Dendra, a tech startup led by Oxford-trained scientist, raises $10M Series A funding to scale ecological restoration and rehabilitate lands using AI, analytics, and drones

The science has never been more apparent: Between Hurricane Laura (and more to follow), the California wildfires, and of course, the global health crisis, the world is in major trouble, humans are the cause of it, and a failure to act today will deeply impact the future of the Earth.

As the link between the destruction of ecosystems, climate change, and global health – including the current COVID-19 pandemic – becomes increasingly clear, companies and investors are eager for solutions that can facilitate private-sector leadership on these issues. The race is on for the next best solution, so it’s no surprise that investors are turning to Dendra.

Today, Dendra announced it has raised $10 million in new investments to help the company expand the first scalable, effective solution for restoring biodiverse ecosystems to global markets. The round is led by At One Ventures, Airbus Ventures, Future Positive Capital, and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital. Tom Chi, Founding Partner of At One Ventures, and Nicole Conner, Partner at Airbus Ventures will join the board of directors. This funding will help the company expand its global presence, with the goal of developing new projects in the North American markets.

With land degradation counting as one of the biggest contributors to climate change, accounting for at least 23 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, Dendra combines AI, drone technology, and deep ecological expertise to help rehabilitate land and restore biodiverse ecosystems at scale for Fortune 500 companies across regulated industries.

Founded in 2014 by Susan Graham, Irina Fedorenko, Lauren Fletcher, Martin Tengler, and Matthew Ritchie, Dendra provides integrated analytics and planting solutions for large-scale ecosystem restoration. Led by Susan Graham, an Oxford-trained scientist, Dendra is a full-scale ecosystem restoration company that combines the powers of ecology, drone tech, and AI to restore land that’s been ravaged by the mining, gas, and oil industries.

Dendra is the only end-to-end solution partnering with companies that have a direct economic imperative to drive environmental change. Unlike trendy efforts to plant trees without regard to the whole ecosystem needed to sustain growth and measurably capture carbon, Dendra uses hard-earned expertise in ecology to rebuild whole ecosystems.

“By now, we have all recognized the urgency of climate change and the impact of global land degradation—from frequent flooding, costly wildfires, deforestation, and the loss of biodiversity devastating ecosystems across the world. We need hands across all industries to fight back if we are going to make a dent on climate change and it starts with restoring our degraded ecosystems and lands,” said Susan Graham, Chief Executive Officer of Dendra.

Dendra’s patented technology uses ultra-high-resolution data capture and ecology-trained artificial intelligence to map and assess degraded land. Leveraging this data, Dendra creates precise restoration plans for every site’s unique ecological conditions. Finally, utilizing their customized drones, Dendra plants 120 seeds a minute per drone at scale—150 times faster than traditional manual planting methods. The company continues to collect data and run analytics against progress to predict where future work will be needed, ensure full restoration, and put numbers on carbon capture without either the cost or risks of putting physical boots on the ground. Dendra partners with its customers to drive restoration from the first seed to the last tree.