Arbonics

Arbonics is a Tallinn-based carbon and ecosystem platform for forest and landowners in Europe. It provides data- and science-driven tools that let landowners analyse and calculate the carbon sequestration potential of their land, then enrol that land in carbon projects that generate verified carbon credits. Its platform can assess the carbon opportunity of a plot in under a minute by combining a dozen or more data sources with in-house forestry expertise, and Arbonics develops and manages the monitoring and verification of the resulting projects.

The company offers two main products. Afforestation covers planting trees on land that has not recently been forested, using Verra's afforestation, restoration and revegetation methodology for carbon removal verification; the website cites potential landowner earnings of up to €16,000 per hectare. Impact Forestry, a solution for existing forests, aims to raise the carbon return of forested land by adjusting harvesting plans and rotation lengths and applying conservation where needed, under a custom plan intended to keep landowner income at least equal to business-as-usual management while adding carbon and biodiversity benefits; the website cites up to €15,000 per hectare. Both are structured as grouped projects that pool multiple landowners with similar regional risk profiles and management objectives to reduce monitoring and verification unit costs and to aggregate credit volumes for buyers, while payments are distributed according to each member's individual performance rather than as an averaged pool.

Alongside landowner-facing services, Arbonics works with carbon credit buyers, positioning itself between landowners and purchasers of high-integrity forestry-based removals in Europe.

Founding story

Arbonics was founded in early 2022 by Kristjan Lepik and Lisett Luik to apply data and technology to forestry and the voluntary carbon market, with Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of Wise, as founding investor. The founding team brought together forestry, carbon and business experience from Apple, American Express, Starship Technologies and the World Wildlife Fund, supported by scientists from the University of Tartu.

Business model

Arbonics originates and manages forest carbon projects with European landowners, handling project design, data modelling, monitoring and verification under standards such as Verra, and connects the resulting credits to buyers. Landowners sign multi-year agreements (for example, 50-year afforestation contracts) and can either receive VCUs directly at the end of each monitoring period or have Arbonics sell credits on their behalf for cash; Arbonics can also hold VCUs in its own registry account for landowners who do not open a Verra Registry account. The company has said it is exploring annual pre-sale of sequestered but not yet validated carbon at a discount to give landowners more frequent payments.

Revenue is tied to the carbon credits generated by landowner projects, which Arbonics develops, monitors and can sell on landowners' behalf, with landowners paid either in VCUs or in cash from credit sales.

Traction

By the December 2023 seed announcement, Arbonics said it had helped 4,000 landowners unlock new revenue through analysis of more than 200,000 hectares and the planting of more than 4 million trees across European markets, and stated an ambition to cover 50% of Europe's forest by the end of 2024. Its website states that landowners on its platform are projected to sequester over 3.5 million tonnes of carbon.

Latest developments

The company continues to publish carbon market analysis, with website articles dated November and December 2025 covering forest carbon offtake deals of 2025 and the relationship between European data centre expansion and nature.