NatureMetrics Relocates to Surrey Research Park After Securing £6.5m Investment to Scale-up

NatureMetrics today announces a £6.5m Series A investment and a relocation to Surrey Research Park to scale up the delivery of biodiversity data to businesses, NGOs and governments using DNA. This growth will:

• Expand our team with more experts to support our growing customer base
• Deliver data analysis products to support better decision making for business and nature
• Drive our global expansion  

As the world awakens to the need to reverse the current rapid decline in nature, NatureMetrics is poised to expand rapidly in order to assist businesses and NGOs in responding to the growing need for better data and tools to manage biodiversity. We will be upscaling our team and providing high-value jobs, with the team set to grow from 45 to 70 by the end of the year.

NatureMetrics are currently recruiting in business development, communications, laboratory and data science for their growing team.

From left to right: CEO Katie Critchlow; CTO Dr Kat Bruce; and COO Dr Juliet Jones.

The Investment round was led by experienced venture capitalists Acuity Investments and investors include Green Angel Syndicate and SYSTEMIQ, a consulting and investment firm that backs system-changing technology in the areas of Nature, Climate and Materials. Irena Spazzapan Partner in SYSTEMIQ said:

“We know we’re losing nature at a rapid rate but to date we’ve not had the ability to measure nature at scale to set global goals and to enable businesses to set targets and measure their progress. We can’t manage what we can’t measure. NatureMetrics can replace nets and traps and binoculars with scalable, comprehensive monitoring technology to finally enable business to understand and manage their impact on nature.”

NatureMetrics will now embark on a three-month process to equip its new laboratory with cutting-edge technology. This will ensure that the tiny quantities of DNA present in the samples can be extracted and reported to our clients, a method we‘ve perfected over the company’s five-year history.

Tens of thousands of samples have already been processed for clients all over the world, including the conservation charity WWF, whose UK headquarters are in Woking. NatureMetrics was able to map over 650 vertebrate species across a 500km landscape stretching across the Northern Peruvian Amazon by analysing DNA in water samples while working with WWF in Peru. This included over 300 species of fish and 150 species of mammals, including a wide range of land-based species (such as jaguars, tapirs, and monkeys) whose DNA had been washed into the river.

NatureMetrics is run by three women, Dr Kat Bruce, founder and CTO, Katie Critchlow CEO and Dr Juliet Jones COO.

NatureMetrics CEO Katie Critchlow added:

“Businesses are already working hard to set and measure Climate Change targets towards the global goal of Net Zero by 2050. Biodiversity is ‘the next Carbon’, but to date very little data exists on which to take decisions. NatureMetrics are creating a unique dataset on biodiversity and impact from around the world. We’re growing an exciting commercial business and also having a positive impact on nature by giving business biodiversity data with which to make better decisions.”

To find out more about our DNA based technology visit our infohub to see how this technology is being applied around the world.