German startup Dryad closes €10.5m Series A funding to speed up early wildfire detection technology

Dryad, the only provider of solar-powered environmental sensor networks for ultra-early wildfire detection and forest monitoring, has closed €10.5 million in Series A funding, led by eCAPITAL and additional investors, including Toba Capital, Semtech and Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures. The funding will enable the company to scale its team, accelerate its go-to-market strategy, and deliver on its mission to fight climate change and protect forests around the world.

Wildfires have become a major driver of climate change, generating up to 20% of global CO2 emissions while costing the global economy approximately US$140 billion to date. The increasing frequency and severity of fire outbreaks mean new technology is urgently needed to provide real-time wildfire warnings, enable firefighters to stop a blaze before it gets out of control, and prevent further damage to our planet.

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO, Dryad: “Closing €10.5 million in our Series A is a humbling and gratifying endorsement of our value proposition. With high levels of funding secured, and industry expertise to support us, we’ll not only be able to further scale our team and provide critical ultra-early detection, but also open the forestry market to Internet of Things (IoT) applications. We thank all our Series A and Seed investors for their trust in our market-leading technology, helping us deliver on our mission to fight climate change and protect our planet.”

Dryad has spent more than two years developing its end-to-end Silvanet® ultra-early wildfire detection and forest monitoring system, which incorporates low-cost sensors, solar-powered LoRa® based mesh networking infrastructure and a cloud analytics platform – a market first.

German deep tech venture capitalist (VC) eCAPITAL, which led the Series A funding round, has significant experience and expertise in high-tech scale-ups, providing a solid foundation for driving the growth trajectory of this innovative technology business. Additional Series A investors include U.S. VC Toba Capital, Marc Benioff’s TIME Ventures and strategic investor Semtech – a global supplier of high-performance analogue and mixed-signal semiconductors, advanced algorithms and the developer of the LoRa® long range, low power wireless platform.

Paul-Josef Patt, CEO, eCAPITAL: “Wildfires represent a huge global problem that has not been resolved effectively for too long. With Dryad’s highly scalable technology, we believe that from now on wildfires will be detected before they can cause damage. We are excited to lead Dryad’s Series A Financing Round and, together with our co-investors, support the company on its mission to save millions of hectares of forest, significantly reduce the threat for humans and animals and avoid the emission of over a billion tonnes of CO2.”

The latest Series A round, with its broad and complementary investor base, provides additional liquidity, depth and stability following the first equity seeding stage, which raised €1.8 million and included strong investment and operational support from STIHL Digital, the venture capital arm of the famous chainsaw manufacturing company STIHL.

Alistair Fulton, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group: “We are extremely pleased to support Dryad’s mission to reduce CO2 emissions and protect forests around the world using LoRa® low power, long range RF technology. We believe that technology solutions like Dryad’s environmental sensor networks are crucial to creating a smarter, more sustainable planet.”

www.dryad.net