An innovative Argentine climate-tech startup, Satellites on Fire, has successfully closed a $2.7 million seed funding round led by Dalus Capital. Founded in 2020 as a school project by three Argentine teenagers, the company has developed an advanced AI-powered wildfire detection system that significantly outperforms existing technologies.
Their software-only platform integrates satellite data from various agencies to identify nascent wildfires with remarkable speed. Crucially, Satellites on Fire’s system has demonstrated its ability to detect fires an impressive 35 minutes faster than NASA’s well-established FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) alerts. This superior performance is achieved by ingeniously avoiding the data gaps that typically occur between satellite passes, providing a more continuous and immediate monitoring capability. This breakthrough promises to enhance early wildfire response efforts, potentially saving vast areas of natural habitat and infrastructure.
