Natural Capital startup “The Landbanking Group” concludes financing round and expands leadership team

The Landbanking Group has also expanded its leadership team by appointing Tobias Bandel (founder and former CEO of Soil & More) to lead its Biome activities and Christopher Schuetz (formerly with HypoVereinsbank, Baader Bank, the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, SIX Digital Exchange and CRX Markets) to lead its Markets activities.

Since its launch in April 2022, the Landbanking Group’s founders, Dr. Sonja Stuchtey (founder of Science-Lab and Alliance4Europe) and Prof. Martin R. Stuchtey (former senior partner McKinsey and founder of SYSTEMIQ) and CTO Ronny Rentner (CTO Rocket Internet) have assembled a team of 20 professionals and 10 distinguished advisors. The team consists of leading scientists, company builders, technology experts, financial industry professionals and land specialists.

In its journey to create a ground-breaking, solution-focused market for ecosystem services and products, The Landbanking Group’s in-house capabilities include expert knowledge of land management, ecosystem modelling, earth observation, biodiversity monitoring, carbon markets, commodity trading and financial design.

At a moment of accelerating climate change and nature loss, The Landbanking Group was founded to drive planetary-scale restoration of land. In order to redefine wealth in the 21st century based on the ecological vitality of every single track of land, The Landbanking Group’s platform will allow buyers and sellers of nature services – such as carbon removal, water storage, soil regeneration or biodiversity protection – to open natural capital accounts.

“The platform will provide land stewards with the data, tools and incentives they need to turn their land into productive and thriving ecosystems, here, now and far into the future,” says founder Martin R. Stuchtey. Adds Dr. Sonja Stuchtey “By 2030, every land steward, company or investor on Earth should be able to open a natural capital account with the same ease known from telco, banking or insurances services today.” To that end, polygons of land are to be assessed based on novel technologies, then verifiable claims are established to turn ecosystem services into tradeable assets that respect existing land rights of any land steward community. This will allow them to drive land restoration and protection with real financial backing and a long-term outlook, while simultaneously helping turn investment portfolios and companies nature-positive, as well as allowing individuals to contribute to ecosystem restoration.

The Landbanking Group is a knowledge partner of the Taskforce for Nature Markets and works closely with Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany’s space agency, the Cool Farm Alliance and a number of academic institutions. Its mission is shaped by the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Climate Agreement and the biodiversity targets of the High Ambition Coalition.