11 Innovative Startups Using AI for Wildfire Detection

Artificial intelligence is transforming how wildfires are detected and managed. This article showcases eleven startups applying AI through sensors, satellites, drones, and analytics to identify fires earlier and reduce damage to ecosystems and communities.

Introduction

Wildfires are becoming more frequent, intense, and difficult to contain as climate change drives higher temperatures, prolonged droughts, and extreme weather patterns. Across many regions, traditional firefighting methods are being pushed beyond their limits, increasing the urgency for earlier detection and faster response.

Artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in addressing this challenge. From ground-based sensors and camera systems to satellites, drones, and predictive analytics, AI is helping identify ignition events sooner and assess fire risk more accurately. This article highlights eleven innovative startups using AI in different ways to improve wildfire detection, reduce response times, and help prevent small ignition events from turning into large-scale disasters.

Why Early Wildfire Detection Matters

Wildfires have long been part of natural ecosystems, but the scale and impact of today’s fires are fundamentally different. Expanding human settlement, aging infrastructure, and climate-driven changes in vegetation and weather have increased both the likelihood of ignition and the consequences of uncontrolled burns. Once fires spread, suppression becomes costly, dangerous, and often ineffective.

Early detection is one of the most effective ways to reduce damage. Identifying the earliest signs of ignition allows firefighting teams to respond before flames spread, protecting ecosystems, infrastructure, and nearby communities. Advances in detection technology now make it possible to identify fires at the smouldering or early smoke stage, shifting wildfire management from reaction to prevention.

How AI Is Used in Wildfire Detection and Prevention

AI supports wildfire prevention and response in two primary ways. Predictive systems analyze historical fire data, weather patterns, vegetation, and terrain to estimate where fires are most likely to occur. These insights help authorities allocate resources, plan controlled burns, and strengthen preparedness in high-risk areas.

At the same time, AI-powered detection systems focus on speed and accuracy. By processing data from sensors, cameras, satellites, and drones in near real time, these systems can identify early signs of ignition and alert responders within minutes. Together, predictive and detection technologies enable faster response, better coordination, and reduced damage when fires do occur.

How to Read This List

The startups featured below approach wildfire detection from different angles. Some focus on ultra-early sensing at the forest floor, others on satellite intelligence, camera networks, grid monitoring, or autonomous response systems. The list is not a ranking. Each company addresses a different part of the wildfire detection and prevention challenge, illustrating the breadth of approaches shaping this rapidly evolving field.

Top Startups using AI for Wildfire Detection 

Below we present eleven innovative startups leveraging AI to develop wildfire detection technology. The order does not constitute a ranking; each company tackles the challenge from its own perspective and with its own mix of hardware and software solutions.

1. Dryad

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. This approach has also been validated through real-world collaborations, including a project where Omdena’s global AI teams supported Dryad in advancing early wildfire detection systems.

2. Ororatech

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

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

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.

Remote telemetry and edge AI

4. Umgrauemeio

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.

Pantera is an integrated plataform

5. Firemaps

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: 1. Defensible Space

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

firefighters a safe area to work

2. Home Hardening

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

Source

To explore how AI-driven wildfire detection is being scaled globally, you can also read our in-depth breakdown of Omdena’s wildfire innovation work in this wildfire early-detection case study.

6. Arbonaut

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

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:

1. 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.

Insight Robotics InsightFD Early Wildfire Detection System

2. 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

ReportFires app

3. LookOut wildfire detection service

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

LookOut wildfire detection service

8. Exci

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.

How exci’s system works

The statistics of California’s reports

9. Pano AI 

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

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:

1. 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.

Wildfire Detection System InsightFD + Insight Globe

2. 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.

Aerial Survey

11. Rain

Rain

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

• Industry: ignition
• 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. 

Autonomous aircraft

Conclusion

The growing use of artificial intelligence in wildfire detection marks a significant shift in how societies prepare for extreme climate events. The startups highlighted in this list demonstrate that early detection is not only achievable, but increasingly essential for protecting ecosystems, communities, and critical infrastructure.

By combining sensors, AI-powered satellite imagery, drones, and advanced analytics, these companies are shortening response times, reducing damage, and supporting the people working on the front lines of fire management., reducing damage, and supporting the people working on the front lines of fire management. Together, their work shows how the strategic application of AI can move wildfire response from reaction toward prevention, helping build greater resilience in regions facing rising wildfire risk.

For readers interested in how similar AI approaches can be designed and implemented in practice, the following whitepaper provides a detailed overview of responsible AI implementation.