Brainforest is a Swiss-based association and the world’s first non-profit Venture Platform dedicated to regenerate and protect biodiversity and forest. Established in 2019, it focuses on protecting, restoring, and scaling forest ecosystems and biodiversity, with the overarching mission to regenerate and safeguard 20 million hectares of biodiverse forests by 2030 through scalable, science-driven entrepreneurial solutions.

Between 2001 and 2023, the world lost 488 million hectares of tree cover, representing a 12% decline since 2000 and resulting in 204 gigatonnes of CO₂, a substantial contribution to global carbon emissions (Global Forest Watch, 2025). At the same time, biodiversity has plummeted, with wildlife populations declining by 73% since 1970 (WWF, 2024). These losses threaten critical ecosystems, disrupt livelihoods dependent on forests, and accelerate climate change.

Traditional conservation approaches alone are insufficient to reverse this trajectory. Entrepreneurship offers a crucial pathway, enabling the creation of financially viable, scalable solutions that integrate forest and biodiversity conservation into sustainable business models. Yet, early-stage ventures in this field often encounter significant barriers to funding, validation, and scaling. Brainforest addresses these challenges by leveraging philanthropy to catalyze entrepreneurial solutions, thus ensuring long-term sustainability and scaling potential. By providing tailored coaching, market access, and early-stage financing, Brainfores economically empowers local communities, generating lasting incentives for forest preservation and biodiversity restoration.

In 2024, with the support of the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation (NaEPF), Brainforest advanced its mission by supporting 13 early-stage ventures addressing biodiversity loss and regenerative food systems. Through its Venture Program cohorts, Brainforest provided funding, strategic mentorship, and global visibility. To date, it has received over 500 applications from six continents, and its portfolio spans more than ten countries, contributing to the restoration of biodiverse forests and sustainable improvements in local livelihoods.

Building on this success, the NaEPF renewed its support with a three-year program aimed at unlocking the potential of entrepreneurial solutions that tackle the root causes of deforestation, forest degradation, biodiversity loss, and rural livelihood instability. This partnership seeks to bridge the early-stage funding gap and enable long-term, community-centered impact at scale, serving as a lever for systemic forest and ecosystem restoration.

The supported project aims to implement two Venture Programs annually, each designed to support six to ten early-stage ventures, while providing catalytic impact investment capital to hight-potential startups that emerge from these programs. This dual approach allows ventures to scale and maximize their environmental and socio-economic impact.

A key objective is to expand the Canopy Pool, Switzerland’s first forest-focused impact investment mechanism, initially launched in 2024 under the previous NaEPF-supported initiative. The fund aims to raise CHF 10 million by 2027 through blended finance approaches combining philanthropic and investment capital, creating a scalable pathway for nature-positive startups. Its expansion represents a critical step toward mobilizing capital for forest and biodiversity solutions, generating measurable environmental and socio-economic impact while enabling ventures to grow and provide lasting benefits for forest-dependent communities.

The initiative also emphasizes tangible benefits for local communities, ensuring that stakeholders directly experience the gains of conservation and restoration activities. Ultimately, the project aspires to be recognized as the leading accelerator in the nature-based solutions space, setting a global benchmark for supporting entrepreneurial innovation that addresses deforestation, biodiversity loss, and sustainable forest management. By fostering ventures that scale independently and attract private capital, Brainforest reduces reliance on repeated philanthropic cycles, ensuring enduring environmental and social returns.