Seneca mentioned its aerial suppression belongings might be hand-carried, transported with a utility automobile, or stationed and deployed remotely. | Supply: Seneca
Seneca this week emerged from stealth with the purpose of constructing autonomous aerial programs that use synthetic intelligence to seek out and assault fires early. The corporate has raised $60 million in funding to advance its purpose of delivering highly effective hearth suppression.
The startup mentioned it could actually prolong the attain of firefighters, utilities, and communities in conditions that had been as soon as unsafe, inefficient, or unimaginable. The group has to this point demonstrated the product’s capabilities on reside hearth and with hearth companies in 4 states.
“The most effective a part of constructing during the last 12 months has been to observe the product evolve — focusing on accuracy enhancements, payload will increase, security enhancements, usability upgrades — and to see firefighters react to new options with every technology,” mentioned Seneca.
Seneca founders work with firefighters
Seneca mentioned its founding group contains:
To develop the know-how, they labored with hearth leaders together with Chief Dan Munsey of San Bernardino, Calif.; Chief Brian Fennessy of Orange County, Calif.; Chief Jake Andersen of Aspen, Colo.; and Chief Shepley Schroth-Cary of Gold Ridge, Calif.
Seneca mentioned these collaborations be certain that its product supplies quick worth to these preventing fires. The corporate’s advisory board contains individuals with lengthy observe data within the hearth service, together with:
- Dr. Lori Moore-Merrell, a former U.S. hearth administrator
- John Mills, founder and CEO of Watch Responsibility
- Rick Balentine, a 25-year chief of the Aspen Hearth Division
Caffeinated Capital and Convective Capital led the funding spherical. It additionally included participation from First Spherical Capital, Transition VC, Advance Enterprise Companions, Nextview Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Stepstone Group, DCVC, Offline Ventures, Roar Capital, Good Pals, Sluggish Ventures, and MHS Capital.
Seneca mentioned it plans to make use of the funding to enhance its capabilities, harden the general system, improve manufacturing, and roll out the primary programs to the sphere to save lots of lives through the 2026 hearth season.
Drones present potential in firefighting
Wildfire depth has practically tripled during the last twenty years, based on Seneca. This has price the U.S. economic system round $1 trillion per 12 months, upended 1000’s of lives, and destroyed wild areas and communities. Seneca, like many different builders, believes drones and robotics may also help clear up this downside.
In late 2023, Rain, a developer of aerial wildfire containment know-how, and Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin firm specializing in superior rotorcraft, accomplished take a look at flights utilizing an autonomous helicopter. The system carried and dumped water onto wildfires within the very early phases.
The flight demonstration befell at Sikorsky’s headquarters in Stratford, Conn. The Optionally Piloted Black Hawk helicopter flew in autonomous mode with Sikorsky security pilots on board.
Different firms, like Kodama Methods, are taking a extra proactive method through the use of applied sciences, together with teleoperation and automation, to enhance forest administration operations. The corporate has developed an autonomous skidder to assist in forest thinning, which may also help forestall wildfires from burning uncontrolled.
Startups in government-funded sector face challenges
Whereas there’s actually a rising want for applied sciences that may assist combat wildfires, startups nonetheless face struggles on this space. Lots of them depend on authorities funding to remain afloat, making them weak to coverage adjustments.
Robotics 88, which received the Pitchfire competitors on the 2024 RoboBusiness occasion, used drones to supply autonomous subcanopy surveys of gas masses for prescribed burn planning.
The Boston startup closed its doorways earlier this 12 months. Erin Linebarger, founder and CEO of Robotics 88, instructed The Robotic Report that she hopes to make the corporate’s IP open-source to assist efforts to combat wildfires.
