Cultivo

Cultivo Land PBC is a natural capital investment platform and project developer that identifies degraded or underutilized land with high restoration potential and turns regeneration projects into investable products. Its platform combines data analysis, machine learning, generative AI, satellite imagery and remote sensing to originate and screen projects, forecast natural capital returns, and monitor and verify project impact. Beyond origination technology, the company designs, builds and maintains land-restoration projects with landowners and then partners with financial institutions to fund them.

The company's solutions are organized around three offerings: investing in nature as an asset class, sourcing high-integrity carbon removal credits from nature-based projects spanning forests, grasslands, wetlands and biochar, and helping landowners, businesses, institutions, NGOs and project developers build land resilience and natural asset strategies. Projects focus on carbon removal, biodiversity enhancement and improved water storage, with stated attention to job creation and equitable outcomes for local communities and land stewards. Cultivo was incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation in 2019, with a stated public purpose to regenerate and protect land, enhancing ecosystem productivity, biodiversity and resilience.

Grassland restoration in the United States has become a particular focus. Cultivo reports a U.S. grassland project pipeline of roughly 650,000 acres, supported by a $40 million deployment commitment from Octopus Energy Generation, and deploys capital for tools such as sensors and virtual fencing that ranchers use to restore land, then helps secure offtake agreements that generate revenue for investors.

Founding story

Co-founders Manuel Piñuela and James Clifton previously worked together at a clinical AI and digital health startup that listed publicly in summer 2018. While travelling through the UK after that IPO, Piñuela observed extensive land degradation, and the two began exploring how AI, environmental sensing and ground-truth data could identify degraded land with the highest potential to be regenerated into healthy ecosystems. Cultivo was incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation in 2019.

Business model

Cultivo originates, designs and operates land-restoration projects together with landowners, and partners with financial institutions and corporations to invest in them. Projects generate returns for landowners and investors principally through carbon removal credits purchased by corporations, alongside other natural capital outputs such as water offsets; Cultivo also packages projects into investable products and secures offtake agreements.

Revenue is tied to nature-based projects that produce long-term cash flows from assets such as carbon removal credits and water offsets, which are packaged into investable products for financial institutions and corporations and sold via offtake agreements.

Traction

Cultivo reports a pipeline of sites covering more than 70 million hectares with 1.8 GtCO2 of carbon sequestration potential, a U.S. grassland restoration pipeline of about 650,000 acres, and total funding of over $20 million following its January 2024 Series A. Octopus Energy Generation committed to deploy up to $40 million into natural capital projects, later expanded to a $100 million agreement.

Latest developments

In December 2025 Cultivo acquired grasslands carbon project developer Kateri, following 18 months of collaboration between the two companies, adding rancher-focused project development capability in the U.S. In March 2026 Cultivo signed an expanded agreement with Octopus Energy Generation, taking the U.S. grasslands and carbon removal partnership to $100 million. The company has also announced a partnership with Isometric on a certified improved soil management protocol and a biodiversity collaboration with Princeton Hydro on Montana grasslands.