It’s Tuesday, and today we’re talking about ReForest Latam, an ecosystem-restoration company from Argentina. Founded by Damián Rivadeneira and Paula Gianserra, the company just raised a $1 million pre-seed round led by iThink VC, with participation from Innventure AgriFood Tech, Antom, BP Soluciones Eléctricas Confiables, Amauta Inversiones Financieras, and several angel investors.

Deforestation and the destruction of wildlife is one of, if not the saddest realities of modern life. While part of that reality comes from humanity’s desire to improve its living conditions, much of it stems from overproduction, unsustainable farming and logging practices, and outright criminal activity.

Argentina, the eighth-largest country by area, is a clear example of this. Between 1998 and 2023, about 7 million hectaresof native forests were lost, with 80% of that loss occurring in the Gran Chaco, a one-million-square-kilometer forest spanning Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil. To put the scale into perspective, those 7 million hectares amount to roughly 18% of the tree-cover area in 2000.

For both natural and economic reasons (e.g., the region’s massive livestock industry), South America as a whole continues to face severe deforestation pressures. Among the 21 countries with the highest deforestation rates in the world, eight are in South America — and, remember, there are only 12 sovereign nations on the continent.

Agriculture is responsible for 80.2% of deforestation in Argentina, with similar figures in Brazil and Colombia. Which I think is notable, since in countries like Australia and Russia three-quarters of forest losses are attributed to wildfires. The former is much easier to control than the latter, and hence easier to limit the damage.

Three reasons why the situation isn’t getting better.

1. Government’s inactivity. While the losses are increasing, the budget to mitigate those losses is decreasing. Javier Milei’s government reduced the budget allocated to helping the environment by 69% compared to 2023. According to law, 0.3% of the national budget should be allocated to forest conservation. However, the law has not been enforced, and some reports indicate that in practice, spending has fallen to zero, as the agency responsible for disbursing the funds was dissolved in 2024.

2. Restoration costs. Even if there were enough funding or strong interest from non-governmental actors, current reforestation methods are highly inefficient. One study found that implementing and maintaining enrichment planting in degraded Chaco forests requires an estimated 283-348 person-days per hectare — with about 70% of the total cost attributed to labour. Even selling wood from those restored areas would recover only 9-18% of total costs after maintenance. These areas are remote, and the terrain uneven, which makes logistics difficult and slows the work down.

3. Restoration inefficiencies. There are two main ways to restore forest vegetation. One is direct seeding, when you, well, directly plant the seeds. The other is planting, when you first raise seedlings in a nursery, let them grow for several months, and then plant them one by one in the field. An experiment in Patagonia showed that direct seeding resulted in a 4–22% first-summer survival rate, compared to 84–91% for planted seedlings. However, direct seeding is about $1,700 per hectare cheaper. So if one wants to restore a forest, they have to compromise: either on productivity or on cost.

Now, let’s get into how ReForest Latam tries to enhance restoration efforts in Argentina and across the continent.

ReForest is in the full-cycle land restoration business.

The company’s offering is built around three service categories:

Because the other two offerings are extensions of reforestation and less differentiated, I’ll focus on the main service.

Reforestation services are delivered through a four-step process that covers the entire restoration value chain, from the initial diagnosis to long-term follow-up.

1. Identification. ReForest starts by launching drones equipped with tools that algorithmically analyze terrain, soil composition, existing vegetation, and other environmental factors. That data is then used to plan and carry out seed-planting activities.

2. Seed development. The company has developed a proprietary solution called iSeed. These are capsules containing seeds of trees, shrubs, and grasses collected from specific local ecosystems. In other words, they preserve the genetics of each area. The seeds are treated with a specialized mix of roughly 12 all-organic products (microorganisms, fungal consortia, bacteria, organic fibers, and natural chemicals). These treatments are customized for each species to address specific needs such as promoting root growth, accelerating development, or providing pest resistance.

3. Planting. Once the seeds are ready, they’re packaged into biodegradable, compostable capsules and loaded into drones. A single drone is both cheaper and significantly faster than manual planting: while 400 volunteers can cover about 3.5 hectares in one day, a drone can reforest up to 20 hectares in the same time.

4. Monitoring. To evaluate the results, ReForest uses satellite imagery, remote sensing technology, and on-the-ground assessments to measure tree growth and biodiversity recovery.

The end result of these efforts is twofold. First, ReForest restores degraded ecosystems, supporting biodiversity, resilience, and long-term sustainability. Second, it helps mitigate the broader effects of climate change: reforested areas capture excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, strengthening both local and global environmental resilience.

ReForest’s product is differentiated in two main ways: through its use of drones and its proprietary iSeed technology.

On the one hand you have distribution. That’s not where the end value is created, but it’s the most labour-intensive and expensive part of field work. Drones are:

On the other hand you have seeding. That’s where the end value is created, and it’s the most consequential part of the business. iSeeds make it:

To achieve this two-way differentiation, ReForest relies on partners across the value chain. While the company oversees the entire process, many product components are provided by external suppliers.

CONICET, Argentina’s main government agency supporting scientific research, works with ReForest on R&D. INTA, a governmental institution promoting sustainable agricultural development, helps ReForest create its seed bank. Efficatia, an agtech company specializing in drone dispersal technology, supplies the drones. Fundación Forestar, a local non-profit with a native-species nursery, produces seedlings for the same restoration projects. Meanwhile, the National University of Tucumán and the international platform Restor support biomass measurement and carbon-capture evaluation and certification for ReForest’s projects.

Working with multiple collaborators across different parts of the value chain streamlines the company’s operations to some extent, while maintaining its differentiated approach.

The company monetizes through two main channels:

The biggest barrier to ReForest’s success is at the meeting point of funding and scale. They are somewhat related, but I want to mention them separately.

Additional funding is both required now and will be in the future because fixed costs for this business are high, and operational costs aren’t low either. There’s not much that can be automated or replaced with software.

Scale is an even bigger challenge. Each terrain requires a different seed mix, planting technique, and maintenance schedule. Each country has its own environmental laws, and each client has different goals: from biodiversity recovery to carbon certification. At scale, that level of customization can weight on the company, making it hard for ReForest to standardize processes or maintain consistent quality across projects.

There’s also the sad reality that while restoration projects matter, their impact is limited. At the time ReForest was runningone of its pilot projects, wildfires in the Salta area burned 45,000 hectares in a single week. Remember, a single drone can reforest about 20 hectares per day, meaning it would take 750 drones working nonstop for two months just to recover that one area.

But that’s more of a bear case on humanity than on ReForest itself.

You can look at it from a different angle.

As I’ve already mentioned, ReForest is working on a massive problem for Argentina, for the region, and for the planet. And it’s not like the market is disappearing tomorrow.

It’s also the only solution of this kind in the region with a potential moat.

A big market, early-mover advantage, and a defensible business model — a great combination to have.

In his 1999 letter to shareholders, Jeff Bezos famously said that e-commerce was a market-size unconstrained opportunity. For obviously worse reasons, the land restoration market is also unconstrained. Whether there will be enough demand on the customer side — that, we’ll see.