OCELL secures €10 million Series A to boost AI-powered climate projects in European forests
Munich, 29 January 2025 – The Munich-based green-tech startup OCELL has raised €10 million in a Series A funding round to fuel its expansion across Europe and enhance its cutting-edge, AI-powered platform for developing high-quality climate projects that support climate-optimized forest management.
OCELL is at the forefront of revolutionizing forestry by digitizing forests and using advanced data analytics to enhance the transparency and credibility of climate projects. Through its innovative forest analytics engine, the company creates digital twins of forests, enabling precise monitoring, reporting, and verification (dMRV) of the achieved climate impact. This guarantees a generation of reliable, high-quality carbon credits, a critical component in the development of trusted carbon markets.
OCELL is the German market leader in forestry software and analytics, enabling forest enterprises to manage their forests more sustainably and efficiently. Over 3,500 forestry professionals use the software to manage over 800,000 hectares of forest, an area equivalent to more than 1.1 million soccer fields. Simultaneously, the company’s technology forms the basis for the development of data-driven climate projects, recognizing the enormous value of ecosystem services. By processing proprietary aerial images, LiDAR, and terrestrial data, OCELL uses artificial intelligence to create digital twins of forests. The level of precision reached here greatly exceeds that of satellite-based solutions. These digital models 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 managed with OCELL’s software today have the potential to store an additional 1.62 million tons of CO₂e per year.
A new Improved Forest Management methodology, named 'Climate-Optimized Forest Management,' is currently being developed by OCELL under the framework of the German Forest Carbon Standard by the Ecosystem Value Alliance Foundation. This methodology is designed to significantly boost carbon storage in European forests by reducing timber harvesting, while fostering biodiversity and climate resilience through interventions such as the introduction of mixed tree species. The first ex-post certified carbon credits under this method are expected to be issued in 2025. 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 new funding, led by Capnamic alongside Bayern Kapital and existing impact investors AENU and Summiteer, will empower OCELL to scale its operations and accelerate the transformation of forests toward greater climate resilience. By enhancing the integrity and expansion of carbon markets, this investment marks a pivotal moment in OCELL's mission to deliver innovative climate solutions and actively combat the global climate crisis.
Christian Decher, OCELL Co-Founder and Co-CEO: "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.”
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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 digital models provide insights into forest growth, current carbon storage capacity, and other metrics, and can predict optimal forest management strategies to store more carbon in the long term.
Our projects have an immediate impact and are nature-based while being powered by cutting-edge technology. Through our innovative technology and strong commitment to data transparency, we ensure the effectiveness of our solutions. Currently, we manage over 800,000 hectares of sustainable forest land across eleven countries.