Boomitra Raises $4 Mn From Yara Growth Ventures In the near future, the company seeks to enable farmers to be a key part of the solution to addressing climate change
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The US-based Boomitra announced an investment of $4 million, led by Yara Growth Ventures.
Boomitra is working on accelerating carbon removal from the atmosphere on a global scale, through agricultural soils. It operates an international soil carbon market where corporations and governments are able to get the lowest-cost internationally certified carbon removal credits and farmers around the world are incentivized to increase soil organic carbon (SOC), sequestering CO2.
This funding round was led by Yara Growth Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Yara International, the fertilizer company. Other participants in the round included Chevron Technology Ventures, the CVC arm, Chevron Corporation, Jerry Yang, co-founder, Yahoo!, and billionaire sustainability investors Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor.
"Something holding back the carbon markets in agriculture is how expensive and laborious it is to certify credits in a field," said Erkki Aaltonen, head, Yara Growth Ventures. "Boomitra's remote technology and marketplace have the opportunity to categorically change the way agri-carbon credits are monitored, packaged, and sold. All while enabling smallholder farmers with as few as two hectares to make money while sequestering carbon. We're proud to help the team scale in this next phase of their journey."
Erkki will also be joining Boomitra's Board of Directors.
"Boomitra has the potential to enable farm carbon sequestration and monetization by cost-effectively growing the supply of offsets to meet increasing demand," shared Barbara Burger, vice president, innovation, and president, Chevron Technology Ventures. "This is the latest investment from our recently launched $300 million Future Energy Fund II, which focuses on industrial decarbonization, emerging mobility, energy decentralization, and the growing circular carbon economy."
According to the UN, soil carbon sequestration is one of the lowest-cost carbon removal techniques and can sequester 20 percent of humanity's yearly carbon footprint. However, it is largely stymied by the requirements of soil sampling and lab testing on a field level to measure soil carbon.
Boomitra has built a satellite and artificial intelligence-based technology over the past 4 years to directly measure soil carbon levels without using any sensors or soil sampling – this technology enables soil carbon sequestration to be scaled on a global level. It also enables farmers of all sizes throughout the world to participate and increase their incomes – improving their livelihoods.
"We are eager to support Aadith and the Boomitra team in scaling reliable verification of soil carbon, as our soils have the potential to store as much as 9 gigatons of carbon annually," remarked Tom Steyer and Kat Taylor. "Boomitra's solution also enables growers of all sizes to participate in carbon markets, bringing meaningful revenue back to smallholder farmers globally and ensuring that the transition to regenerative agriculture is as inclusive and just as possible."
Boomitra was founded as ConserWater in 2016 by founder and chief executive officer Aadith Moorthy. Today, Boomitra works with ground partners across more than 2 million acres and many thousands of farmers, on every inhabited continent – and is in the process of generating and certifying more than 10 million tons of carbon removals this year.
"It is just the beginning for Boomitra – we are now positioned to create and quantify millions of tons of real carbon removals. And we are now officially open for business – sign up on our website to buy carbon removals at any scale and support farmers worldwide," added Moorthy.
In the near future, the company seeks to enable farmers to be a key part of the solution to addressing climate change.
