Cool Planet closes $19.3m Series A

Cool Planet, an agtech firm specializing in biocarbon soil additives, has closed a $19.3 million Series A financing and note conversion led by investor Agustín Coppel and North Bridge Venture Partners.

The funding — which brings the total raised over the last 18 months to $30 million — will be used to grow its Cool Terra and Cool Fauna “engineered biocarbon” products, according to a company statement.

Cool Planet’s products nurture beneficial microbes in soil to help retain water and keep nutrients in the root zone for a longer period of time, which can improve agricultural crop yields. They also sequester carbon from the atmosphere by taking CO2 captured by plants and storing it in the soil, according to the statement.

More than 70 independent field trials conducted in 2016 demonstrated that Cool Terra, the company’s main product, works with a variety of crops as well as turf and nursery plants using various soils. “Our trials demonstrated that Cool Terra significantly improved yields for the fruit, vegetable, grass and legume crops,” said Jim Loar, Cool Planet president and CEO. 

Cool Planet is planning more than 100 additional third-party field trials. Over the past two decades, North Bridge Venture Partners has partnered with management teams to create more than 170 early-stage companies and provides venture capital to many later stage companies to accelerate growth, according to the company’s website.