Venture capital funding in nature tech startups increased by 18% in 2023

In 2023, Serena partnered with Nature4Climate to produce the Nature Tech Report 2023, the flagship study released annually, providing an overview of major trends in nature-based solutions. Serena’s contribution highlighted the investment dynamics within the sector. The report, published in October 2023, offered a comprehensive outlook on the Nature Tech market and venture capital investments from 2018 to 2022.

Now, Serena is launching a newly updated analysis of funding and trends in nature tech for 2023.

Check out the Key Figures of the new report:

• 2023 investment: VC funding in nature tech startups increased by 18%, from $1.56bn in 2022 to $1.85bn in 2023.
• Number of deals: The number of nature tech deals increased by 27%, from 162 in 2022 to 205 in 2023, indicating the growing maturity of the nature tech market.
• Early-stage: Early-stage VC investments (from pre-seed to series A) increased by 35%, from $488m in 2022 to $656m in 2023, driving most of the growth in nature tech funding.
• Late-stage: Despite the overall VC downturn, late-stage VC investments grew by 10%.
• Verticals: VC funding in 2023 was more evenly distributed across different nature tech verticals, with significant increases in funding amounts for categories like “Water Conservation and Management,” “Ocean,” and “Land and Forest.” The “MRV and Biodiversity credits” category was the top category for early-stage investments, with $204m in 2023.
• Geography: Europe and Asia have caught up with the United States in VC funding for nature tech. In 2023, Europe even surpassed the United States for early-stage funding.
• Cumulative nature tech funding: Since 2018, nature tech companies have raised $9.31bn of venture capital funding across 910 deals.

Read the full analysis of these data and insights by Xavier Lorphelin, founder and Managing Partner of Serena, in this blog.

Read More:

• The state of nature tech: Building confidence in a growing market (October, 2023)
• To see the introductory white paper from Nature4Climate (September 2022), click here.
• To read the nature tech landscape analysis (November 2022), click here.