As a serial entrepreneur, Diego Saez Gil is used to pitching ambitious startup ideas and getting turned down. So he was prepared for some rejection with his latest venture, Pachama, a developer of satellite data-enabled technology to monitor reforestation projects for carbon emissions offsets.
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But he’s not hearing “no” much, so far. His first pitch, to Y Combinator, provided some idea-stage funding. Since then, a long list of prominent investors have signed on to back the 3-year-old venture, including Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon.com, and Chris Sacca’s Lowercarbon Capital.
Now, with over $24 million in Pachama’s coffers, its founder is preparing to scale up a mission inspired by a trip back to his native South America, where he saw the ravages of deforestation firsthand.
“Every government, corporation and consumer should have the ability to contribute back,” Saez Gil said. “The idea is that if you want, you should be able to invest with trust, with confidence, into projects that are planting trees, preserving forests.”
While Pachama appears to be the highest recent funding recipient in the climate software space, it’s far from …
