CIBO Technologies raises $30m Series C funding for carbon trading tools

US carbon trading platform CIBO Technologies has raised $30 million in Series C funding, it said in a statement.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company indicated that the funds will be used to boost the commercialization of its monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) tool for soil carbon, CIBO Enterprise.

According to the startup, CIBO Enterprise allows agrifood companies to monitor their carbon management-related activities and incentivize farmers in their value chains to take up regenerative agriculture.

“The platform enables generation of carbon credits for offsetting, management of scope 3 emission reductions in the food value chain, and directs incentives to growers for new practice adoption,” it said.

CIBO Enterprise is one of three core products offered by the company, along with CIBO Insights — which offers land and farm data intelligence — and CIBO Grower, which helps farmers to discover emissions-related incentive schemes.

The identity of investors participating in the round was not disclosed, though it seems likely that Flagship Pioneering — the venture studio which span-off CIBO in 2015, and also founded farmer marketplace Indigo Ag a year previously — may have provided at least some some of the capital.

Its general partner Ignacio Martinez is quoted in CIBO’s statement, where he is also described as a co-founder of the startup.

“Regenerative agriculture is a top priority for both growers and grower-focused businesses, and the key to accelerating agricultural transformation is leveraging science and technology at scale,” he said.

“With this funding, CIBO is well-positioned to support industry leading enterprises and growers in achieving their sustainability goals.”

According to Crunchbase, CIBO has previously raised funding from Cambridge-based Flagship Pioneering, Michigan’s Red Cedar Investments, and the UK’s Generation Investment Management.

It would appear the new backers have come on board for the company’s Series C round.

“We are delighted that our current and new investors believe in and support the next stage in our mission to drive the widespread adoption of regenerative farming practices,” said CEO Daniel Ryan.

“[These] practices sequester carbon in the soil and reduce emissions from farming, reversing climate change and making our food system more resilient.”

Interest in agricultural carbon sequestration and carbon credits trading is reaching fever pitch. A whole subsector of tech startups is emerging to answer this demand. Among them, the aforementioned Indigo has established carbon measurement and marketing services aimed at helping farmers sell credits; recently, it struck separate deals with US farmer co-op Growmark and agribusiness major Corteva to bring get more farmers on board.

However, for ag carbon trading to work, there need to be effective and widely adopted MRV methods and standard. While the agrifood ecosystem is thought to be responsible for almost a third of total global emissions, data indicates that agriculture produces just 1% of carbon credits.