Mast Reforestation closes $15M in project financing to plant trees
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Mast Reforestation closed $15 million in project financing from carbon credits supplier Carbon Streaming to restore forests destroyed by wildfires in the American West, the company tells Axios exclusively.
Why it matters: The startup is harnessing a loan structure traditionally used for infrastructure projects to instead plant trees.
What's happening: Project finance is typically used to build an infrastructure project like wind or solar. The loan is then repaid from the asset's cash flow.
- Mast Reforestation, based in Seattle, plans to repay the loan from Carbon Streaming by jointly selling carbon credits from the trees it plants.
Meanwhile, Carbon Streaming is also making a $2 million convertible note investment in Mast.
Of note: Mast is the parent company of wildfire restoration startup DroneSeed, which raised $30 million this spring at a $165 million post-money valuation.
- Mast acquired California's largest tree nursery, Cal Forest Nurseries, in March.
What's next: Mast is focusing its initial reforestation on Sheep Creek Ranch, a 2,700-acre site in Montana that provides a wildlife migration corridor to Yellowstone National Park.
- It expects to begin planting later this month once the snow melts.
