Brainforest's Learning Series - From Finance to Forests
A Brainforest learning series that covers the basics, the mechanisms, and the real world trade offs of investing in forests and biodiversity.
Welcome to Capital for Nature, a 10-week learning series by Brainforest that makes nature investing practical and understandable. Every week, we will unpack one topic, from where the money can flow, to how deals actually work, to what it takes to create both impact and financial returns. Short, clear, and grounded in what we see every day with founders, investors, and philanthropists.
“Nature ventures are built on the ground, not in spreadsheets.”
Quick wins are rare for a reason
If you want to back forests and biodiversity, you need to accept the early stage reality.
Many nature startups do not look like classic software companies. They are not only building a product. They are often building the conditions for the product to work.
That usually means longer timelines, harder constraints, and a different path to scale.
Here is what that reality looks like in plain terms.
What early-stage reality looks like
1. Logistics is part of the product
If your work happens in rural areas, logistics is not a detail. It is core.
Storage, transport, last mile delivery, reliable local partners, quality control. Often, you have to build the network before you can scale the solution.
2. Infrastructure is uneven
Connectivity, payments, transport, and cold chains are not guaranteed.
Founders design around what exists, not what should exist. That takes creativity, time, and a lot of iteration.
3. Profitability takes longer
Customers often have constrained budgets.
Supply chains are complex. Adoption takes trust. And trust takes time.
So the path to profitability can be longer than in typical tech.
None of this means nature ventures are weaker.
It means they are playing a different game.
A founder example we see often
At Brainforest, we see these patterns across cohorts and ventures.
One example is OnlyPlants. Founder Marie Louise Wiegert moved from analysing climate risk in finance to building a regenerative food business in Kenya.
That shift says a lot.
From theory to field work. From models to messy reality. From “this should work” to “let’s make it work here, with the constraints we have.”
This is why backing early-stage nature founders is different.
You are not only funding innovation. You are funding resilience, execution, and the ability to keep going when the playbook does not exist yet.
The upside
When you support founders early, with the right mentorship and the right kind of capital, these seedlings can grow into companies that change real systems.
They can improve how food is produced, how land is managed, how livelihoods work, and how ecosystems recover.
This is slow work. But it compounds.
Closing and call to action
If you want to go from learning to action, take a look at the Canopy Pool, Brainforest’s investor syndicate for forest and biodiversity ventures coming out of our Venture Program. It is designed to make early investing more practical and to back founders while the market is still catching up.
One question to leave you with:
When you think about early-stage nature startups, what do you personally need most to feel confident? (for example, proof of demand, proof of impact, or a trusted team around the founder?)