# Max Nova

> Max Nova is the co-founder of NCX (Natural Capital Exchange), a San Francisco climate-tech company that counts every tree in America with satellites and machine learning, then pays forest owners to keep them standing. A Louisville-born, Yale-trained computer scientist who once planned to be a radiologist, he started the company as SilviaTerra in 2010 with forester Zack Parisa, built the first high-resolution forest inventory of the entire United States with Microsoft, and turned that data into a marketplace for carbon, wildlife habitat, and fire risk. NCX has raised about $74 million, including a $50M Series B backed by Salesforce's Marc Benioff.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at NCX (Natural Capital Exchange)
- **Organizations:** NCX, SilviaTerra, International Strategy Forum, Yale Entrepreneurial Society
- **From:** Louisville, Kentucky, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. Computer Science, Yale University, Summer research program, Research Science Institute (RSI), Summer math program, MathPath
- **Known for:** Co-built the first high-resolution forest inventory of the entire United States with Microsoft, Created the technical systems powering the largest forest carbon project in the US, Grew a mostly bootstrapped startup into a company that raised roughly $74 million

## Career timeline

- **2010** — Co-founded SilviaTerra with forester Zack Parisa to measure forests with satellites and statistics
- **2012** — Graduated from Yale; had served as President of the Yale Entrepreneurial Society
- **2018** — Partnered with Microsoft to build Basemap, the first high-resolution forest inventory of the entire US
- **2020** — Named an International Strategy Forum Fellow (North America cohort)
- **2020** — Announced Microsoft as the first buyer on NCX's forest carbon marketplace
- **2021** — SilviaTerra rebranded as NCX (Natural Capital Exchange)
- **2022** — Raised $50M Series B with backing from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff; total funding ~$74M

## Achievements

- Co-built the first high-resolution forest inventory of the entire United States with Microsoft
- Created the technical systems powering the largest forest carbon project in the US
- Grew a mostly bootstrapped startup into a company that raised roughly $74 million
- Landed Microsoft as the first buyer on the NCX carbon marketplace
- Won the Yale Sabin Prize, the early funding that launched SilviaTerra
- Selected as an International Strategy Forum Fellow (2020)
- GitHub Arctic Code Vault Contributor

## Latest updates

- **2022-03** — NCX raised a $50M Series B backed by Marc Benioff to scale its satellite-powered forest carbon marketplace.

## Links

- Website: http://books.max-nova.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/maxnova
- GitHub: https://github.com/max-nova

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/max-nova
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-10