The company produces software tools to help grasp opportunities to draw down carbon and boost biodiversity, whilst making sustainable financial returns. Its ForestFounder system, which finds and assesses sites for tree-planting, has gathered a range of large customers including National Highways, the Environment Agency, and Forestry England. Verna was recently awarded a £1.4m contract from the UK’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio to increase ForestFounder’s capabilities.

The new investment will be used to widen Verna’s tools beyond tree-planting, identifying the best carbon and biodiversity options for land across a range of interventions – such as peatland restoration and grassland enhancement.

This is the company’s first equity investment round, and was led by Vanneck EIS with participation from Octopus Ventures.

Verna’s co-founder Matthew Brown said: “Making the best decisions about how to use land is vital to addressing the climate and biodiversity crises, but is an increasingly complex challenge. With backing from Vanneck EIS and Octopus Ventures, our new tools will help landowners, investors, and public bodies combine data across science, economics, and regulation to see the potential of land and choose the right way forward."

Vanneck EIS said: “Verna is some incredibly smart folk applying digital innovation to a critical global question; how best to use and make returns from land? They are already coming up with compelling answers, and we expect Verna to be driving forward the market and public policy in this crucial area for many years to come.”

Kirsten Connell, Principal at Octopus Ventures, said: “We’re so excited to add Verna to the Octopus Ventures community, as it has the potential to make a real difference for nature and the climate at scale. The Verna team have years’ worth of both public and private experience, deep knowledge of their sector and the network to deliver their vision.”