Paris-based Equitable Earth (formerly ERS), a provider of certification for nature-based carbon projects, closed a €12.6 mn Series A round to push the expansion of its certification programme for nature-based carbon projects. The company, previously known as ERS, wants scale, and fast.
A US-based family office led the round. Existing investors stayed active, including AENU, noa, and Localglobe. With this raise, total funding now tops €25 mn.
CEO Thibault Sorret said Equitable Earth aims to help organisations protect and restore ecosystems through certification that scales without losing trust.
He framed the new capital as fuel to position the programme as a global reference point for nature-based projects, which is an ambitious claim, maybe intentionally so.
Founded in 2020, Equitable Earth says its certification programme has been formally recognised as eligible under the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market Core Carbon Principles, the benchmark many buyers treat as a quality filter.
Recognition there changes how projects get priced, and who shows up to finance them.
According to the company, its operating model pushes climate finance toward threatened ecosystems with fewer delays.
The digital certification platform compresses project timelines and lets developers move through approval steps with less friction.
Carbon accounting and risk modelling stay in-house, built around a centralised and standardised system. Monitoring and reporting rely on tools designed to stay transparent and affordable, not bespoke.
Projects must show measurable outcomes for climate, nature, and local communities through a structured, connected framework. Community participation isn’t optional.
The programme sets explicit requirements around involvement, protection, and benefit sharing with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and tracks those metrics as part of certification.
An investor at noa said carbon markets need projects that scale without drifting into credibility gaps. He added that the funding helps Equitable Earth meet demand for reliable nature-based credits and strengthens its standing in high-integrity certification, a phrase investors keep repeating because buyers now ask harder questions.
The carbon markets need scalable, reliable projects that deliver real climate, ecological, and social outcomes. This funding helps Equitable Earth to meet that demand, cementing its position as a market leader in high-integrity, nature-based certification
Arjun Jairaj, investor at noa, Europe’s largest built world VC
The new capital will go into technology first. Data systems, modelling, and user-facing tools sit at the top of the list, all aimed at speeding up certification while keeping processes visible inside one platform.
The company also plans to hire across research, engineering, commercial, and certification teams.
Equitable Earth says it intends to certify millions of additional hectares, lifting global supply of nature-based credits, and to develop new methodologies covering ecosystems that remain underrepresented in carbon markets. Ambitious, yes, but the demand curve keeps pulling in that direction.
Last July, Ecosystem Restoration Standard announced its rebrand to Equitable Earth.
The move followed ERS’s acquisition of Equitable Earth, a forest carbon standard created by a coalition of more than 125 experts from 60 organisations, spanning Indigenous leaders, scientists, policymakers, and civil society groups.
The standard was built to channel fair investment into forest protection and restoration, with local stewards kept squarely in the picture.
