Climate-tech startup Satellites on Fire has secured $2.7 million in funding.

      Satellites on Fire, established in 2020 as a school project by three Argentine teenagers, has successfully completed a seed funding round led by Dalus Capital. Its software-focused platform combines satellite data from various agencies to detect fires more quickly than NASA’s FIRMS system by eliminating the gaps that occur between satellite observations.

      The Argentine climate-tech startup has raised $2.7 million in a seed round led by Dalus Capital, with contributions 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 develops an AI-driven wildfire detection platform that merges satellite images, tower cameras, fire spread modeling, and real-time notifications, claiming it can identify fires an average of 35 minutes earlier than NASA’s FIRMS service.

      Founded in 2020 by Franco Rodriguez Viau, Ulises López Pacholczak, and Joaquín Chamo, who were secondary school students at ORT Buenos Aires, the initiative was prompted by the loss of homes to wildfires experienced by Rodriguez Viau's family friends in Córdoba.

      Initially conceived as a school project, the platform was rebuilt entirely after the founders interviewed over 80 firefighters and emergency responders, realizing that their first iteration was not practically effective. Rodriguez Viau, now 22, occupies the role of CEO.

      In 2025, MIT Technology Review’s Spanish edition recognized him as one of its 35 Innovators Under 35 for Latin America.

      The platform's advantage over current systems stems from its satellite coverage density. NASA’s FIRMS service relies on a limited number of satellites, resulting in revisit schedules that can create multi-hour gaps over Latin America.

      Satellites on Fire consolidates imagery from more than eight satellites associated with NASA, NOAA, and the European Space Agency, refreshed as often as every five minutes, and employs its own AI algorithms to identify heat signatures and create spread simulations.

      According to the company, this leads to detection that consistently precedes NASA alerts by about 35 minutes, which they regard as a critical timeframe for effective early intervention. Newsweek reported a case in Argentina in November 2025 where the system identified a fire at 1:40 a.m., seven hours earlier than NASA's alert.

      The commercial model operates on a software-as-a-service basis, with prices ranging from $0.02 to $10 per hectare annually, depending on the service level. Currently, the platform oversees areas across 21 countries on four continents, serving over 55,000 users and utilizing a training dataset comprised of over 20,000 field-validated fire reports, which the company labels as the largest such database in Latin America.

      In 2025, the system played a role in tackling more than 600 wildfires, according to the company. Its clientele includes forestry companies, agricultural businesses, energy utilities, carbon credit initiatives, insurers, and governmental agencies. Aon has integrated the platform into all its forestry insurance policies throughout Latin America for risk assessment and premium calculations.

      The newly acquired funds will support the company's expansion into the United States market, where it is already conducting pilot projects and has partnered with Watch Duty, a non-profit dedicated to tracking wildfires.

      These funds will also enhance AI model optimization, introduce a parametric wildfire insurance product in collaboration with Aon, and develop an intelligence dashboard for client protection strategies.

      Rodriguez Viau has previously expressed the company's aspiration to eventually branch into suppression technology using drones. The United States is the primary focus, given that wildfires are predicted to cost the nation hundreds of billions of dollars each year, and the Los Angeles fires in 2025 heightened the political and commercial focus on detection shortfalls.

      John Mills, CEO of Watch Duty and an advisor to Satellites on Fire, remarked that the platform's performance with existing satellite data had "genuinely astounded" his team. Diego Serebrisky, co-founder and managing partner at lead investor Dalus Capital, suggested that this funding round illustrates that Latin American entrepreneurs can deliver globally competitive AI solutions in the climate sector.

      Previously, the company secured $250,000 from Tim Draper and Adam Draper after showcasing its project on Meet the Drapers Season 9 and has also gained recognition from the UN, alongside support from MIT and Cornell University in earlier phases.