# Terranova

> Terranova is a Berkeley-born climate-tech and robotics startup building car-sized autonomous robots that inject a wood-waste slurry deep underground to lift flood-prone land out of harm's way - no seawalls, no surface disruption. A single 'mothership' coordinating three injection rovers can raise about one acre by one foot per day, while the buried biomass becomes a durable carbon sink that can be sold as carbon credits. Founded by UC Berkeley mechanical engineer Laurence Allen to save his hometown of San Rafael, California, the company raised a $7M seed round in November 2025 and plans its first San Rafael pilots in 2026.

- **Founded:** 2024
- **Headquarters:** Berkeley / San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founders:** Laurence Allen (Co-Founder & CEO), Trip Allen (Co-Founder & Chairman)
- **Team size:** ~30 employees
- **Products:** Terraforming Robot Fleet, AI Site Planning System, Carbon Sequestration / Credits, Land-Raising for Development
- **Notable:** Raised a $7M seed round that closed three times oversubscribed (Nov 2025)., Emerged from stealth (formerly Levitree) with a $25.1M valuation., Pilot site tested for over a year before public launch.

## Products & services

- **Terraforming Robot Fleet** — Car-sized autonomous tracked rovers that drill wells and inject a wood-waste slurry 40-60 feet underground to lift land without disturbing the surface. A 'mothership' coordinates three injection rovers, raising roughly one acre by one foot per day.
- **AI Site Planning System** — GIS and genetic-algorithm software (a 'SimCity-like' planning tool) that analyzes soil composition, flood risk and target elevation to design closed-loop injection campaigns.
- **Carbon Sequestration / Credits** — Because the injected slurry is made from waste biomass that stays buried, each project creates a durable carbon sink that can be sold as carbon credits, offsetting project cost.
- **Land-Raising for Development** — Elevating sites before housing, commercial, industrial, infrastructure, wetland-restoration and defense projects, with consolidation in hours rather than years.

## Achievements

- Raised a $7M seed round that closed three times oversubscribed (Nov 2025).
- Emerged from stealth (formerly Levitree) with a $25.1M valuation.
- Pilot site tested for over a year before public launch.
- Quoted $92M to lift 240 acres of San Rafael four feet - versus $500-900M for seawalls.
- Founder Laurence Allen named to the 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Energy & Green Tech category.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Founder and CEO Laurence Allen named to the 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Energy & Green Tech category for building robots that inject wood underground to lift land out of flood danger.
- **2026-01** — Company reiterated plans to run its first San Rafael field pilots in 2026, timed to coincide with a local dredging project, alongside full-scale robot production and hiring across engineering and field operations.
- **2025-11** — Announced $7M seed round led by Outlander and Congruent Ventures (with GoAhead Ventures, Gothams and Ponderosa); emerged from stealth (formerly Levitree) at a $25.1M valuation to bring terraforming robots to market.
- **2025-09** — Featured by Inside Climate News for AI-guided robots aimed at San Rafael sea-level-rise defense and carbon sequestration.

## Links

- Website: https://terranova.inc
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/terranova-inc/
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAJbpB9aLfI

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/terranova
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-10