Where is Verna headquartered?

Verna is headquartered in London, UK. The company has a team of 11-50 people.

Verna operates in the AI in Climate / Energy sector. Verna builds Mycelia, an AI-powered software platform that helps organisations plan, implement, and monitor nature recovery and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) projects. Turns fragmented, complex nature/biodiversity data into a shared source of truth so businesses, local authorities, and landowners can plan, deliver, and verify nature recovery projects over multi-decade horizons.

When was Verna founded?

Verna was founded in 2020. It is based in London, UK.

Who is the CEO of Verna?

Matthew Brown & Rafi Cohen (Co-CEOs) is the CEO of Verna. The company was founded in 2020.

Where is Verna located?

Verna is headquartered in London, UK.

What funding stage is Verna at?

Verna is currently at the Seed stage.

How many employees does Verna have?

Verna has approximately 11-50 employees.

Verna

Category: AI in Climate / Energy

Verna builds Mycelia, an AI-powered software platform that helps organisations plan, implement, and monitor nature recovery and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) projects. Verna was founded in 2020. The company is led by Matthew Brown & Rafi Cohen (Co-CEOs). Based in London, UK. Team size: 11-50. Total funding raised: $6.8M. Latest round: Seed. Key investors include NAP, Übermorgen Ventures, Vanneck, Love Ventures, Concrete Ventures, Climate VC, Octopus Ventures, Geovation.

Founded: 2020
Headquarters: London, UK
Team size: 11-50
Total funding: $6.8M

Value proposition

Turns fragmented, complex nature/biodiversity data into a shared source of truth so businesses, local authorities, and landowners can plan, deliver, and verify nature recovery projects over multi-decade horizons.

Products and solutions

Mycelia (core platform for BNG validation, assessment, monitoring, reporting), Mycelia for Local Authorities (tailored council/government version), new AI-powered nature-recovery decision tools (in development with latest funding).

Unique value

Data-agnostic 'infrastructure layer' (per investor Übermorgen) that integrates and operationalises heterogeneous existing nature datasets rather than generating a proprietary dataset — positions Verna as enabling software rather than a narrow point solution.

Target customer

UK local planning authorities, ecology consultancies, developers, businesses and public bodies with land-based nature/BNG compliance obligations, expanding to Europe/US.

Industries served

Climate/Nature Tech, Government & Public Sector (local authorities), Real Estate/Land Development, Ecology Consulting

Technology advantage

Deep domain expertise in Biodiversity Net Gain (UK-born regulatory methodology) combined with AI/geospatial data science; 3,000+ users across 100+ organisations already on the platform, giving data/network effects for expanding into new nature-recovery use cases beyond BNG.

How they differentiate

Focused specifically on turning nature data into delivery/verification workflows over long time horizons rather than just reporting/risk-identification (per Co-CEO Rafi Cohen); data-agnostic integration layer vs. proprietary-dataset competitors.

Main competitors

Natcap (Oxford University spinout, nature intelligence for corporates), Space Intelligence (satellite-based nature/carbon monitoring), Environment Bank (biodiversity gains/habitat banking specialist)

Key partnerships

Arup (Tom Butterworth, Head of Nature — advisor), UK Digital Marketplace G-Cloud listing for government procurement, Advisory board: David Singleton (CTO, Stripe), Libby Penn (COO, Improbable), Gi Fernando (Chair, Climate Subak), Liz Milne (Chair, ALGE), Tom Hill (Director of Impact Economics, Savills)

Notable customers

100+ organisations including Cura Terrae (ecology consultancy), UK local planning authorities

Major milestones

2020: Founded as Forest Creation Partners, renamed Verna in 2022, Aug 2022: £1.4M UK Government Net Zero Innovation Portfolio contract for ForestFounder, Dec 2022: £860K equity round led by Vanneck EIS (with Octopus Ventures), Jun 2023: Geovation grant, Jan 2026: $4M Seed led by NAP and Übermorgen to expand AI capabilities; ~$1M ARR and 100+ organisation customers at raise.

Growth metrics

3,000+ users across 100+ organisations on Mycelia (Jan 2026 raise); 10,000+ nature projects on platform (company LinkedIn, Jun 2026); ~$1M ARR at raise (TechFundingNews); Unreasonable cites $1.5M ARR / 4,000 users (undated).

Market positioning

Category leader in UK Biodiversity Net Gain software, expanding into broader nature-recovery/AI decision tooling for businesses, governments and NGOs globally as nature investment scales from $200B to $500B/year by 2030.

Geographic focus

UK primary market (BNG regulation origin), expanding demand from Europe, US and beyond.

About Matthew Brown & Rafi Cohen (Co-CEOs)

Rafi Cohen: ex-Boston Consulting Group (BCG), KPMG, International Centre for AI, Energy & Climate, Quadrature Climate Foundation; University of Oxford. Matthew Brown: led climate change mitigation team at Defra (UK government), co-founded a social enterprise before Verna.

Latest news about Verna

London-based Verna raised 4 million dollars to scale its AI platform that converts biodiversity data into active restoration projects. The startup reached 1 million dollars in annual recurring revenue

More AI in Climate / Energy companies

Official website: https://verna.earth