ImpactAlpha, August 30 — Extreme heat waves, exacerbated by drought, set many parts of Europe ablaze this summer. Hotter temperatures are pushing severe wildfires to Germany and other northern European countries.
Berlin-based Dryad says its low-cost solar-powered sensors, which can be mounted on trees in forests, can detect wildfires and improve response time. Dryad’s sensor networks monitor lakes, rivers and oceans.
eCAPITAL led the $10.5 million Series A round, alongside Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures, Toba Capital and Semtech. “Wildfires represent a huge global problem that has not been resolved effectively for too long,” says eCAPITAL’s Paul-Josef Patt.
This year, wildfires have burned down about 1.6 million acres in Europe, an area more than eight times the size of New York City, says the European Forest Fire Information System.
Wildfire solutions
Wildfires in the U.S. have burned nearly 6 million acres this year, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Sacramento, Calif.-based Gridware is building hardware with sensors for detecting anomalies that could ignite wildfires.
Forest resilience bonds can help finance forest restoration projects that are beyond the budgets of state and federal agencies (listen to Blue Forest Conservation’s Zach Knight on ImpactAlpha’s Agents of Impact podcast.)
