€10 Million for Climate-Resilient Forests: OCELL Secures Series A Funding to Scale Its AI Technology and Expand Across Europe
Munich, 29 January 2025 – The green-tech startup OCELL has secured €10 million in a Series A funding round to drive its expansion across Europe and further develop its advanced AI-powered platform for creating high-quality carbon credits. These credits support climate-optimized forest management, significantly increasing carbon storage in forests and promoting biodiversity as well as the urgently needed transformation of forests for greater climate resilience. Although forests play a crucial role in climate protection, they are severely threatened by the impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events—four out of five trees are sick.1 OCELL is thus becoming a driving force in transforming forestry by monetizing the value of ecosystem services.
The round is led by venture capital investor Capnamic, who has previously made early investments in other successful tech companies such as LeanIX, Staffbase, and Strava. Additional funding comes from Bayern Kapital, who have supported the development of companies like Isar Aerospace and EGYM. Existing investors AENU and Summiteer, as well as business angels like Max Viessmann, are also participating in the funding round.
OCELL is the market leader in forestry software and analytics, enabling forest enterprises to manage their forests more sustainably and efficiently. Simultaneously, the technology serves as the foundation for the development of data-driven climate projects. By processing aerial imagery, LiDAR, and terrestrial forestry data, OCELL uses artificial intelligence to create digital twins of forests. The level of precision reached here greatly exceeds that of both satellite- and drone-based solutions. These digital twins provide insights into forest growth, current carbon storage capacity, and other metrics. This allows for the prediction and implementation of climate-optimized forest management strategies to store more carbon in the long term while also proving the benefits of such projects through scientific data. The forests currently managed with OCELL’s software, covering an area of more than 810,000 hectares, have the potential to store an additional 1.62 million tons of CO₂e per year. With offtake agreements already secured for over 100,000 credits, OCELL is set to make a substantial contribution to sustainable forest management and climate action across Europe.
The newly raised capital will drive the advancements in OCELL’s underlying technology, fuel growth, and support the expansion of climate projects across Europe, with a focus on the Nordics and Baltics. Additionally, it will expedite the development of a platform to transparently track and showcase project progress and impact through live data.
David Dohmen, co-founder and co-CEO of OCELL: "In recent years, the reputation of carbon credits has suffered significantly due to often inadequate data foundations, yet they remain a crucial tool in the fight against climate change – if implemented correctly. With OCELL, we aim to restore trust in the market by combining cutting-edge AI technology with nature-based solutions. Forests offer the advantage of being immediately available, scalable, and relatively cost-effective, while our technology ensures measurability, accuracy, and transparency. We are thrilled to have experienced partners like Capnamic and Bayern Kapital by our side, who have successfully supported numerous tech companies. The renewed investment from our existing investors further validates OCELL’s potential to become a key driver in transforming European forests."
Christian Knott, Managing Partner at Capnamic: “The key differentiation of the OCELL team is their deep roots in forestry. They truly understand the daily challenges and decisions forest managers face. OCELL is not only providing them with a high-quality product but also creating an opportunity to diversify their revenue streams. At a time when the market is experiencing a major shift in regulation and transparency requirements, OCELL’s offering stands out. No other solution knows the forest as intimately, because they are actively helping forest owners to manage it. We are thrilled to support their acceleration and ambitious international growth ambition.”
Ferry Heilemann, founder and partner of existing investor AENU: “We are big fans of the OCELL team. Their holistic forest management software and state-of-the-art primary data collection enables commercial forest owners globally to unlock high-quality carbon credits. Thus, increasing their profitability while storing more carbon on their land.”
Since its founding six years ago, OCELL has quickly become the market leader in forestry software and analytics, using its innovative startup spirit to digitize and transform a traditional industry. More than 3,500 forestry experts use the software to sustainably manage over 810,000 hectares of forest — an area equivalent to more than 1.1 million football fields. Since the last funding round, OCELL has increased the managed forest area elevenfold in just two years. This success lays the foundation for the further expansion of the data-driven climate projects, which the diverse team of 50+ forest, tech, and carbon experts launched for the first time at the end of 2023.
1 Waldzustandserhebung 2023 des Bundesministeriums für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft.
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Kathrin Kirchler
About OCELL:
OCELL is a Munich-based green-tech startup that develops local, high-quality climate projects that are transparent, measurable, and effective. Our goal is to harness the full potential of forests and make a significant contribution to climate protection. By processing aerial imagery and data from various sources, we use artificial intelligence to create "digital twins" of forests. These provide insights into forest growth, current carbon storage capacity, and other metrics, allowing us to predict optimal forest management strategies to store more carbon in the long term. Our climate projects have an immediate impact and are nature-based, while being supported by cutting-edge technology. Through this innovative technology and our strong commitment to data transparency, we ensure that our solutions have real impact. Currently, over 800,000 hectares of sustainable forest land across eleven countries are managed with our software.