Thryve Earth eyes more carbon projects for ‘planetary scale’ impact

The startup’s first three projects could yield up to 15 million carbon credits over time.

Thryve Earth, which designs and implements carbon projects that help organizations meet their net-zero goals, is doubling down on its environmental projects this year as it tries to increase its positive impact on the planet, according to its CEO.

“The core purpose for us is to be able… to have an impact collectively on a planetary scale, and that you can't do by doing one or two projects,” Thryve Earth CEO and co-founder Vinay Kulkarni told Singapore Business Review. “The question that we’re solving for is ‘how can we get the flywheel going so that more money can come through?’.”

Since it started in 2022, the Singapore startup has done active large-scale projects with a combined potential yield of up to 15 million carbon credits over their lifetimes. They might have a few proven models, but it still continues to iterate and adapt based on local contexts, Kulkarni said.

“We already know a couple of project archetypes where we’re fairly certain about the model and how it’s going to work,” he said. “As we look ahead to 2026 and beyond, the intent is to expand and try to do many more of those projects.”

The company is exploring how technology can support better project outcomes, not only through classic monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) of forest metrics like tree girth or canopy height, but also by addressing broader operational challenges.

“Technology needs to support end-to-end execution, tracking where saplings are, ensuring they reach the right locations, confirming planting, managing payments, and verifying landowner agreements and coordinates. These are all critical operational elements to know and track,” Vinay said.

He said Thryve Earth continues to identify risks and refine project models so they could be scaled and funded.

To do this, the company ensures that it is handling the right project, doing it correctly, and scaling it, Kulkarni said.

Thryve Earth works with various stakeholders, from capital partners and credit buyers to landowners, communities, and field partners.

“One of the core segments for us is figuring out how to address capital partners’ challenges,” Kulkarni said. He said many capital partners are keen to support restoration projects requiring thousands of dollars per hectare but struggle to find the right opportunities to back.

“It’s a fairly wide spectrum of potential projects, and you need to understand a lot to make an informed decision,” he said. “It’s not unlike stock investing—if you’re not a savvy investor, it’s hard to know where to begin.”

Once the project is identified, the real challenge is execution. Kulkarni said many restoration projects fail not because of bad intentions but because they are too complex.

“It does need a new level of infrastructure-grade rigor in an industry that was historically built on a do-good sentiment,” he said.

He added that while the sector has long been driven by passionate people, the next phase is about bringing that spirit into a more structured, scalable, and mainstream model.

“A core reason we started Thryve was to ask: How can we enable scale at every step of the way?” Kulkarni said. “Over the last three years, much of our work has focused on solving exactly that.”

“At the end of the day, even capital partners want scale. And when you achieve scale, you can impact millions of lives, which is the core reason we’re doing this work,” he added.