#GoodMarkets_06: Wildfire
Original Publish Date: Oct 18, 2022 on Revue
“In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.” Terry Pratchett
TL;DR 💚
Wildfire management is the process of controlling fires that occur in wilderness areas, rural areas and industrial sites. The goal is to prevent damage to life, property and the environment. Wildfires are often managed with firefighting efforts such as fire suppression that focus on removing fuel from the fire’s path. However, this does not always work and other strategies are needed for effective wildfire management.
This was a difficult area to research for startup opportunities and as an impact vertical, but worth the effort! There are some emerging opportunities in this space that is heating up!
Historic Wildfire Techniques
- Fire suppression: This is the most common approach that is used today. It involves putting out fires as soon as they are detected, regardless of their size or location.
- Fire mitigation: This approach focuses on reducing the risk of wildfires by preventing them from starting or spreading to new areas through various methods such as clearing away dry brush and dead trees, thinning out overgrown forests, etc.
- Fire management: This approach focuses on controlling and managing existing fires, in order to minimize damage and destruction.
- Fire restoration/recreation: In this approach, fires are allowed under controlled conditions so they do not pose a threat to human life or property, while also meeting other goals such as restoring ecosystems.
The West is on Fire
The West is burning, and the size and frequency of fires are increasing. What was once a 4 month fire season has been extended to 6–8 months, according to the Forest Service USDA. But strangely, the number of fires has been decreasing since the 1990, yet the land area impacted by burns has been increasing, according to this study. However, the majority of acres burned in the US, has been in Forest Service areas.
This has put a tremendous strain on places such as California in the insurance industry, where in 2020 more than 9,000 wildfires burned over 4 million acres (more than 4% of the state’s land). Estimates are in the Billions for damages to homes and properties.
What’s causing this increase in wildfires?
Some of it may be due to the fact that there are more people living in fire-prone areas than ever before.
In this NYT article, a moderate scenario for global warming, gives catastrophic outlook, where fires could increase by up to a third by 2050.
But that’s not the only thing driving this trend. Climate change, in particular, is thought to be playing a role. As temperatures rise and precipitation patterns shift, vegetation becomes drier and more prone to burning when fires do occur.
And while we can’t say with certainty that climate change is the sole cause of recent wildfires — or even most of them — there’s enough evidence to suggest that it plays some role in their increase.
The Wildfire Market
Technologies transforming fire
From drones to software and satellites, startups are creating technology that will fuel a new global industry of wildfire management.
The technology that will transform industrial fire fighting in 2022 is one of the most important and least understood aspects of the firefighting industry. This technology has the potential to change how we approach industrial fires, better protect assets and people, improve response times, and reduce costs.
This article covers many technology areas emerging to help fight wildfire, and protect the people working in this space:
- Advances in Drone Technology
- Taking on Thermal Imagers
- Connected Firefighting
- Innovations in PPE
- Sustainable Trucks
- Turnout Gear Advances
The greater market
Since 2015, 950,000 California households have been dropped by their property-casualty insurance companies because of escalating fire risk.
A 2020 working paper found that wildfire smoke led to annual declines in labor market activity worth $70 billion on average between 2006 and 2015, which is comparable to the greater direct market for Fire Systems Market at around $84.6B per year.
Recent Exits and Closes
Note: Data below sourced via Crunchbase
- Description: Zonehaven provides a cloud-based application that helps communities understand, minimize, and respond to wildfire risk. Its application brings together fire simulation, traffic analysis, real-time weather, and high-resolution fuel modeling to provide unprecedented situational awareness and decision support.
- Location: San Francisco
- Verticals: Apps, Cloud Data Services, Security, Software
- Top 5 investors: Splunk Ventures
- Total Raised: Unk in 2019
- Aquired by Genasys in 2021
- Description: Gridware creates a future where suburban wildfires are a thing of the past.
- Location: Walnut Creek
- Verticals: Energy, Predictive Analytics
- Top 5 investors: Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, Soma Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, Fifty Years
- Total Raised: $5.3M
- PreSeed close $5.3M in 2021
- Founded in 2020
- Description: Kettle is an insurtech company that develops a machine-learning powered reinsurer balancing risk in a changing climate.
- Location: Berkeley
- Verticals: Financial Services, Information Technology, Insurance, InsurTech, Machine Learning
- Top 5 investors: Alumni Ventures, Anthemis Group, DCVC, Lowercarbon Capital, Inspired Capital Partners
- Total Raised: $29.7M
- Series A close $25M in 2021
- Founded in 2019
- Description: Delos is a digital property insurance provider for customers in high catastrophe risk regions.
- Location: San Francisco
- Verticals: Aerospace, Big Data, Computer Vision, Financial Services, Insurance, InsurTech, Predictive Analytics
- Diversity: South Asian Founded, Women Funded
- Top 5 investors: IA Capital Group, Futureland Ventures, Red Dog Capital, Avanta Ventures
- Raised: $6.3M
- Seed close $5.4M in 2021
- Founded in 2017
- Description: Pano offers hardware and software technology solutions for fire professionals to detect threats and respond faster.
- Location: San Francisco
- Verticals: Hardware, Public Safety, Software
- Diversity: Women Founded, Women Led
- Top 5 investors: Initialized, January Ventures, DCVC, Quiet Capital, Congruent Ventures
- Total Raised: $28M
- Series A close $20M in 2022
Thanks!
Additional sources
- Insurtech startups offer novel assessment models of at-risk homeshttps://www.dell.com/en-us/perspectives/insurtech-startups-offer-novel-assessment-models-of-at-risk-homes/
- Technologies That Will Transform Industrial Fire Fighting in 2022https://www.industrialfireworld.com/626600/technologies-that-will-transform-industrial-fire-fighting-in-2022
- Firetech companies Australia https://firetechconnect.com/about/
Copyright 2022, All rights reserved, by Zecca Lehn via @posi2ive. No advice given here (e.g., financial / legal / business / other). All views expressed represent those of the author personally at the time of writing, and not those of any external business entity nor organization.
