Xilva, a startup that helps forestry projects access capital, has recently raised 1.8 million Euros (around $2 million) from Swiss accelerator Brainforest and Bloomsbury Natural Capital, German VC Insurtech.vc, and angel investors. Xilva’s 14-slide pitch deck helped the company secure the funding.
The voluntary carbon market, where carbon credits are bought and sold, is facing some challenges in trusting the quality of the credits and the process of investing in these projects. To address this issue and make the process more transparent, Xilva has created a marketplace of carbon credit-generating forestry projects.
Through this platform, corporates can invest in these projects while keeping an eye on their impact, location, and risk profile. Xilva has also come up with an original method to evaluate the projects and their associated risks, with the goal of regaining trust in the market.
Unlike other companies that majors on carbon credit ratings, Xilva takes a more holistic look at the projects and analyzes potential environmental and social impact, corruption, and the reputation of the project developer.
The company also visits the projects in some cases to collect data from the ground and from sources such as Global Forest Watch. This step brings corporations and project developers into closer contact to ensure the best results for all parties.
Xilva is looking to increase its headcount from 11 to around 20 by the end of the year which will enable the startup to improve its platform and investments in data sources as well as AI tool ChatGPT to help project developers with marketing and communication.
CEO and co-founder Tim Duehrkoop, who hails from Zurich, spearheads Xilva’s mission by focusing on the company’s core values of transparency and sustainability to maximize the value of the projects they evaluate. As the carbon credits market is projected to grow to $40 billion by 2030, Xilva is well-positioned to be a leader in this revolutionizing space.
