Pitching at the NatureTech Challenge was a great opportunity to share our vision. We believe that precision in data leads to precision in action. Our advanced satellite imagery and AI are not just about monitoring; they're about enabling proactive, informed decisions that safeguard our planet's biodiversity and address climate impacts effectively.”
Look out for updates and news from each of these finalists over the coming months as the urgency to rebalance biodiversity increases.