Yard Stick raises $10.6 million for soil carbon measurement technology

Soil carbon measurement company Yard Stick PBC closed a $10.6 million Series A round led by Toyota Ventures Climate Fund. Cheaper, faster soil-carbon measurement could lower verification costs for agricultural carbon credits, relevant to India's nascent soil-carbon and carbon-market initiatives.

Yard Stick PBC completed a $10.6 million Series A round led by the Toyota Ventures Climate Fund, with participation from Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Lowercarbon Capital, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, and Pillar VC. The round lifts total venture funding above $16 million. CEO Chris Tolles said the company reduces soil carbon measurement costs by 70-90% while improving analytical rigour. Its handheld spectral device measures soil organic carbon to one-metre depth, eliminating labour-intensive coring and lab testing.

The technology affects carbon registries, project developers, farmers, ranchers, foresters, verifiers, commodity buyers, and corporate carbon buyers participating in soil-carbon programmes. Yard Stick's stratification engine generates statistically robust sample plans meeting soil carbon protocol requirements, while its field data platform delivers auditable real-time data. In autumn 2022 the company received $18 million from the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative, covering millions of acres across six initiatives in numerous states.

Stakeholders should monitor Verra's revised VM0042 soil carbon protocol, which now explicitly permits Yard Stick's VisNIR spectroscopy for measurement in Verra projects. The company plans to present spectral-probe performance data at the Soil Science Society of America annual meeting in St. Louis in October and publish results shortly after. Indian agricultural carbon-project developers and registries should track methodology approvals and lower-cost measurement tools as they shape the economics of credit issuance and verification.

Key figure — Series A funding: $10.6 million, raising total venture funding above $16 million