Darwin, a platform addressing the pressing biodiversity crisis, has raised €1.5 million in a pre-seed funding round led by French VC firm Astérion, alongside prominent European business angels specializing in climate and ESG sectors. The funding will bolster Darwin’s tech and product teams, enhancing its platform to serve consultants and ESG SaaS providers while expanding its reach to more businesses.

Founded to address the often-overlooked biodiversity crisis, Darwin aims to embed biodiversity considerations into business strategies. The company focuses on solving critical challenges like managing vast, heterogeneous datasets, tracing supply chain impacts, and assessing spatial dependencies.

Darwin’s platform enables consultants and ESG providers to assess biodiversity impacts comprehensively and create actionable plans. By leveraging AI models and proprietary algorithms, the platform fills data gaps, particularly in supply chains, and integrates third-party software via APIs for a localized impact overview.

Darwin highlights the urgency of the biodiversity crisis, which threatens ecosystems and economies, with over 50% of global GDP directly dependent on nature. CEO [Name] (if available) pointed to regulatory measures like the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which requires companies to disclose biodiversity impacts, as a driving force for businesses to adopt sustainable models.

Darwin’s said its mission is to harness technology for the benefit of nature, enabling businesses to rethink their models and lead the ecological transition. The platform’s end-to-end solutions streamline data collection, risk assessment, action planning, and reporting, empowering businesses to address biodiversity impacts effectively.

With the latest funding, Darwin plans to scale its platform to leading consultancies, helping businesses worldwide adapt to the growing demands for transparency and accountability in sustainability efforts. The company’s vision is to become the go-to platform for biodiversity assessment and action, safeguarding nature while driving sustainable business models.

Featured image: Credit: Darwin