Amsterdam’s Sumthing is no longer bootstrapped; raises €500K and unveils new ‘NatureTech’ platform

Amsterdam-based Sumthing, a nature restoration platform, announced on Thursday that it has launched a brand new platform following the successful closing of its €500K investment round. 

Sumthing is the first company in the NatureTech sector to successfully raise a financing round with the principles of steward-ownership applied. 

Steward-ownership ensures the business can prioritise making a positive impact over turning a profit. 

Sumthing says that the platform bridges the gap between businesses and individuals with a curated selection of nature restoration projects globally. 

The platform also offers a range of technologies to track the impact of every donation effectively.

Sumthing: NatureTech platform

Gijs Schuringa, Guido de Rooij, and Mike Odenhoven founded Sumthing in 2022 after the trio was tired of watching nature go to waste and not seeing any tangible progress. 

As a result, they wanted to create a platform where businesses and individuals could come together to make a real, tangible impact. 

“We’re using technology to connect people to the impact they’re making. By making it more engaging, we can mobilise many small donations that add up to something bigger than we can ever imagine,” says Guido de Rooij. “We’re setting a new standard for donations to nature, and aim to replace the digital certificates with the actual, tangible results.”

Sumthing is a social enterprise offering a curated set of restoration projects lined up to the priorities set out by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

The platform allows users to make a variety of positive impacts from one place, ranging from ocean-bound plastic salvation and coral restoration to soil revitalisation and reforestation.

Each project uses the platform to provide near real-time feedback on the impact created, whether it’s a tree planted or amount of plastic salvaged. This way anyone can follow the impact their donation is making. 

Since its launch in 2022, companies such as Deloitte, EcoChain, O My Bag, and HappySoaps have joined Sumthing’s movement. 

Sumthing’s Steward-Ownership model separates the company’s voting rights from its economic rights. The voting rights are in the hands of a separate entity governed by mission-aligned stewards, among which are Hans Geels, former marketing director at WWF and current CEO of Dille & Kamille, and Lisette Schuitemaker, chair of the supervisory board at PYMWYMIC and champion of steward-ownership in the Dutch Impact investment scene. 

“We believe that companies have a responsibility to restore nature, creating benefits for biodiversity, climate, and local communities,” says Gijs Schuringa, responsible for Growth at Sumthing. “Our platform makes it easy for companies to do just that while engaging their employees and customers in the process.”