Six-figure seed financing for forestry start-up Ocell

The two founders of Foodora and Kaia Health, Manuel Thurner and Konstantin Mehl, are participating in the round. They want to use the money to expand the team.

The Munich-based AI start-up Ocell has closed its seed financing round with a six-figure sum. VC Better Ventures and business angels Julius Göllner and Andreas Kupke from Finanzcheck and the two founders of Foodora and Kaia Health, Manuel Thurner and Konstantin Mehl, are involved in the round. Ocell will also receive a further 500,000 euros from a research funding program.

Ocell has been developing an app for digital forestry since 2018 and aims to help forest managers to manage their forests more efficiently and sustainably. "Decisions are currently based on data that is up to ten years old in some cases," says co-founder Christian Decher. "Measures and their status, as well as information relating to geographically referenced data, such as tree populations, are still processed on paper by fax, post or telephone, which is very error-prone and time-consuming. Ocell accelerates the flow of information between all stakeholders.

Ocell has its own microlight aircraft that take aerial photographs of the forests. Ocell relies on artificial intelligence to evaluate the forest areas. "This begins with the 3D measurement of the forest, continues with the location of each individual tree, including its height and state of health, and ends with statistical statements about the bound CO2," says co-founder David Dohmen.

"Preserving our planet and thus saving the forest are matters that are very close to our hearts. We are convinced that Ocell will sustainably improve the world with its ecological impact and are delighted to support the ambitious founding team on their journey," says Tina Dreimann from Better Ventures. Investor Manuel Thurner is delighted with the start-up's success: "I am convinced that Ocell is uniquely positioned on the market with its Dynamic Forest software and the further development of its machine learning models and that the team is set for massive success."

Ocell now wants to further develop the product and expand the team. The founders are already planning further: "In future, we will also use our platform to work with CO2 certifiers who need our meaningful data from the forest. By simulating forest growth, we will enable optimized recommendations for measures, harvesting and planting in the future."