At a Glance
Location: Brazil
Impact Areas: Regenerative Supply Chains, Environment
People Supported:
Black Community, Indigenous Peoples, Women, Rural Communities
NESsT Program: Racial Equity Initiative
Joined NESsT Portfolio:
2025
Overview
VerdeNovo was founded with a simple yet transformative goal in mind: restoring Brazil’s native ecosystems while creating employment opportunities for the communities who protect them. Founded in 2016 by Bárbara Pachêco, Simone Rodrigues, and Willian Gomes, VerdeNovo is the result of years-long research at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, one of the most respected agricultural research organizations in the world.
Operating in the Cerrado biome in central Brazil, a critically threatened savanna and the most biodiverse in the world, VerdeNovo supports Black and Quilombola women collectors to earn income by collecting and selling native seeds, while providing ecological restoration services and environmental education. Working across five communities, the company trains local leaders in seed collection, processing, and traceability, ensuring both biodiversity recovery and fair local economies.
VerdeNovo doesn’t require small-scale suppliers and producers to create formal cooperatives. This approach recognizes the history of exploitation and fraud in rural Brazil. Instead, the company builds trust-based partnerships with individual collectors, strengthens communities, generates income through fair trade contracts, and believes that local businesses can and should emerge through a relationship based on regeneration.
The company’s work spans three business fronts: providing native seeds for landscapers, nurseries, and restoration projects; offering ecological restoration services for corporations, governments, and NGOs; and leading immersive training experiences that transfer knowledge on regenerative farming. Since 2022, VerdeNovo has supported more than 40 collectors—85% of them Black women—to triple their household income. Each collector now earns a stable, fair income through formal contracts that pay approximately 50% of seed sales directly to suppliers.
VerdeNovo restores local ecosystems by growing plants from native seeds rather than introducing non-native species, restoring soil health, and prioritizing bio-inputs over chemical fertilizers. Through its field immersions and technical courses, it has transferred this knowledge to 300 people, including local collectors, restoration technicians, and public servants in sustainable land management.
By partnering with organizations like WWF, Natura, Banco do Brasil, TikTok, and Itaú, VerdeNovo has positioned itself as a leader in community-based ecological restoration in Brazil.
Results & Impact
85%
of collectors are Black women
127 hectares
of land restored
50%
of seeds sales paid directly to suppliers
““VerdeNovo’s work focuses on empowering territories and giving visibility to ways of life that move in the opposite direction of what we usually see. We do this by strengthening the native seed production chain and connecting it to the market, thereby generating income, well-being, and a sense of belonging. Native seeds are deeply tied to their territories and carry the strength needed to preserve the Cerrado and its existence. Today, we are also able to connect communities with the arts and strengthen other value chains that intersect with the seed network.” ”
NESsT Investment
Looking ahead, VerdeNovo plans to enter the carbon credit market by 2026, generating verified credits from restoration projects in the Cerrado and Amazon biomes. Through a new digital traceability platform, it will track each seed from tree to planting site, ensuring transparency, enabling carbon certification, and sharing value back to the communities who make regeneration possible.
NESsT's investment in VerdeNovo will go toward strengthening the company’s technology, governance, and infrastructure, including the completion of VerdeNovo’s digital traceability and marketplace platform and the construction of a seed storage facility in the Kalunga Quilombola community of Mimoso.
As part of the NESsT Racial Equity portfolio, VerdeNovo will expand its network of collectors from 5 to 10 communities, launch new restoration projects in the Amazon, and formalize contracts that protect workers’ rights. NESsT is also helping structure the company’s advisory board and gender strategy, ensuring that the voices of Black and Quilombola women continue to lead the regenerative economy in Brazil.
With NESsT’s support, VerdeNovo is building a model of inclusive regeneration—where nature and communities thrive together, and where women’s knowledge stands at the center of Brazil’s ecological transition.