Swiss-based Open Forest Protocol bags €3.8M to help forestation industry using blockchain tech

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Lausanne, Switzerland-based Open Forest Protocol (OFP), an open platform to measure, verify and fund forestation projects, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $4.1M (approximately €3.8M) in a pre-seed round of funding from multiple VCs and angel investors.

Some of the investors are Shima Capital, Übermorgen Ventures, Not Boring Capital, Mercy Corps Ventures, Byzantine Marine, Big Brain Holdings, and Valor Capital.  

The Swiss platform says it will use the funds to continue to build and ship the system’s core infrastructure and accelerate the onboarding of projects across governments, NGOs, and individuals.

Fred Fournier, CEO of Open Forest Protocol, says, “The strong support of investors experienced in our pre-seed round is a validation of both our vision and strategy. Only an equitable, truthful system backed by immutable, open data will truly value forests on the ground as well as in the voluntary carbon market. We must act together to fight for our planet and give value to nature.”

What does the Open Forest Protocol solve?

According to OFP, the current forestation industry is inefficient due to various reasons, such as siloed information between afforestation initiatives, lack of collaborative funding mechanisms, expensive and inconsistent MRV methodologies, and much more. 

Consequently, thousands of smaller projects are left out of the current schema. 

And here’s where OFP can unite all stakeholders under one decentralised protocol and provide forestation project operators with the tools they need to plant and conserve forests.

Open Forest Protocol: What you need to know

Founded by Swiss scientist Frederic Fournier and American web3 specialist Michael Kelly, Open Forest Protocol (OFP) is an open platform allowing forest projects globally, regardless of their size, to measure, report, and verify their forestation data.

Built on the NEAR blockchain, OFP allows individuals, communities, NGOs, and governments to create transparent, immutable, proof-of-impact data that is comprehensively verified by a network of independent experts.

OFP uses blockchain technology to verify and record forest data publicly, so anyone can see what is happening with the forests registered with OFP. 

The company aims to create the foundation for more inclusive, scalable, and data-backed financing mechanisms for nature-based climate solutions.

Currently, OFP is working on 40 afforestation/reforestation projects globally through its blockchain-based MRV (measurement, reporting, and verification) technology.

According to OFP, every project records tree data within the forest using OFP’s mobile app and then sends the information to the blockchain-based registry.

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The editorial team of Silicon Canals brings you technology news from the European startup ecosystem. 

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