Funding & Non-Dilutive Backbone
There are two very different things to fund here, and keeping them apart is the whole point. One is small and dilutive: the pre-seed that bridges the company to its first contract. The other is large and deliberately non-dilutive: the roughly $19.3M that builds the platform. The strategy is to pay for the heavy part without selling equity, so that a billion-dollar-class outcome is reached with as little dilution as possible. The terms of the round itself are in The Deal; this section is the requirement behind them and the capital that meets it.
The funding requirement
- The pre-seed, $600,000 (this round), bridges the company to GATE 0, the first signed contract. It is the only equity the operating business needs to get there; from 2028 the business funds itself. The detailed use of proceeds is in Use of Funds & Roadmap.
- The platform build, about $19.3M over 2027 to 2030, is funded separately and mostly without dilution: around $13.5M in grants routed through TERI, $3M in development-bank debt, and $2.8M in equity, with the aim of maximising the grant share. The build draws down by year: roughly $3.7M in 2027, $8.5M in 2028, $6.6M in 2029, and the remainder in 2030.
- A growth round comes only after proof, priced by the first signed contracts rather than set today.
The non-dilutive backbone: grants
A neutral, scientific measurement layer for the Amazon is precisely the kind of public good that catalytic and donor capital exists to fund, and it is built and held by TERI, the grant-eligible science institute, which keeps it off the data company's balance sheet and the verification neutral. The grant pipeline is named, sized and mapped to its Peru channel.
Amounts are each funder's programme ceiling, not a CeibaQ award.
| Funder | What it funds | Amount / ceiling | Peru channel | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green Climate Fund — Readiness + Project Preparation | MRV, baselines, monitoring | up to $1M/yr (to ~$7M) · $1.5M/application | PROFONANPE (Direct Access) | HIGH |
| Germany IKI | builds national REDD+ system; accepts degradation and in-situ data | €5–20M (large) · €60–200k (small) | via GIZ Peru | HIGH |
| IDB — Amazonia Forever (AMDTF) | accepts private; data platform | AMDTF >$50M · IDB Lab up to $500k | MINAM + AMDTF | HIGH |
| Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (via GEF) | monitoring/data as a project component | live Peru project ~$11.2M (+$30M co-finance) | WWF-US → MINAM / PROFONANPE | HIGH |
| GEF — Amazon Sustainable Landscapes | funds in-situ monitoring | $102M (current phase) | WWF / IDB / WB + MINAM | HIGH |
| CAF — Strategic Ecosystems | degradation-MRV and protected-area monitoring | $300M program (private eligible) | direct or MEF + MINAM | MED–HIGH |
| Norway NICFI | could buy a public-good degradation-data layer | ~$43.5M (satellite-purchase analog) | NICFI / Norad | opportunity |
The single most important channel is PROFONANPE, Peru's national environmental fund and a Green Climate Fund direct-access entity, which routes GCF and GEF money and, unusually, signs and pays itself. Amounts are each funder's programme ceiling, not a CeibaQ award.
The fallback: concessional debt
If the grant timeline slips, the same $19.3M is not raised as a larger equity round. It is raised as concessional development-bank debt, because debt preserves founder control where equity would surrender it.
- The debt is drawn alongside the build, with a grace period (interest-only) through 2030, then amortised over five years.
- It is comfortably serviceable from operating cash. Even in the early years, EBITDA covers the full debt service many times over: roughly six times in 2028, rising toward nineteen times by 2035. The business is never stretched by it.
- The dilution comparison between the grant path and the no-grant paths is in Cap Table & Dilution, and the profit-line impact of the no-grant case is in Downside & Stress.
Why this is the dilution-saver
How the platform is financed is the single biggest driver of founder ownership. With the non-dilutive backbone in place, founders and team hold about 77% through the seed; if the same build were funded by equity instead, that would fall to about 54%. This is why the audience for the heavy capital is institutional, catalytic and development finance — the funds and banks that already pay for evidence of this kind — and not a classic venture round.
The honest read
None of the non-dilutive backbone is secured today. The entire stack is a pipeline, and the first grant letter of intent is itself part of GATE 0. Each fund's eligibility for a data and measurement company has to be confirmed before it can be relied on, and the concessional debt terms are indicative, pending a development-bank term sheet. What is structural, rather than hoped for, is the design: fund the heavy build with non-dilutive money, keep the equity small, and preserve control either way.