Epoch Raises $4.25M Funding to Help Small Importers Meet EU Deforestation Rules

Epoch, the London-based supply chain intelligence platform, has raised $4.25 million in seed funding co-led by Burnt Island Ventures and Sand River. The round brings Epoch’s total funding to $6.26 million.

The funding comes alongside the launch of Epoch’s self-serve product for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), designed to automate compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). The regulation applies to large and medium operators from December 30, 2026, and to most micro and small operators from June 30, 2027.

Epoch Funding Overview By CREDX Media

Startup Name	Epoch
Founders	Jinal Surti (CEO), William Ouellette (CTO)
Founded	2023
HQ	London, UK
Round	Seed Funding
Amount Raised	$4.25M
Valuation	Not disclosed
Category	Supply Chain Intelligence, Geospatial AI, RegTech
Lead Investors	Burnt Island Ventures, Sand River
Total Funding Raised	$6.26M
Employees	14
Key Commodities	Cocoa, coffee, rubber
Key Customers/Partners	Assent, Resilinc, Altana

💡 Use of Funds

• Product Development: Expanding the platform’s geospatial AI and agentic research capabilities .
• Infrastructure: Building out the data layer that supports compliance workflows .
• Commercial Team: Growing sales and partnerships to reach more SMB importers .

Startup Overview: Epoch

What Epoch Is Building in Simple Words

Epoch has built a first-mile data layer for supply chains. Instead of relying on supplier questionnaires—which often go unanswered or are incomplete—Epoch uses geospatial AI and software agents to map where raw materials actually come from. Users start with a list of supplier names, and Epoch locates the facilities, identifies the relevant plots of land, and checks for deforestation and legality risks .

The platform then generates a due diligence statement with all findings cited, ready for submission to the EU’s TRACES system. Compliance teams can use Epoch’s platform directly or work through AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini .

• Supplier-Name Input: No plot coordinates required—just the names of suppliers a buyer already knows.
• Geospatial AI: Satellite imagery and proprietary models identify farms, plantations, and facilities.
• Agentic Research: Automated research fills gaps that questionnaires can’t close.
• Multi-Regulation Ready: The same data layer is designed to support EUDR, CSDDD, CBAM, and future regulations .

Why Epoch Matters

1. The EUDR Is a Data Problem, Not a Policy Problem The regulation requires companies placing cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, or wood on the EU market to prove their products are deforestation-free and legally produced. Tracing each product back to the plot of land is the hard part—especially for smaller importers who lack leverage over suppliers .
2. Supplier Questionnaires Are Broken CEO Jinal Surti framed it directly: “Supply chain compliance has been built on questionnaires, audits and certifications, and that toolkit is incomplete: regulations keep multiplying while suppliers increasingly can’t, or aren’t allowed to answer” .
3. Small Importers Face the Same Rules as Giants While large enterprises have compliance teams and leverage, SMBs often don’t. Epoch’s self-serve product gives them a tool that was previously only available to enterprises through platforms like Assent and Resilinc .
4. Investor Conviction from Climate-Focused VCs Burnt Island Ventures is a climate-tech specialist, and Sand River participated. Their backing signals that supply chain transparency is seen as a climate issue, not just a logistics one .

Founder Background: The Ripple Alum and the Soilwatch Founder

Jinal Surti (CEO) began his career in management consulting at Booz & Company, then spent most of his career enabling global payments in emerging markets. He was an early employee at Ripple, where he developed the go-to-market strategy for the first enterprise blockchain-based payments product, and a founding executive at Menai, a global market-making and asset management company. He holds an engineering degree from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

William Ouellette (CTO) has dedicated his career to environmental monitoring data applications. Before Epoch, he co-founded Soilwatch, a company supporting voluntary carbon market project developers. He also worked at TomTom’s mapmaking entity, introducing machine learning workflows applied to satellite data, and consulted for the FAO and World Bank on land degradation and nature-based solutions. He holds a BSc in Environmental & Earth Sciences and an MSc in Environmental Engineering.

The founding insight came from Surti’s experience moving capital into emerging markets and Ouellette’s work in environmental monitoring. Together, they saw that the first mile of supply chains—where raw materials actually originate—was the least visible and most critical layer for both compliance and climate impact.

Founder Intelligence: What Founders Can Learn from Epoch

• Build for the regulation that’s coming, not just the one that exists: Epoch launched its SMB product ahead of the EUDR’s enforcement dates. Being ready before the deadline creates urgency for buyers.
• Replace the broken workflow, don’t just digitize it: Questionnaires were already failing. Epoch didn’t build a better questionnaire—it built a completely different way to get the data, using satellites and AI agents.
• Serve the underserved segment: Large enterprises had access to compliance platforms. SMBs didn’t. Epoch’s self-serve product opens a new market that incumbents were ignoring.
• Build a data layer, not a single-regulation tool: Epoch positions its first-mile data as reusable across multiple regulations. That’s a more durable business than a one-off EUDR tool .

Investor Intelligence: Why This Round Gets Premium Capital

Burnt Island Ventures and Sand River co-led the round. Christine Boyle, Partner at Burnt Island, framed the thesis: “Large companies rely on their supply chains to operate their businesses, and they are often operating in the dark as to the local conditions around drought, flood, and forest health. The Epoch platform leverages AI, earth observation data and proprietary models to enable visibility into risk mitigation, and compliance” .

Greg Robson, founding partner at Sand River, added: “A team of truly exceptional capability and experience underpins our belief that Epoch is best placed to be the single source of truth for the first mile. Compliance data becomes business intelligence and enables healthier, more resilient supply chains” .

The investor composition signals conviction: Burnt Island’s climate-tech focus, Sand River’s supply chain expertise, and the participation of partners like Assent and Resilinc (who embed Epoch’s data) validate both the technology and the distribution strategy .

The Road Ahead for Epoch

Expansion Targets

With $4.25 million in capital, Epoch will:

• Expand the self-serve product to more SMB importers ahead of the EUDR deadlines .
• Deepen integrations with platforms like Assent, Resilinc, and Altana, which already embed Epoch’s data for enterprise customers .
• Extend the data layer to support additional regulations beyond EUDR, including forced-labour and water-stress requirements .

The Accuracy Question

Epoch’s Achilles heel is accuracy. In a June 2026 analysis, the company noted that the EU’s own forest map incorrectly flagged 75% of the coffee plots it surveyed. Epoch argues that no single map should arbitrate compliance, and its platform cites its findings for transparency . The real test will come after December 30, when authorities begin accepting or rejecting satellite-based evidence from importers.

Competitive Response

Expect:

• Traditional supply chain compliance platforms (Assent, Resilinc) to deepen their own geospatial capabilities or acquire providers.
• Other first-mile data startups to emerge targeting specific commodities or regions.
• Epoch’s moat: proprietary geospatial models + integration partnerships + early traction with enterprise platforms + SMB self-serve product.

Conclusion

Epoch’s $4.25 million seed funding validates the thesis that the EUDR’s hardest problem is data, not policy. The company’s geospatial AI platform—built by a Ripple alum and a Soilwatch founder—gives both enterprises and SMBs a way to trace supply chains without waiting for suppliers to respond.

Market tailwinds favor Epoch: the EUDR’s enforcement dates are fixed, supplier questionnaires are increasingly unreliable, and the same first-mile data can support multiple regulations. The company’s 14-person team, integration partnerships, and self-serve product position it to capture a critical layer of supply chain compliance before the deadlines hit.

For deep analysis of RegTech funding, supply chain innovation, and companies reshaping compliance, explore CREDX Media for comprehensive coverage of startup funding trends, valuation intelligence, and founder playbooks.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Epoch’s total funding and latest round size?
Epoch has raised $6.26 million total. Its $4.25 million seed round was co-led by Burnt Island Ventures and Sand River in October 2026 .

2. How much did Epoch raise in its seed round and who led the investment?
Epoch raised $4.25 million co-led by Burnt Island Ventures and Sand River .

3. What is the valuation of Epoch?
Epoch did not disclose its post-money valuation.

4. Who are the major investors in Epoch?
Major investors include Burnt Island Ventures and Sand River (co-leads). Christine Boyle, Partner at Burnt Island, joined Epoch’s board .

5. Who are Epoch’s founders?
Epoch was founded in 2023 by Jinal Surti (CEO) and William Ouellette (CTO). Surti was an early employee at Ripple; Ouellette co-founded Soilwatch .

6. What is Epoch’s business model?
Epoch operates a B2B SaaS model, selling its first-mile data layer to enterprises through platforms like Assent and Resilinc, and directly to SMBs through its self-serve product .

7. How does Epoch’s platform work?
Users input supplier names. Epoch uses geospatial AI and agentic research to locate facilities and plots, assess deforestation and legality risks, and generate a due diligence statement for submission to the EU’s TRACES system .

8. What traction justifies Epoch’s seed funding?
Epoch screened more than 12,000 suppliers for enterprise customers in the six months before the round. Its data is embedded in platforms used by more than 30,000 businesses and financial institutions .

9. What are Epoch’s plans for the $4.25 million seed capital?
Epoch will invest in product development, infrastructure, and its commercial team to scale its SMB self-serve product and deepen enterprise integrations .

10. What is the EUDR and when does it apply?
The EU Deforestation Regulation requires companies placing cattle, cocoa, coffee, oil palm, rubber, soya, or wood products on the EU market to prove they are deforestation-free and legally produced. It applies to large and medium operators from December 30, 2026, and most micro and small operators from June 30, 2027 .

11. Who is the CEO of Epoch?
Jinal Surti serves as CEO and co-founder. He previously worked at Ripple and Menai, and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School .