Ex-Grab exec’s new climate tech venture lands seed funding

Arkadiah co-founder Reuben Lai / Photo credit: Arkadiah

Arkadiah Technology, a company that uses AI to restore degraded land, announced the completion of its seed funding round led by Golden Gate Ventures, a Southeast Asian VC firm.

The round also involved The Radical Fund, a global climate tech fund, and Money Forward Venture Partners, a Japanese corporate VC firm. The amount raised was kept undisclosed.

With the new funding, Arkadiah plans to improve its AI models and expand its product offerings.

Arkadiah was founded in 2023 by Reuben Lai, who was the former head of financial services at Grab, and Gerry Ong, who is the honorary president of the ASEAN Federation of Land Surveying and Geomatics. The company aims to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius target.

The firm’s platform uses AI, lidar, satellite imagery, and ground truthing to collect and verify data for climate solutions such as reforestation and agroforestry. It then simplifies the process of implementing these solutions for project developers, landowners, and corporations. The company also enables the creation of carbon removal and biodiversity credits.

Arkadiah then earns revenue through commissions on nature restoration projects that it helps handle, the company told Tech in Asia. It added that it has worked on projects across Southeast Asia and Australia.

“A key theme is diversity across these countries – whether it’s terrain and biodiversity, regulations, requirements or cultures,” the company said. “We view the diversity not as a challenge, but a motivation to enhance our model’s precision and ensure the projects deliver high-quality carbon removal and biodiversity outcomes.”

See also: Southeast Asian investors bullish on electric bikes, clean energy in 2024