Tales by Trees

What Tales by Trees does

Tales by Trees Ltd is a Finnish net positive art & design company founded in 2015 and headquartered in Helsinki, operated by a five-member team. The company sells a trilogy of illustrated modern fables — The Carpenter, The Knight, and The Seafarer, written by Iiro Küttner and illustrated by Ville Tietävänen — available as ebooks and print-on-demand paperbacks on Amazon (US, UK, and global stores) and on its own Shopify-powered e-commerce site. Its second product line is The Seed, a Nordic birch wooden sculpture designed by Elina Helenius and Saara Renvall, finished with a linseed oil and beeswax coating using a recipe attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. All products are FSC- or PEFC-certified and shipped via DHL GoGreen carbon-neutral service.

The company's defining feature is its Net Positive Model, developed in collaboration with the Net Positive Project (Forum for the Future, WWF, Climate Group). For each individual book sold the company plants 7 trees; each trilogy set plants 25 trees and conserves 5m² of old forest; each Seed sculpture plants 50 trees and conserves 10m² of forest. Reforestation is executed through Trees for the Future in Sub-Saharan Africa and forest conservation through the Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation, with cumulative impact exceeding 30,000 trees planted. The 2017 Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign, which funded The Seed and the first physical print runs, reached over 150% of its funding goal with backers in more than 20 countries.

Go-to-market is direct-to-consumer: e-commerce on talesbytrees.com, Amazon marketplace distribution, and event-driven crowdfunding for product launches. The company is bootstrapped with no disclosed institutional investors and generates revenue through one-time ebook/perpetual license sales and hardware (sculpture) sales. Marketing is content-driven via a blog, newsletter, and social channels (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), targeting eco-conscious consumers and readers of contemplative literary fiction. The company's products have received Finland's Most Beautiful Book Series Award (2014) and a Finlandia Junior Prize nomination, and are used as teaching materials at UC Berkeley.

Name

Tales by Trees

Legal name

Tales by Trees Ltd

Website

https://talesbytrees.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Tales by Trees is a Finnish net positive art & design company that sells an award-winning illustrated book trilogy and a Nordic birch sculpture, with each purchase funding tree planting and old-growth forest conservation through partner NGOs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Helsinki

HQ country

Finland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Book Sales: Sale of three inspirational modern fairytale ebooks and print-on-demand paperbacks (The Carpenter, The Knight, The Seafarer) through Amazon and the company website. Each book sold plants 7 trees; each trilogy set plants 25 trees and conserves 5m² of forest.
2. The Seed Sculpture Sales: Sale of The Seed, a Nordic birch wooden design sculpture created by Finnish designers Elina Helenius and Saara Renvall. For each Seed sold, 50 trees are planted and 10m² of forest is protected. Sculptures are finished with a protective coating using da Vinci's recipe of slowly boiled linseed oil mixed with 5% beeswax.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Tales by Trees sells a trilogy of inspirational modern fairy tale books (The Carpenter, The Knight, The Seafarer) as ebooks and print-on-demand paperbacks, along with The Seed, a handcrafted wooden sculpture made of sustainably grown Nordic birch. Every purchase triggers tree planting through Trees for the Future and forest conservation through Finnish Natural Heritage Foundation, following the company's proprietary net positive model that is designed to give back more environmental value than the product consumes.

Product overview

Tales by Trees is a net positive art and design company that creates beautiful, meaningful products centered on Nordic wood and nature themes. The company offers a book trilogy consisting of three inspirational modern fables—The Carpenter, The Knight, and The Seafarer—available as ebooks and print-on-demand paperbacks, and The Seed, a sustainable birch wood sculpture designed by Finnish designers. Each product follows their net positive model where purchases actively increase natural resources by planting trees and conserving forests. The books are written by Iiro Küttner and illustrated by Ville Tietäväinen, with English translations by Owen F. Witesman.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• The Seed: A net positive wooden sculpture made of Nordic birch, designed by Finnish designers Elina Helenius and Saara Renvall. For each Seed sold, 50 trees are planted and 10 square meters of forest is protected.
• The Carpenter
• The Knight
• The Seafarer

Products and services

• The Carpenter The first book in the Tales by Trees trilogy, an inspirational modern fable in the spirit of Grimms' Fairy Tales about a master cabinetmaker who receives an order to make whatever his own heart most desires. Sold as ebook and print-on-demand paperback, with each purchase planting 7 trees. Targeted at adult readers and mature children.
• The Knight The second book in the Tales by Trees trilogy, an inspirational modern fable in the footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien exploring whether love can defeat dragons. Sold as ebook and print-on-demand paperback, with each purchase planting 7 trees. Targeted at adult readers and mature children.
• The Seafarer The third book in the Tales by Trees trilogy, an inspirational modern fable written in the world of the Arabian Nights about what dreams can achieve. Sold as ebook and print-on-demand paperback, with each purchase planting 7 trees. Targeted at adult readers and mature children.
• The Seed An egg-shaped net positive wooden design sculpture made of sustainably grown Finnish birch wood, designed by Finnish designers Elina Helenius and Saara Renvall and finished with Leonardo da Vinci's linseed oil and beeswax recipe. For each Seed sold, 50 trees are planted and 10 square meters of forest is conserved, with 1,250 trees planted per tree cut for production. Sold directly through the company's website to eco-conscious consumers seeking sustainable home decor and gifts.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 30,000 trees planted through product sales
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• IndiegogocoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor · 1 December 2017Crowdfunding platform used by Tales by Trees for their 2017 campaign to fund The Seed physical art objects and printed book versions. Campaign launched December 2017 and was successfully completed.
• Trees for the FuturecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAmerican non-profit organization founded in 1989 with mission to protect the environment and empower rural communities through organized tree planting. Has planted over 100 million trees and helped over a million people in dozens of countries. Current focus on implementing Forest Garden Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. Tales by Trees partners with them to plant trees for each product sold, with tropical trees chosen for faster CO2 sequestration.
• Finnish Natural Heritage FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit organization based in Finland, established in 1995, that protects old growth forests with focus on uncut forests displaying high biodiversity. Currently manages over 70 separate sites totaling over 1,500 hectares of protected forest. Tales by Trees partners with them for forest conservation efforts in Finland.
• DHL (GoGreen)coreTechnology or IntegrationGlobal logistics company with strong commitment to green values. Tales by Trees uses DHL GoGreen service for carbon neutral shipping worldwide. DHL minimizes environmental impact through optimized transport routes, alternative drive vehicles, and energy-efficient warehouses, then compensates for unavoidable emissions.
• ShopifycoreTechnology or IntegrationE-commerce platform hosting Tales by Trees' online store. Provides secure payment processing with PCI-DSS compliance and credit card data encryption using AES-256. Stores purchase transaction data only as long as necessary to complete transactions.
• FSC (Forest Stewardship Council)coreOthersForest certification system ensuring wood comes from responsibly managed forests. Tales by Trees uses FSC certified paper for books and FSC certified recycled materials for packaging. Certification guarantees sustainable sourcing, replacement planting, and compliance with environmental laws.
• PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification)coreOthersForest certification system. The Seed is made of PEFC certified Nordic wood. Certification ensures sustainable and ethical sourcing from managed forests.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Who Gives a Crap: Sustainable consumer goods company (recycled paper products) that donates 50% of profits to sanitation non-profits. Comparable to Tales by Trees in combining everyday products with measurable social/environmental impact per purchase.
• Ecosia: Search engine that uses profits to plant trees via partner NGOs. Comparable business model logic: revenue-generating product (search) tied to tree-planting per use, similar to Tales by Trees' trees-per-purchase proposition.
• tentree: Canadian apparel brand that plants 10 trees for every item sold through partner non-profits. Directly comparable to Tales by Trees in tying every purchase to a measurable tree-planting outcome via a third-party NGO.
• Better World Books: Online bookseller that funds literacy initiatives from each purchase. Most directly comparable to Tales by Trees' book business because it combines book sales with embedded social/environmental outcomes.

Broad incumbents

• Patagonia: Established outdoor apparel brand built on environmental activism and supply-chain transparency. Comparable as a broader incumbent demonstrating that sustainability-led branding can support premium pricing and durable customer loyalty.
• Allbirds: Sustainability-positioned footwear and apparel brand emphasizing certified natural materials. Comparable as a broader incumbent demonstrating scaling of sustainability-led consumer brands.

Peers

• Penguin Random House:

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/talesbytrees
• Facebookfacebook.com/talesbytrees
• Instagraminstagram.com/talesbytrees

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tales by Trees