Lisbon, Portugal – October 24th – SeaForester, a leader in marine restoration, announced today that it has raised $1.9 million from Schmidt Marine Technology Partners, a program of the Schmidt Family Foundation, and World Wildlife Foundation. This new funding will accelerate the company’s global expansion and further development of its breakthrough seaforestation  technologies. 

SeaForester restores degraded coastal ecosystems by replanting native kelp forests—the ocean’s equivalent of tropical rainforests—which provide habitat for marine life, enhance fisheries, absorb excess nutrients, and permanently sequester carbon. The funding will support the expansion of SeaForester’s restoration efforts and the deployment of enabling technologies like the ROOTS (Restoration Oriented Ocean Technology System) kelp nursery platform and KelpOS, a digital monitoring and analytics system integrating satellite, ROV, and eDNA data to track ecosystem recovery in real time. 

The funding comes at a time when demand for kelp forest restoration is surging, driven by EU regulation and shift of corporate restoration commitments to the ocean. Thanks to financing, the company will be able to dramatically accelerate its restoration and innovation efforts. 

Building on successful projects in Portugal where it holds Europe’s largest restoration permit, SeaForester is also accelerating restoration activities in Norway, piloting large-scale restoration across urchin barrens in the North and lost seaweed forests in the South.  

The company has also begun testing new and cutting edge techniques designed to dramatically reduce the cost of restoring the oceans lost forests and will also announce shortly a number of major strategic collaborations with global players in genetic R&D and  monitoring that will cement the company’s leading edge in marine restoration. 

“SeaForester is proving that we can reforest the ocean with the same ambition that we’ve applied to land,” said Paul Dobbins, Senior Director of Impact Investing at WWF. “Their model delivers measurable gains in biodiversity, carbon storage, and sustainable aquaculture—all while supporting coastal communities and industries that depend on healthy seas.” 

 "The planet has been losing its kelp forests at a truly alarming pace, which means we’re losing the habitat critical for healthy fisheries, and one of the planet’s largest carbon sinks,” says Mark Schrope, Director of Schmidt Marine Technology Partners. “We’ve got to reverse this trend and Seaforester’s technology is one of the best examples we’ve seen of how innovation and science can work together to restore nature at scale.” 

“This investment is a testament to SeaForester’s vision and strategy, it allows us to accelerate our work in the sea, improve our techniques and expand partnerships with industries that depend on a healthy ocean,”  said Pål Bakken, Founder and CEO of SeaForester. “Together, we will bring back the ‘forgotten forest’ and create more life on the  ‘blue front yards’ around the world. 

About SeaForester 

SeaForester is a Portugal and Norway-based environmental impact company pioneering large-scale kelp forest restoration. With advance seaweed nurseries and innovative seaforestation techniques,  SeaForester provides low-cost solutions to restore marine ecosystems, strengthen fisheries, and sequester carbon at a meaningful scale. Its mission is to restore 100,000 hectares of kelp forests by 2040. 

Learn more at www.seaforester.org 

Aquamarine – Impact Capital Partners (www.aqmcap.com) acted as SeaForester’s financial advisor.