Bird & Bird advises The Landbanking Group on $11 million seed financing

Munich — Inter­na­tio­nal law firm Bird & Bird has advi­sed Eco-FinTech company “The Land­ban­king Group” on an US$11 million seed finan­cing round with an inter­na­tio­nal group of investors.

The Land­ban­king Group supports with the finan­cing the launch of its natu­ral capi­tal plat­form Landler.io, the first inte­gra­ted manage­ment and invest­ment plat­form for natu­ral capi­tal (biodi­ver­sity, soil, water, carbon). This allows farmers and landow­ners to become provi­ders of natu­ral capi­tal, and compa­nies in the food indus­try, for exam­ple, to become natu­ral capi­tal inves­tors. The finan­cing will enable the company to expand its custo­mer base in the agri­cul­tu­ral and food sectors and enter new markets in infra­struc­ture, energy and finan­cial services. It also allows for the deve­lo­p­ment of moni­to­ring models for addi­tio­nal biomes and ecore­gi­ons, as well as further expan­sion of usable land (agri­cul­ture and urban land) into conservation.

The seed round was led by high impact fund BonVen­ture toge­ther with natu­ral capi­tal pioneer André Hoff­mann. Venture capi­tal funds such as 4P Capi­tal, Vana­gon and Planet A will contri­bute their exper­tise in marke­ting, refi­nan­cing and impact measu­re­ment. In addi­tion, the SUN Insti­tute of the Deut­sche Post Foun­da­tion and ten fami­lies and private inves­tors, inclu­ding Prince Maxi­mi­lian von und zu Liech­ten­stein, Alexa Firmenich, Jan-Hendrik Gold­beck and Fabian Strüng­mann, are support­ing the company’s development.

Advi­sor to The Land­ban­king Group: Bird & Bird

Coun­sel Andrea Schlote (Lead, photo © Bird&Bird), Part­ner Stefan Münch, Coun­sel Dr. Chris­tina Lorenz, Asso­ciate Louisa Graf (all Corporate/M&A, Munich) and Asso­ciate Kilian Hummel (Corporate/M&A, Frank­furt), Part­ner Dr. Markus Körner and Asso­ciate Yvonne Schaafs (both IP, Munich), Part­ner Dr. Rolf Schmich, Coun­sel Michael Brüg­ge­mann and Asso­ciate Luca Eckrich (all Tax, Frankfurt).

Alre­ady in 2022, the team around Andrea Schlote and Stefan Münch supported The Land­ban­king Group in the pre-seed finan­cing round. Bird & Bird also works with The Land­ban­king Group beyond that, advi­sing them on banking regu­la­tory and IP matters, among other things.

The Landler.io plat­form combi­nes cutting-edge tech­no­lo­gies — earth obser­va­tion, digi­tal in-situ data, machine lear­ning and decen­tra­li­zed ledgers. It can thus assign a “para­me­tric” natu­ral capi­tal account to each hectare of the planet. Thus, land coope­ra­ti­ves, mana­gers, or owners become provi­ders of ecosys­tem services measu­red in nature, and corpo­ra­ti­ons or inves­tors become inves­tors in “nature equity” contracts. These contracts are a new balance sheet-quality asset class and are attrac­tive to food, agri­cul­ture, energy, resource and infra­struc­ture compa­nies, but also incre­asingly to insu­rance compa­nies and finan­cial institutions.

Bird & Bird is an inter­na­tio­nal law firm with more than 1,400 lawy­ers in 32 offices in 22 count­ries in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia Paci­fic and Africa, and main­ta­ins close rela­ti­onships with law firms in other parts of the world. In Germany, we are repre­sen­ted by more than 250 lawy­ers in Düssel­dorf, Frank­furt, Hamburg and Munich. We focus our consul­ting in parti­cu­lar on indus­trial sectors that are deve­lo­ping new tech­no­lo­gies and helping to shape digi­ta­liza­tion. Our attorneys:in cover the full range of busi­ness and corpo­rate law, parti­cu­larly in areas where tech­no­logy, data, regu­la­tion and intellec­tual property play a special role. www.twobirds.com.