Argentine wildfire AI startup raises $2.7M after building a detection system that beats NASA’s alerts by 35 minutes

Argentine climate-tech startup Satellites on Fire has closed a $2.7 million seed round led by Dalus Capital, with participation from Draper Associates, Draper Cygnus, VitaminC, Savia Ventures, Avesta Fund, Reciprocal, Zenani Capital, Innventure, Air Capital, Gain VC, Antom VC, and Embarca Tech. The company builds an AI-powered wildfire detection platform that integrates satellite imagery, tower cameras, fire propagation modelling, and real-time alerts, and says its system detects fires on average 35 minutes ahead of NASA’s FIRMS service.

[...]

What began as a school project was rebuilt from scratch after the founders interviewed more than 80 firefighters and emergency responders and concluded their first version was not operationally useful. Rodriguez Viau is now 22 and serves as CEO.

[...]

Satellites on Fire aggregates imagery from more than eight satellites across NASA, NOAA, and the European Space Agency, updated as frequently as every five minutes, and applies its own AI models to detect heat signatures and generate spread simulations. The result, the company says, is detection that consistently precedes NASA alerts by around 35 minutes, which it describes as the critical window for effective early containment. 

[...]

In 2025, the system was involved in the response to more than 600 wildfires, according to the company. Clients include forestry companies, agricultural enterprises, energy utilities, carbon credit projects, insurers, and government agencies. Aon has integrated the platform into all of its forestry insurance policies across Latin America for risk calculation and premium pricing.