CAMBRIDGE, Mass., 28th November 2023 — Yard Stick PBC, a soil carbon measurement technology company, today announced it closed its final Series A tranche, bringing the round to $12 million, and its overall venture capital funding to date to nearly $18 million. The financing is the second and final tranche of Yard Stick PBC’s Series A, announced in August this year. Extantia, a climate-first venture capital firm, joined the final tranche.
In addition to Extantia, Series A investors include Toyota Ventures Climate Fund, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Pillar VC, and an extended group of climate-committed founders, angels, and family offices. The funding will accelerate Yard Stick’s mission to enhance the accountability and effectiveness of soil carbon sequestration projects, as November saw only 4% of top companies’ net-zero pledges meeting UN climate guidelines.
Yard Stick’s soil carbon measurement solution, which includes proprietary hardware and software, is solving a persistent problem: the high cost of accurately sampling, quantifying and verifying carbon sequestration in soil, a critical part of successful offsetting projects. This has been a significant barrier to credible and scalable soil carbon projects for global corporates looking to decarbonise their agricultural supply chains and any company looking to use voluntary carbon markets to offset their emissions. Yard Stick’s technologies can measure soil organic carbon up to a meter in depth, create statistically-sound sample plans and collect measurement data in real time, while at the same time reducing the cost of measurement by 70-90%.
Carlota Ochoa Neven Du Mont, Principal at Extantia, said: “Soil has the potential to capture carbon on a gigatonne scale, but there are many challenges in transforming this potential into reliable carbon offset and insetting projects due to the absence of dependable Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV). We believe that Yard Stick’s technology offers a level of rigour and accessibility that has been previously unseen in this market. Their approach is set to unlock the potential of soil CDR, and to fundamentally improve trust in these projects - we’re very excited to be part of that journey”.
Chris Tolles, co-founder and CEO of Yard Stick, said: “This funding will help solidify our leadership position in soil carbon measurement and we’re very much looking forward to partnering with all of our investors to build up trust in the sector. Extantia’s participation will mean additional support for strategic partnerships, customer introductions, policy guidance and overall market penetration in Europe. Their experience of climate technologies and their knowledge of technical carbon removal make them an ideal partner to reach European corporates looking to reduce their Scope 3 emissions”.
Yard Stick’s multidisciplinary leadership team involves technology veterans with previous experience in successfully exiting climate technology companies and experts in environmental science, agronomy, data analytics who previously led projects at SpaceX and Planet Labs - alongside some of the most highly-regarded soil scientists in the world as advisers.
With solid sales traction, Yard Stick has already secured multi-year contracts worth more than $17M in revenue, with a pipeline of customers including some of the biggest players in the soil markets. Their proximal sensing method and broader technology suite are already compliant with leading voluntary carbon market crediting programs, and their fieldwork to date has already covered many hundreds of thousands of acres across 26 US states.
About Yard Stick PBC
Yard Stick’s mission is to enable gigaton-scale carbon sequestration via soils. Developed by the world’s top soil scientists and supported by leading grant funders and venture investors, Yard Stick’s integrated suite of software and hardware offerings solve key soil carbon measurement challenges at global scale with low cost and high science rigor.
To learn more, visit https://www.useyardstick.com/.
About Extantia Capital
Extantia Capital is a climate-first venture capital firm accelerating the path to a decarbonised world. Extantia unites mission-driven entrepreneurs, scientists, investors, and business leaders to advance the transition. The platform includes Extantia Flagship, a fund backing scalable deep decarbonisation companies, Extantia Allstars, a fund-of-funds investing in climate venture capital funds, and Extantia Ignite, a sustainability hub advancing knowledge and competence in climate innovation and ESG practices. For more information, visit www.extantia.com.
(Prior August 17 announcement follows)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., August 17, 2023 — Yard Stick PBC, a soil carbon measurement technology company, today announced $10.6 million in Series A funding. Toyota Ventures Climate Fund led the round, with additional investors including the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Pillar VC, and an extended group of climate-committed founders, angels, and family offices. This brings Yard Stick’s total venture capital funding to more than $16 million.
“Capturing soil carbon has a range of benefits, from the commercial gains farmers see in improved soil quality and more-resilient yield, to the climate benefits of sequestering atmospheric carbon in the ground,” said Chris Tolles, co-founder and CEO of Yard Stick. “Yard Stick is reducing the cost of measuring soil carbon by 70-90+ percent while improving analytical rigor compared to current measurement techniques. We’ve been working with the largest carbon soil programs in the world to test our solution with farmers and ranchers. With this funding, our company will move beyond ‘beta,’ and enter full commercial deployment.”
Yard Stick’s soil carbon measurement solution includes proprietary hardware and software:
"Measurement, reporting, and verification of carbon claims are essential to scaling scientifically robust carbon markets. Yard Stick's spectral technology addresses key challenges in measuring soil carbon that hinder the development of this market,” says Brandon Middaugh, Senior Director, Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund. “Microsoft is excited to support the company’s mission to activate global soils for climate change mitigation.”
Yard Stick is announcing its Series A during a time of significant growth for the company. In the fall of 2022, Yard Stick was awarded $18 million from the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative, kickstarting soil carbon measurement work in 6 projects across dozens of states and millions of acres. More recently, Verra published a revision to VM0042, its flagship soil carbon protocol, which explicitly allows the use of Yard Stick’s VisNIR spectroscopy for soil carbon measurement in Verra projects. The company will present performance data on its spectral probe at the Soil Science Society of America annual meeting in St. Louis in October and publish results thereafter.
“While there is consensus regarding soil’s tremendous capability to sequester carbon, there is a lack of unanimity concerning which farming methods work and to what degree, which is largely due to challenges with measurement. Robust MRV solutions such as Yard Stick will be critical to realization of the full potential of soil carbon projects in reaching decarbonization targets,” said Lisa Coca, Partner, Toyota Ventures Climate Fund. “We look forward to supporting Yard Stick’s team in their mission to address the complexity of measuring soil organic carbon accurately and affordably.”
About Yard Stick PBC
Yard Stick’s mission is to enable gigaton-scale carbon sequestration via soils. Developed by the world’s top soil scientists and supported by leading grant funders and venture investors, Yard Stick’s integrated suite of software and hardware offerings solve key soil carbon measurement challenges at global scale with low cost and high science rigor.
To learn more, visit https://www.useyardstick.com/.
