Eberswalde, Germany-based Dryad Networks, an organization specialised in ultra-early wildfire detection expertise, introduced that it has been awarded a €3.8M grant from the European Regional Growth Fund (ERDF), via the Investitionsbank des Landes Brandenburg (ILB).
Along with the grant, the German firm additionally secured €2.5M in funding from First Think about!, a climate-tech investor, bringing the entire fund raised from its April convertible financing spherical to €8.9M.
The brand new capital injection positions Dryad to scale its Silvanet wildfire detection platform whereas driving ahead the event of Florian, an revolutionary resolution that mixes AI-driven early detection with fast suppression capabilities.
The corporate will use the funds to scale its Silvanet wildfire detection platform and develop its wildfire suppression challenge, codenamed “Florian,” an autonomous drone-based system designed to fight wildfires at their inception.
“We’re thrilled to obtain this substantial funding from ILB, which can considerably advance our ‘Florian’ challenge,” says Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO and co-founder of Dryad Networks.
“Combining this with the brand new funding from First Think about Ventures, we’re well-positioned to revolutionise wildfire administration. Our imaginative and prescient will not be solely to detect wildfires at their earliest phases but additionally to suppress them shortly, minimising harm to communities, ecosystems, and infrastructure,” provides Brinkschulte.
Dryad: Extremely-early wildfire detection
Led by Carsten Brinkschulte, Dryad supplies ultra-early detection of wildfires in addition to well being and development monitoring of forests utilizing solar-powered fuel sensors in a large-scale IoT sensor community.
Dryad goals to deal with wildfires, that are inflicting as much as 20 per cent of world CO2 emissions and have a devastating impression on biodiversity.
At the moment, the corporate is engaged on Florian to swiftly and successfully suppress these fires.
Dryad does this by utilizing an autonomous drone fleet geared up with hearth suppression expertise, comparable to acoustic waves, to extinguish wildfires earlier than they’ve an opportunity to unfold.
These drones will likely be completely stationed in high-risk forests, guaranteeing a speedy response to potential threats.
Dryad’s core product, Silvanet, is already deployed in over twenty nations throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia, and 20,000 sensors have been shipped thus far.
The investor
First Think about! is a European-based enterprise capital agency in search of funding alternatives within the vitality transition sector throughout Europe and Israel.
Boris Dorin, companion at First Think about!, feedback, “Dryad’s groundbreaking strategy to wildfire detection and suppression is strictly the kind of transformative expertise we search to help. As wildfires develop in depth and frequency on account of local weather change, the necessity for scalable, proactive options has by no means been extra pressing. We’re excited to companion with Dryad Networks of their mission to guard vital ecosystems and construct a extra resilient, sustainable future.”
