Green tech: Luther advises OCELL on Series A financing round

The green tech start-up OCELL is receiving €10 million in a Series A financing round to drive its expansion in Europe and further develop its cutting-edge, AI-based platform for more efficient forest management and for developing high-quality CO₂ certificates. An experienced Luther team led by Dr. Thorsten Becker is handling the financing round, which is being led by the venture capital investor Capnamic. Further funds are coming from Bayern Kapital. The previous investors AENU and Summiteer as well as business angels such as Max Viessmann are also participating in the financing round.

Luther has been supporting OCELL for over a year under the overall project management of Dr Thorsten Becker in matters of corporate and energy law and regulatory issues. A team led by private equity and venture capital experts Philipp Glock and Dominique Kurtz was consulted on the Series A financing.

David Dohmen, co-founder and managing director of OCELL, says: ‘Luther supports us in a wide range of legal matters and Thorsten Becker coordinates the interdisciplinary topics between the highly committed Luther teams. Our cooperation is excellent from a professional point of view and covers corporate law, energy, commercial and IP/IT. We are very grateful for Luther's targeted and uncomplicated approach and are pleased to be able to advance our mission on a legally secure basis and with fresh capital: to unlock the full potential of our forests and protect the climate.’

The capital raised will accelerate the further development of the underlying technology and the growth of OCELL, and will roll out climate protection projects in which companies can invest in the voluntary carbon market across Europe. The initial focus markets are Northern Europe and the Baltic states.

About OCELL

OCELL is a Munich-based green tech start-up that develops local, high-quality climate protection projects that are transparent, measurable and effective. The goal is to utilise the full potential of forests and make a significant contribution to climate protection. By processing aerial photographs and data from various sources, OCELL uses artificial intelligence to create ‘digital twins’ of forests. These provide insights into forest growth, current CO₂ storage performance and other metrics, and can predict optimal forest management strategies to increase long-term CO₂ storage in forests. The climate protection projects have an immediate effect and are nature-based, while also being supported by cutting-edge technology. Thanks to this innovative technology and a strong commitment to data transparency, OCELL ensures that solutions have a real impact. Currently, over 800,000 hectares of sustainable forest land in a total of eleven countries are managed using OCELL software.

Luther Team:

Overall project management/corporate/M&A: Dr Thorsten Becker (Counsel)

Private equity/venture capital: Philipp Glock (Partner); Dominique Kurtz (Senior Associate); Marie Fay (Associate)

Employment law: Achim Braner (Partner); Nadine Ceruti (Counsel)