Hungry For High-Quality Carbon Credits: NCX Fund Raising Of $50 Million

Hungry For High-Quality Carbon Credits: NCX Fund Raising Of $50 Million

NCX, a forest carbon credit marketplace, announced on March 2nd that it had raised $50 million in a Series B funding round, led by Energize Ventures and including investors such as J.P. Morgan, Intercontinental Exchange, Dalus Capital, Clearvision Ventures, Scribble Ventures and TIME Ventures.

Previously known as SilviaTerra, NCX was founded in 2010 by Zack Parisa and Max Nova. To support its marketplace, NCX developed Basemap, a model leveraging satellite data and AI technologies to map and predict the location, diameter and species of trees across the United States. Forest cover data is then integrated with other variables, such as the price of timber, to assess the potential carbon value for landowners. NCX’s marketplace then brings together US landowners and corporates looking to offset their carbon emissions. Typically, setting up a carbon project is a long process, only economically-viable for those owning large forest plots. The use of Basemap enabled landowners of all sizes to quickly discover the value of their trees in the carbon market and determine a carbon price that would make up for the lost harvest. Landowners then make their bids and, if accepted, they will receive money after a year of reduced timber harvest. Landowners are matched with carbon buyers, that will collect carbon credits subject to verification of forest integrity with satellite imagery.

In one year, 2470 landowner participated from 39 different states. Among the carbon buyers in the NCX marketplace there are firms such as Microsoft, Rubicon, Southpole, Patch and others. The Series B funding will further accelerate NCX’s expansion to new natural capital markets and outside the United States. Similar investor interest in the satellite data provider Sylvera and the carbon capture removal firm Verdox indicate an increasing demand for high-quality carbon credits, without issues of additionality, or leakage, as a response to ambitious net-zero targets and commitment to SBTi.

In 2021, the voluntary carbon market reached $1 billion. Although still to be finalized, the principles agreed during COP26 negotiations made a significant contribution to the market’s definition, with positive prediction of growth. Carbon marketplaces like NCX, with additional benefits to rural economies and local biodiversity, are likely to play an important role in ensuring a wider participation in the voluntary carbon market.