Top 11 Innovative Startups Applying AI for Wildfires Detection in 2024

The Omdena “Impact Tech Startups Series” comprises game-changing startups, stories, and thought-leadership pieces from leading impact ventures solving real-world problems. The series is initiated by Omdena´s AI program for impact-driven startups.

Introduction

With temperatures rising worldwide and wildfires becoming an increasing threat, artificial intelligence and wildfire detection startups are rising to help solve this issue. The need for the detection and prevention of these disasters has never been more important. The following AI wildfire detection companies are using their platforms in different ways, but each one of them is on a mission to positively affect the lives of many people affected by wildfires every year.

Why is forest fire detection important?

Forest fires have been happening for centuries, but with our current population density, firefighting resources are stretched thin. The threat of forest fires is real. Luckily, more and more AI wildfire detection startups are developing innovative ways to detect and prevent these fires before they happen. These startups utilize AI-powered cameras, sensors, drones, satellites, and data analytics to find patterns that can predict where lightning strikes might occur and detect the earliest signs of a potential wildfire. AI-driven fire detection may be the key to preventing future losses due to this hazard in the years ahead.

How can forest fires be predicted using artificial intelligence?

There are a number of ways artificial intelligence can be used to predict forest fires. World Economic Forum’s FireAId Project, for example, is using heatmaps and artificial intelligence algorithms that identify specific features in satellite images that correspond with an increased risk of wildfire. AI predictive analytics, on the other hand, uses past wildfire data as input to identify patterns and find anomalies or correlations between variables. These two types of AI have different advantages: AI fire detection offers low latency predictions while AI predictive analytics provides more detailed predictions. 

What technology is used to prevent wildfires?

With global warming, the number of wildfires is expected to increase. Artificial intelligence can help prevent wildfires in combination with technologies such as drones or infrared cameras. For example, startups like Dryad develop an IoT network that enables public and private forest owners to monitor, analyze, and protect the world’s largest, most remote forests. Oraratech uses satellite technology to map large areas for high-risk fires. Some startups use infrared camera imaging which captures how much sunlight heat is reflecting from the ground—a possible indication of wildfire activity. Another option for prevention is remote sensing, which tracks temperature changes over time to identify hot spots before they become an issue.

Top Startups using AI for Wildfire Detection 

Here’s a quick look at the top eleven wildfire detection startups in 2024. The order does not follow a ranking. 

1. Dryad

An IoT startup based in Berlin-Brandenburg, Dryad builds large-scale IoT networks that enable public and private forest owners to monitor, analyze, and protect the world’s largest and remotest forests by using big data. Initially, the focus is on developing a system for detecting wildfires at an early stage.

Industry: Internet of Things 

Founded: Jan 8, 2020

Founder(s): Carsten Brinkschulte, Ben Banerjee

Applications and projects: 

• Wildfire Detection by SILVANET

Dryad’s Silvanet is a complete solution for ultra-early wildfire detection and forest health and growth monitoring. It includes sensors, an open standards network infrastructure, as well as monitoring, analytics, and alert services.

2. Ororatech

OroraTech is a data intelligence company headquartered in Munich, Germany, dedicated to ensuring a net-zero economy while protecting the environment. Over 160 million hectares of forest are monitored by their leading wildfire intelligence service.

Industry: Satellite imaging

Founded: Sep 2018

Founder(s): Björn Stoffers, Florian Mauracher, Rupert Amann, Thomas Grübler

Applications and projects: 

• CUBESATS

Cubesats by Ororatech enables the launch of standardized nanosatellites. They are built with commonly available off-the-shelf components, and are relatively cheap compared to old large satellites, allowing the establishment of larger constellations.

3. Gridware

With Gridware, power distribution grids can be monitored via sensors and software by using a low-cost hardware platform that can be easily and permanently installed to power poles. Utility asset health profiles provide a comprehensive view of asset health, which can be used to demonstrate risk reduction to regulators in the event of wildfires.

Industry: Energy

Founded: Aug 2020

Founder(s): Abdulrahman Bin Omar, Hall Chen, Timothy Barat

Applications and projects:

• Remote telemetry and edge AI

Using remote telemetry and edge AI, Gridware wildfire prevention technology powers a grid that is smarter and more reliable than ever before. With this tech, Gridware monitors for possible changes that could affect the quality of the grid’s performance or ignite wildfires.

4. Umgrauemeio

Umgrauemeio developed a method for combating fires at an earlier stage through providing specialized devices designed to support the five major elements of fighting fires. These devices monitor and provide solutions for detecting, communicating, mobilizing, fighting fires and preventing them from happening in the first place.

Industry: SaaS

Founded: Nov 26, 2016

Founder(s): Eimi Arikawa, Osmar Bambini, Rogerio Cavalcante

Applications and projects: 

• Pantera

Pantera is an integrated plataform for forest fire management. Everything a company needs to prevent, detect and fight forest fires.

5. Firemaps

Firemaps offers fire management solutions for residential use and provides assistance for mitigating wildfires. The company was founded by a group of entrepreneurs, builders, firefighters, and wildfire modelling professionals in 2021. 

Industry: Home security

Founded: 2021

Founder(s): Jahan Khanna, Sharuk Khanna

Applications and projects:

• Defensible Space

Firemaps created a landscaped area around homes to slow the spread of wildfire and give firefighters a safe area to work.

• Home Hardening

Firemaps contractors use building materials and installation techniques to increase resistance to heat, flames, and embers.

6. Arbonaut

Arbonaut develops information gathering and GIS solutions for forest inventory and natural resource management.

Industry: Geographic information system

Founded: 1994

Founder(s): Tuomo Kauranne

Applications and projects:

• ProMS: Cloud-based geospatial information platform for project management. ProMS is a highly adaptable platform that can be tailored to fit the needs of many different industries. 

• ArboFiRM: Arbonaut Fire Risk Management — ArboFiRM — supports strategic planning and decision-making for fire prevention and suppression on both the local and regional levels. It allows forest fire managers to forecast forest fire behaviour and reduce the risk of fire spreading in the wildland-urban interface. 
• ArboAqua: ArboAqua, platform allows to centralise information from different data sources by taking advantage of remote sensing data, i.e. to assess the quality of water bodies and to follow the changes.
• ArboGIS: ArboGIS offers advanced GIS tools for manipulating spatial information. The platform can be further enhanced by adding a variety of different proprietary GIS modules on customer demand to address specific GIS data management needs.
• ASTA: ASTA collects and reports information and visitor experiences from multiple data sources for the park´s management and ensures transparent decision making.
• ArboFIS: With ArboFIS, the whole process of forest management, from data collection and planning to implementation and monitoring, can be managed easily and efficiently. By centralising data from different sources, it is assured that different users have access to common sources of valid data, allowing optimised collaboration and decision-making.

7. Robotics Cats

With our AI wildfire detection SaaS, we help businesses and governments mitigate forest fire risks and damages around the world. 

Industry: SaaS

Founded: Aug 9, 2019

Founder(s): Andre Cheung

Applications and projects:

• Insight Robotics InsightFD Early Wildfire Detection System

Insight Robotics InsightFD is the global market leader in early wildfire detection. InsightFD robot, a purpose-built camera system using both visual and infrared sensors, will rotate 360-degree and scan for fire and smoke 24×7.

• ReportFires app

It is an iOS app that helps users to make informed and timely responses to wildfires. It helps users to detect nearby wildfires using AI wildfire detection

• LookOut wildfire detection service

LookOut wildfire detection service (formerly named AI-Cloud) provides customers easy to deploy and use solutions to detect wildfires.

8. Exci

exci was founded in 2019 and was formerly known as Fireball.International. Since exci developed a new innovative solution to a global problem.

Industry: Information Technology

Founded: 2019

Founder(s): Christopher Tylor, Gabrielle Tylor

Applications and projects:

• Early Wildfire Detection

exci offers an Early Wildfire detection and notification service. That means:

exci (Latin word for alarm) is the ‘smoke alarm for the bush’. exci detects wildfires automatically within minutes, combining satellite and ground-based camera data that are analyzed by powerful deep machine learning algorithms for the presence of smoke and heat. Even small fires are automatically detected within minutes after ignition, with a near-zero rate of false positives. If a fire is detected, electronic notifications are sent directly to exciMap users. Notification can be provided via SMS or eMail. Notifications can also be directed to the appropriate Fire Service, integrating with their systems and processes.

exci is the only Early Wildfire Detection System that has been proven in large-scale deployments, with nearly 1,000 cameras covering over 125 million acres in California and over 2 million hectares of plantations in Australia. During the 2021 fire season, exci processed over one billion images from ground-based cameras as well as analyzed more than 500,000 satellite images (30GB per day). The exci system issued 8,672 notifications. Reports from California indicated that the system detected 66% of fires within a minute, 95% within 5 minutes, and nearly 100% within 10 minutes, with a near-zero rate of false positives.

See more via: https://www.exci.ai/how-it-works/

9. Pano AI 

Pano offers hardware and software technology solutions for fire professionals to detect threats and respond faster.

Industry: Information Technology

Founded: 2019

Founder(s): Sonia Kastner

Applications and projects:

• Pano Rapid Detect

Pano Rapid Detect captures a dynamic 360-degree panoramic view of the landscape every minute. This rich camera data, combined with satellite imagery, emergency call details, and other data feeds, enables Pano AI’s artificial intelligence to continuously monitor the landscape and provide actionable intelligence in a single, intuitive interface, enabling fire authorities to detect, assess, and pinpoint new fires quickly, in order to contain them while they are still small.

10. Insight Robotics

Insight Robotics protects our industry’s natural resources and infrastructure through their Intelligent threat detection. The Data they collect through Robots and Sensors is displayed through a GIS platform and provides data in an intuitive form so Stakeholders can decide their response.

Industry: Threat detection

Founded: 2009

Founder(s): Kevin Chan, Rex Sham

Applications and projects:

• Wildfire Detection System InsightFD + Insight Globe

The Insight Robotics Wildfire Detection System consists of a network of InsightFD robots linked to the management platform Insight Globe suited at a central control room. Each robot provides industry-leading accuracy, real-time surveillance, and early detection of emerging wildfires, shifting the focus to efficient early suppression rather than costly firefighting.

• Aerial Survey

Insight Robotics’ purpose-built RGB and multispectral system captures high-resolution terrain mapping and precise aerial assessments. Data will be processed into useful visualizations of large land areas. Decision-makers can respond to threats and manage land to optimize output.

11. Rain

The Rain System uses a network of autonomous aircraft that are able to contain wildfires within 10 minutes of their ignition.

Industry: 

Founded: 2019

Founder(s): Bryan Hatton, Ephraim Nowak, Maxwell Brodie

Applications and projects:

• Autonomous aircraft

Rain autonomous aircraft dispense water to contain wildfires within 10 minutes of ignition. 

Conclusion

These top 11 artificial intelligence wildfire detection startups should be considered as they can help detect and prevent wildfires. As technology continues to improve, it will have an increasing impact on our lives in many ways. It is important that we do not underestimate how this new innovation will shape our future. These artificial intelligence wildfire detection companies are just a few of the companies that are doing great work to ensure a safer future for all of us.

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