Earth force technologies announces $8.6 million raise to prevent catastrophic wildfire
30 November 2022
Published by: https://finance.yahoo.com
USA – The Earth Force vegetation management system dramatically increases the pace, scale, and safety of wildfire prevention work.
Earth Force Remote-Operated Heavy Machinery for Forestry Operators
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Earth Force Technologies, a California-based start-up dedicated to mitigating catastrophic wildfire, announced its seed raise of $8.6 million. The raise is led by Alley Robotics Ventures, with participation by Bold Capital Partners and Third Sphere.
Over the past decade, the increase in wildfire frequency and intensity has drawn billions of federal and state dollars for combating and preventing wildfire, but the national labor shortage and physically grueling nature of the work has made for slow progress. Meanwhile, emissions released from California wildfires in 2020 alone emitted roughly 127 million megatons of greenhouse gas emissions, or about twice California’s total emission cuts from 2003 to 2019.
Earth Force has built an advanced productivity system centered around jobsite connectivity, teleoperations, and digital tools. Using teleoperated machinery, operators can conduct work from a safe and comfortable workstation. By leveraging data flows from sensors on each project site, project administrators can also use the system to remotely measure progress and impact.
“Earth Force Technologies is working with stakeholders across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to bring the most innovative tools to the work happening on the ground,” says Earth Force founder Justin Dawe. “Fire prevention investments pay off many times over, but aren’t happening at the pace and scale that communities need. By bringing vegetation management into the 21st century, we can do our part to restore forest health while creating safe and desirable jobs in forest-adjacent communities. Environmental destruction is unfortunately happening at unprecedented scale. Earth Force helps make environmental restoration scalable for the first time as well.”
“Alley Robotics stands with Earth Force as they work to protect communities from wildfire,” says Alley Robotics managing partner Abe Murray. “By addressing the unmet demand for scalable forestry management, Earth Force will protect lives and infrastructure and significantly reduce CO2 emissions, all while turning dirty and dangerous jobs into safe and highly desirable careers in the modern economy.”
“In Earth Force we saw a team that was bringing advanced technologies, like teleoperation and AI that had been applied in other areas like agriculture and mining, to the management of wildfire risk. The confluence of a great team, the use of exponential technologies, and meaningful societal benefit made it a perfect fit for Bold’s investment thesis. We look forward to this approach becoming the standard way of managing forests,” said Neal Bhadkamkar of Bold Capital Partners.
“Earth Force is building a solution to take on wildfire prevention while creating good jobs,” says Third Sphere partner Shilpi Kumar. “We are impressed with the team’s dedication to applying technology and making a clear impact on an urgent challenge.”
About Alley Robotics Ventures
Alley Robotics Ventures (ARV) is an early stage venture capital firm investing in amazing teams solving the world’s problems. As artificial intelligence improves and hardware costs drop, the applications for technology and data processing must continue to expand. ARV is based in Boston and NYC and is inspired by the AlleyCorp venture fund and incubator.
About Bold Capital Partners
BOLD is a venture capital firm that seeks entrepreneurs and companies who share a fierce vision for a brighter tomorrow. We identify emerging science and technologies that will disrupt and democratize massive markets, creating innovative solutions to humanity’s greatest challenges.
About Th°rd Sphere
Third Sphere works for founders accelerating the transformation of global systems to better serve humanity now and into the future. Founded in 2013 by veteran angel investors and founders, Third Sphere has made over 100 early stage climate investments and is ranked in the top few percent of climate tech investors on NFX Signal, Founders Choice, Techcrunch and Climate 50.
