October 21, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

reNature, a startup that develops and scales regenerative farming and agroforestry projects, announced it has secured backing through Avocet Holdings. The entirety of the equity capital being invested is provided by James Atkins – an active investor who gains control stakes and works side-by-side with management teams. 

Launched with cornerstone investors DOEN Foundation and Meraki Impact, reNature raised Seed funding in early 2021, when it added another four impact investors to its partnerships. 

Arne Driessen – fund manager of the Netherlands-based impact-driven family fund Golden Bird. This investment in reNature is a perfect fit with Golden Bird’s mission to accelerate the transition to regenerative ag through focused investments in innovative food and tech companies. 

Josephine Korijn – co-founder of New AJE Capital, an investor that commits capital, time, and its voice to regenerative solutions for resilient food and ag ecosystems, and strives to support the transition to sustainable land use practices. 

Koen van Seijen – senior manager at the non-profit, Toniic; partner at a Milan-based financial advisor; and publisher of the podcast “Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food” that has featured more than 100 interviews with impact investors, fund managers, farmers and others (and has been featured in past issues of Agtech Intel). 

Simon and Murielle Pickard – Geneva, Switzerland-based impact investors with a focus on agriculture. 

“We joined reNature in 2019 convinced of the enormous impact it will have on changing our food system,” said Fernando Russo, Meraki Impact, in January. “It’s great to have an amazing group of like-minded impact investors joining us in this mission, and allowing reNature to jump to the next level with more structure to grow.”

A More Modern, Learned, and Complete Approach

We have admittedly done a poor job in modernizing how we look at the profit and loss associated with farming. Higher crop yields and more animals, partnered with low cost of inputs, have traditionally meant higher profit. For centuries, the unaccounted losses tied to traditional extractive farming have been viewed as unavoidable, and inherent – but it need not be this way, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, who stated that a shift from extractive to regenerative agriculture is not only possible, but profitable, when taking a more modern, learned, and complete approach to the costs and output of agricultural production.

Headquartered in Amsterdam, reNature harnesses the potential of regenerative agriculture and regenerative agroforestry, and reimagining production models to design and implement regenerative systems of all scales to fight climate change, poverty, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity.

With its network of research organizations, the public sector and technological partners, reNature creates connections for farmers with the necessary research, knowledge, funding sources, and buyers to foster transition to regenerative practices and to provide opportunities for growers to offset carbon.

After its first year in operation (during which the startup raised EUR 400,000 [US$464,934]), the startup had projects underway in Brazil, Cote d’Ivoire, Chile, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Mexico, Malaysia, Portugal, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda, and teams on the ground in South Africa, Indonesia, and Brazil, along with 70 volunteers.

Reflecting the advancement of reNature’s mission, in August of this year, the firm recorded its first agroforestry carbon credits in partnership with Cooperative Agricola Mista de Tomé- Açu (CAMTA) – a Brazilian cooperative of farmers that generated 242 carbon removal units (CRUs) through Acorn – a new carbon marketplace by Rabobank. These credits were sold to Microsoft, which is targeting emissions reduction by 2030, distributing R$25,000 among the cooperative producers. reNature is replicating this same action in partnership with farmers in Africa and Asia.

This latest investment brings James Atkins and Avocet Holdings into the fold. Atkins stated that he had been following the work of Felipe Villela, co-founder and COO, and Marco do Boer, CEO of reNature, for the past year, realizing that reNature is unique in its ability through the intersection of technology and excellent communication to tell the stories of farmers changing the way they farm. 

“I’ve been following the work of Felipe, Marco and the team over the last year or so,” said Atkins. “They are unique in how well they tell the stories of farmers changing how they farm. When you put technical excellence together with very good communication, that’s powerful.”

Atkins’ support for reNature’s mission to help farmers and corporations to transition to regenerative agriculture runs deep, managing to convince his entire company to donate their yearly bonus to reNature in January 2020.

How deeply Atkins identifies with reNature’s mission was expressed most clearly in a statement announcing the investment, “This is not just an investment in reNature, it is a very personal relationship,” he said.

– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.