Munich Startup: What does Pina Earth do? What problem do you solve?
Gesa Biermann: Pina Earth develops certified climate protection projects. Our goal is to make forests in Germany climate-resilient. Because forests in the EU are at great risk due to climate change. To counteract this and make our forests future-proof against increasing heat, storms, and drought, monocultures need to be converted into mixed forests. This is a complex and costly process that in Germany alone must be managed by approximately two million forest owners.
To support the financing of this, we have developed a technology that quantifies the additional CO2 sequestration performance of forest conversion measures. We sell this additional CO2 sequestration performance in the form of CO2 certificates to companies, which can thus make a regional climate contribution. The proceeds from the sale flow back to the forest owners to finance their conversion measures.
Finance forest protection projects with Pina Earth
Munich Startup: But that’s already been around for ages!
Gesa Biermann: Actually, it hasn’t! Of course, in its individual components, our concept is certainly not new: there are already CO2 certificates from other forest climate protection projects. However, these are located particularly in the Global South, not regionally in Germany. Furthermore, these are not forest conversion projects, but rather, for example, ‘REDD+ forest protection projects’ (meaning reductions in emissions from deforestation and forest degradation). And that is already prohibited by law in Germany. With our own developed forest conversion methodology, we have created a new type of climate protection project that is tailored to the needs of our regional ecosystems and did not exist before.
Of course, forest conversion itself is not a new topic either, but has been a concern for forest owners in Germany for years. As the risks associated with climate change intensify, it is now more important than ever to take action. The 2022 Forest Condition Assessment made the impacts of climate change dramatically clear again: four out of five trees are sick. Since 2018, over 500,000 hectares of forest in Germany have been lost to climate change. Three million hectares of forest must be converted over the coming years!
To make this possible, we are offering with Pina Earth a new source of income for forest owners so they can also finance their conversion measures.
Founding with structure, but without an “eureka moment”
Munich Startup: What is your founding story?
Gesa Biermann: The original idea for Pina Earth did not arise in a romanticized “eureka moment“ that some might imagine. For us, the team and the consensus that we wanted to make a societal contribution with our work came first.
To put it in perspective: Over a lifetime, a person dedicates approximately 80,000 hours to their career. For us, it was clear that we wanted to use this time productively for society—going beyond purely financial goals. After a structured idea-finding process and evaluating around 150 different social and ecological problems, we arrived at CO2 markets and the opportunities they offer to align economic and ecological goals. We also learned how difficult it is for smaller forest owners to gain access to this market. That’s when we realized that this is exactly the problem we want to solve.
Successful seed round with strong investors
Munich Startup: What were your biggest challenges so far?
Gesa Biermann: Fortunately, not much has gone seriously wrong. Nevertheless, we faced major challenges that we had to overcome. Entering the topic of CO2 markets and certification is complex: to gain a deep understanding of this subject matter, we read every methodology that exists for forest climate protection projects. These are thousands of pages of standard documents describing what criteria CO2 certificates must meet.
While that was somewhat tedious, it was also an important foundation on which we now build. From this intensive engagement, we derived rules and software features that ensure the quality of our certificates. Additionally, it was a personal challenge for me to lead fundraising for the first time. We received a lot of support from other founders and mentors, and were able to complete a very successful seed round with strong investors.
Successfully acquired multiple project areas
Munich Startup: How is business going?
Gesa Biermann: We have already acquired several forest project areas in different parts of Germany and are proud that these have now been inspected and certified by TÜV Nord Cert. That was definitely a major milestone. Currently, our forest conversion projects extend over 1,000 hectares in Germany. In parallel, we are entering the pilot phase under the Forest Climate Standard and developing the first projects under a regional standard for certifying ecosystem services.
Since we operate on a two-sided market with Pina Earth, the buyer side is of course not to be neglected. This year we concluded several partnerships with platforms and marketplaces to market our projects alongside direct sales through strong multipliers. This allowed us to transfer initial revenues to forest owners to finance their forest conversion measures. For further insights, our case studies with Liefergrün, Fokus Zukunft, and trans-o-flex are suitable.
Munich Startup: How have you experienced the Munich startup location so far?
Gesa Biermann: For us, Munich as a startup location is ideal. Through the startup ecosystem and the variety of companies in Munich, there are numerous opportunities for exchange. At the CDTM – our “alma mater” – we already met many other founders and mentors from whom we can learn a lot on our journey. Additionally, with the two universities TUM and LMU, there are many talented students in the city, which makes recruiting easier.
Munich Startup: Risk or security?
Gesa Biermann: In our substantive work, we actually deal very centrally with risks: the risks of climate change. Here we want to create more security for German and later European forests and make them more climate-stable. Since this needs to happen quickly, founding a tech-focused startup with rapid scaling potential was the right choice for us.
