Landseed Secures $400,000 Social-Impact Investment to Build the Measurement Layer for Nature-Based Markets
Investment from Richard King Mellon Foundation Supports AI-Enabled Hardware, Earth Credits, and a New Ecological Data Layer Designed to Make Conservation Self-Funding
VENTURA, Calif., June 12, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Landseed, today announced a $400,000 social-impact investment from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to support the development of a measurement layer for nature-based markets. By combining AI-enabled sensor hardware, a new ecological commodity called Earth Credits, and a structured data product called Earth Signals, Landseed makes the full output of protected land visible, verifiable, and financially useful.
Landseed is a public benefit corporation founded by Greg Curtis, Executive Director of Holdfast Collective, and Alex Roessner, a recent graduate of Northwestern University in Environmental Economics, with founding Chief Scientist Eric Dinerstein, PhD., who served for 25 years as Chief Scientist at the World Wildlife Fund.
The investment from Richard King Mellon Foundation brings Landseed’s total funding to $500,000 and will accelerate the company’s three-layer commercial model. The first layer, the Earth Pulse Node, is an AI-enabled sensor cluster designed to generate revenue immediately through hardware sales and leases. The second layer, Earth Credits, is a new commodity class minted from verified in-situ ecological data and tied to a recorded Nature Rights Deed. The third layer, Earth Signals, is a structured reference-data feed licensed across markets including insurance, capital markets, corporate disclosure, and conservation research.
Landseed’s core thesis is "from measurement to market." Each sensor cluster deployed expands the measurement footprint, producing data that simultaneously mints Earth Credits and powers the Earth Signals feed — a self-reinforcing flywheel in which hardware revenue funds deployment, deployment compounds data density, and data density increases the value of every subsequent credit and signal.
The company is a verifier-only business: it owns and operates the monitoring infrastructure, records Nature Rights Deeds, mints and registers Earth Credits, and licenses Earth Signals — but does not trade Earth Credits, operate an exchange, or run investment funds.
"The carbon market was built to trade testimony about carbon, not carbon," said Alex Roessner. "Every market in valuable things has an independent assay office. Gold has had one since 1300. Ecological markets have never had one. That’s what we’re building."
At the heart of Landseed's work is a simple question: what would Earth do? That question drives every design decision the company makes — from how its sensors are built, to what its credits measure, to where its data flows. The answer, in each case, is the same: generate the most accurate possible picture of ecological reality, be transparent with the data, and get that picture in front of the people and institutions with the power to act on it, to protect it.
"For all of our core stakeholders, the through-line is the same," said Greg Curtis. "This is not another offset. It is a new commodity class — grounded in property law and ecological science — designed to make the value of healthy land visible, verifiable, and financially useful. The measurement layer is what's been missing, and it's what we're building."
The Richard King Mellon Foundation’s investment in Landseed is made through its Social-Impact Investment Program, through which the Foundation invests in for-profit startups with a social mission aligned with its philanthropic strategy. The Foundation has invested more than $25 million in 77 impact-focused ventures.
To learn more about Landseed, visit landseed.earth.
About Landseed
Landseed is a public benefit corporation building the measurement layer for nature-based markets. Its three-layer commercial model combines the Earth Pulse Node (AI-enabled sensor hardware), Earth Credits (a new ecological commodity class minted from in-situ measurement and anchored by Nature Rights Deeds), and Earth Signals (structured ecological reference data licensed across markets). Landseed operates as a verifier-only entity: it owns the monitoring infrastructure, records the legal instruments, and operates the registry, but does not trade in the credits, operate an exchange, or run investment funds managing the credits it verifies. The company has initial deployment partners across four continents. For more information, visit landseed.earth.
About the Richard King Mellon Foundation
Founded in 1947, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is the largest foundation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and one of the 50 largest in the world. The Foundation’s 2025 year-end net assets were $3.3 billion, and its Trustees in 2025 disbursed more than $167 million in grants and program-related investments. The Foundation focuses its funding on six primary program areas, delineated in its 2021-2030 Strategic Plan.
Contact: outreach@landseed.earth
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