Overstory

We’re thrilled to announce we closed a $14 million Series A, led by B Capital and welcoming The Nature Conservancy to our collective of climate-minded investors. With this round, we’re doubling down on what we do best–tech and trees–and further empowering our utility customers to do what they do best–safely and reliably power the world. Today, we proudly partner with 40+ leading utilities worldwide, including 4 of the top 10 US utilities, to help reduce wildfire risk and increase grid reliability. Our vegetation intelligence platform and team have monitored over 2 million acres of land (analyzing massive volumes of satellite imagery and producing actionable territory-wide and tree-level insights) and protected $6 billion of utility assets. And we’ve only just begun. We’re so proud of our ever-expanding community of investors, teammates, and customers who are committed to mitigating wildfires and the climate crisis, protecting and restoring natural resources, and using innovative technology to operate more efficiently and effectively. 💚 Our investors are doubling down as well. This milestone includes additional investment and continued support from Convective Capital, Semapa Next, Bentley iTwin Ventures, Pale blue dot, CapitalT, Moxxie Ventures, and Overwater Ventures . Read more: https://hubs.la/Q0265GS40 #climatechange #AI #climatetech #wildfiremitigation #utilities

It was great to hear from utility CEOs across the US at #EEI2024 and get a sense for the industry zeitgeist. A few things that stuck with me: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝟐%. Every year there is a phrase repeated almost verbatim by industry leaders. Last year it was a caveat that the clean energy transition must be balanced by the need to maintain “safe, reliable, and affordable power.” This year it was “electricity is only 2% of the economy, but it’s the first 2%.” This was a potent reminder that livelihoods and quality of life are dependent on electricity. It was also a forward-looking statement about how abundant electricity is key to powering what comes next.  𝐀𝐈 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐲. For the second year, Edison Electric Institute featured keynotes by tech industry titans, reflecting the deep connections between these industries. Jensen Huang of NVIDIA and Antonio Neri of Hewlett Packard Enterprise shared views on several AI-related topics, and a key theme was huge load growth from power-hungry data centers. Interestingly, leaders acknowledged that utilities, which normally don't compete, are fiercely competing for this new load. And competition isn't just about pricing, but who has available capacity. 𝐆𝐫𝐢𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. When we think about new load, we tend to think generation. But there was broad agreement that the capacity of transmission and distribution networks to connect to that load are not sufficient to the task. 𝐑𝐮𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐚𝐬’𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝. There was broad support for new gas generation, both from expected proponents in fossil fuel states to utility leaders in progressive states with aggressive decarbonization goals. Rationale was mostly around dispatchability and spinning reserves. 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐧𝐮𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲. Of carbon-free generation tech, modular nuclear got the most mentions. It seems poised to grow, but there was near consensus that the tech is at least a decade away. Of course, many were surprised by how quickly wind, solar and storage have scaled, so maybe this will beat expectations. 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲’𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐬. If the grid is a critical constraint on meeting demand, then it is natural that threats to, and caused by, the grid are top of mind. There may be no greater threat than wildfires. Tech to reduce the risk of utility-caused wildfires was front and center, but the more interesting discussions were about insurability and financeability. At a time when massive investment is needed by utilities, wildfires are shifting the perception of utilities as safe, almost boring, investments to being extremely risky. If you were at #EEI2024, please share your reflections or tell me what I got wrong!

🎤 Next week, our strategic solutions lead, Philip Chen, is getting on stage at the Utility Arborist Association's first annual VA regional meeting. Phil's joining experts Max C. and Bob McNamara for a panel moderated by Lucas Beane to discuss how utilities today are using UVM analytics to make data-driven work management decisions (and explore some of their biggest challenges along the way). Join us next Tuesday at 11:00 AM in Front Royal, Virginia to dig in with the teams from Overstory, GeoSpatial Innovations, Inc., and Constellation Clearsight. 🌳 Register to attend: https://bit.ly/4c8vOLE

We're proud to share that we've successfully renewed our SOC2 Type II certification through Prescient Security. 🎉 #SOC2Type2 certification is the gold standard for secure data, systems, processes—crucial for the electric utilities we serve. What this means for our customers: 🔒 Continued commitment to enhanced data security 📈 Ongoing improvement in system reliability ✅ Sustained focus on privacy #DataSecurity

Wherever trees and power lines coexist, vegetation-caused outages will be a top priority for utility operations teams. Our own Mariano Frasisti and Sílvia Coimbra are in São Paolo this week for #CIDE2024 digging into the particular challenges and opportunities for Brazil's energy transition.

Our team is growing. 🌳 We're looking for a sales development rep to join our mission-driven, remote-first team, helping to connect with utilities, develop new opportunities, and book meetings with prospects across North America. Are you our new SDR? Learn more → https://lnkd.in/ecrSKfr3 #climatejobs #SDR #greentech

For operations teams who are so often racing to combat wildfire, storm, and encroachment risk, quantifying the impact of vegetation work is one of the trickiest parts of the job. 💡 But you shouldn't have to choose between keeping the lights on for your customers and showing stakeholders how you're doing it. With new trends in Overstory, you can monitor changes to vegetation encroachment risk, tree health, fall-in risk, and priority levels over time. This makes it easier to assess the effectiveness of your VM program and quickly communicate the value of your work to executives. More on what's new: https://lnkd.in/eN74SyZn #vegetationmanagement

Many thanks to the CEATI team for hosting this week's Strategy & Innovation conference in Minneapolis. Utilities today, facing unprecedented climate challenges and energy demands, are innovating in mind-blowing ways. We're so energized to see all of the brilliant new applications of data and AI to reach resilience and reliability goals. 👋 If you didn't get a chance to catch our own Allie McCormack and Stefen Dobrec at the show and want to learn more about how AI-powered vegetation intelligence helps with safer reliable power, please get in touch at overstory.com/solutions.

With the right inputs, AI scales indispensable human expertise. It helps us tackle the greatest business and climate challenges of our time more efficiently than ever. Our customers, arborists, engineers, and utility experts are critical in making Overstory technology what it is today—actionable vegetation intelligence for safer, more reliable power. 🗞 More from Financial Times on how other start-ups are using AI to address similar challenges: https://lnkd.in/eAw59Ppr #artificialintelligence #climatestartup

Tackling rising customer reliability demands in the midst of soaring climate and budget concerns is no easy feat. "In 2023 alone, there were a record 28 billion-dollar weather disasters, including storms, floods and wildfires, which cost over $93 billion in damages. Utilities have no time to lose with grid-hardening measures to ensure reliability as climate instability increases." New conditions demand new approaches. And objective, network-scale data can help drive the efficient, informed decision making that operations teams need to improve their reliability long term. 📖 Read more in Utility Dive: https://lnkd.in/eXnjumg9