Founded by ex-VC Aurore Falque-Pierrotin (CEO), Cyprien Hallé (CPO), and one of France's leading experts on biodiversity, Antoine Vallier (CSO), darwin is helping companies to transition to new business models compatible with planet boundaries. darwin has announced that it has raised €1.5 million from Astérion and Business Angels active in the climate field. They have also been joined by Walid Chergui, former Senior Engineer at Algolia, as CTO.

With an increasing workload and the rising complexity and volume of data to analyse, consultancies must rapidly equip themselves. darwin aims to support them at every stage of the development of a biodiversity & nature strategy: data collection and data processing, impact and risk assessment, construction of action plans & trajectories and reporting.

Aurore Falque-Pierrotin, CEO and Co-Founder of Darwin, stated: "At darwin, we are convinced that the private sector has a crucial role to play in resolving the biodiversity crisis. This fundraising will allow us to accelerate the development of our product, designed to provide consultants and other software platforms with the necessary tools to enable companies to take action. Our indirect approach allows us to collaborate with established ESG players, meeting the growing needs for productivity and accuracy in this emerging market."

darwin is developing a scientific and rigorous methodology aligned with leading international standards such as SBTN (Science-Based Targets for Nature) and the TNFD (Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures). They have adopted a double materiality approach, assessing both impacts on and dependencies on nature. In practice, darwin evaluates the biodiversity footprint of companies by measuring how their activities contribute to the five pressures identified by IPBES, which are the primary drivers of biodiversity loss. Dependencies are analysed based on exposure to ecosystem services.

The erosion of biodiversity is accelerating, threatening ecosystems that are essential to the economy. More and more businesses are becoming aware of their key role in preserving nature, but often lack effective tools to measure and reduce their impact. darwin makes unique use of new technologies and AI to address the main challenges faced by businesses: the platform can manage a huge volume of data, responding to the multidimensional complexity of biodiversity analysis (5 pressures, 21 ecosystem services, and more than 130 indicators required by the new EU CSRD regulation for biodiversity alone). Its AI algorithms can also be used to fill in data gaps, particularly upstream in the supply chain. Finally, the platform also responds to the challenges of traceability by integrating data from third-party software via APIs, providing a clear view of local impacts.

"We chose to invest in darwin because we strongly believe in their ability to transform the biodiversity sector. They provide a unique solution to overcome the challenges of managing the massive, complex and heterogeneous data that hinders action on biodiversity. Through intelligent automation and robust infrastructure, darwin goes beyond traditional approaches and facilitates impact analysis, paving the way for more effective biodiversity strategies," said Marine Reygrobellet, Partner, Astérion

Thanks to this funding, darwin plans to rapidly strengthen its Tech & R&D team by recruiting developers, data scientists and ecology experts to enhance its data model and refine its algorithms, roll out its product in France and Europe using its network of consultants and software platforms, and develop new functions that are essential for safeguarding biodiversity.

With the rapid evolution of regulations, in particular the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive) in Europe, and growing pressure from consumers and investors, the market for biodiversity management solutions is growing exponentially. According to a recent study by McKinsey, this market is expected to reach €10 billion by 2030. darwin is positioned as a leader and pioneer in this emerging sector, with already a dozen partner firms such as Utopies, Deloitte, KPMG, GoodWill, Impact Lab.

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