June 30, 2022
EcoTree, a Breton company, certified B Corp, having invented a new form of forestry investment, raised €12m to become the leading European player in Nature-Based Solutions. This third round marks the entry into its capital of Societe Generale Ventures, Financière Fonds Privés and Famae. Some historical shareholders, such as the Accurafy 4 fund, are also reinvesting.
Convinced that the forest, ecosystems, and biodiversity are not valued at their fair value, EcoTree has developed a set of solutions allowing companies and individuals to commit to their preservation and renewal since 2016. “Every day, the news reminds us how much we depend on our natural environment. However, things are not moving fast enough: temperatures are rising, and forests are suffering. It is urgent to train and act on your scale to meet the climate challenge and the destruction of biodiversity,” says Erwan Le Méné, co-founder and president of EcoTree.
With its forestry and biodiversity preservation expertise, as well as its established network, EcoTree now wishes to rely on this third fundraiser to strengthen the bridge it has built between the forest world and civil society to become the European leader in Nature-Based Solutions. Its primary desire is to increase its impact by making these solutions accessible to all owners, managers and experts, while promoting the forest as a whole: carbon and timber, but also biodiversity and social issues.
After France, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, EcoTree will continue its European establishments while investing massively in awareness, the social development of its projects as well as in scientific research and technology to enable its customers to assess their actions and fully integrate them into their CSR initiatives.
“Since the beginning of EcoTree, our obsession has been to offer innovative solutions around the creation of carbon sinks and the preservation of biodiversity, to reconcile economy and ecology. We believe that this incredible environmental transition project must be embodied by concrete and local actions including a social component and participating in the restoration of ecosystems. We are proud and happy to welcome 3 new investors who will help us grow EcoTree in France and Europe and develop new Solutions Based on the Nature,” said Erwan Le Méné, President and co-founder of EcoTree.
“The purpose of the Societe Generale Group is to build together, with our clients, a better and sustainable future by providing responsible and innovative financial solutions. By participating in this new EcoTree fundraising, through our Societe Generale Ventures fund, we have the ambition to continue the deployment of different types of sustainable solutions. We thus support the desire of our customers to invest in projects promoting reforestation and biodiversity. We are therefore delighted to take part in this adventure alongside EcoTree, which will allow us to continue to design tailor-made solutions for our customers,” said Sandrine Enguehard, Head of Impact Finance Solutions at Societe Generale Group.
“A link between major private investors and unlisted companies enables us to work to create value for investors as much as for the companies to which we provide funds. EcoTree has exactly the same logic, by offering its customers and partner companies to work to enhance nature while building an income. Anxious to support SMEs and ETIs which are the greatest creators of wealth in our country, it seemed logical and virtuous to us to help EcoTree to develop by creating new jobs and new forests,” says Thierry de Chambure, Managing Director and Partner of Financière Fonds Privés.
“Famae’s purpose is to finance companies that reduce the environmental footprint and work for the climate. We invested capital in EcoTree to accelerate its development with civil society and businesses to help them reduce the net impact of their greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to the development of our forests and biodiversity was obvious. And since EcoTree is also a story of enthusiasts, the agreement with the team of co-founders was immediate,” said Jérôme Leger, co-founder and Partner of Famae Impact.
“We are very satisfied with the development of EcoTree since our entry into the capital in 2019, and it is therefore with great enthusiasm that we wished to participate in this Series B. We strongly support the ambitions of the Company in Europe, as well as on new verticals. Indeed, by launching our “Sustainable Future” compartment in partnership with EcoTree last year, through which we acquired several thousand trees in the Saran Forest, we wanted to show the way to the asset management and encourage the development of green financial products. Technology and sustainability being at the heart of our raison d’être, we are more than ever aligned with the values and objectives of EcoTree,” says Frédéric Caron, co-founder and CEO of Accurafy.
“We are delighted to have assisted the EcoTree team in this major fundraising, with investors who are as prestigious as they are committed to supporting impact companies. This operation highlights the strong enthusiasm of investors of all kinds for European GreenTechs and ClimateTechs, capable of developing meaningful, high-growth and profitable models,” says Tanguy du Chesnay, Partner of Translink CF France, M&A and Fundraising.
“We are very happy to have accompanied EcoTree on this new fundraising. This operation testifies to the confidence of historical and new investors in the development of the company and their desire to be associated with the message conveyed by EcoTree to raise awareness of the sustainable development of our forests,” concluded Jérôme Chapron, Associate Lawyer, Chammas & Marcheteau.
Headquartered in the city of lights, Paris, and with an office in the beautiful port city of Bordeaux, Translink CF France, formerly Financière Monceau CF, is an independent mid-market M&A boutique. Founded 10 years ago by finance entrepreneurs aged under 30, Translink CF France puts the emphasis on its entrepreneurial DNA when it comes to advising its clients.