The archive · Climate & Energy · Product decision · 2020–2026
Satellites on Fire: teen-built AI spots wildfires 35 min before NASA; $2.7M seed
Argentine teens built a software platform fusing satellites, cameras and AI to spot wildfires 35 minutes before NASA; 55,000 users, $2.7M seed
Satellites on Fire
What the business is
Wildfire early-detection service: a software platform combining 10+ satellites, tower cameras and weather data with three AI models, alerting fire services and companies in real time by WhatsApp, SMS or email
Starting capital：US$2.7M seed (April 2026) led by Dalus Capital with Draper Associates, Vitamin C and Draper Cygnus; ~US$900k raised earlier from backers including the UN, MIT, Cornell and Alexis Ohanian
How it started
In 2020, wildfires around Córdoba burned 340,000 hectares and destroyed homes of people close to Franco Rodriguez Viau, then a 16-year-old at ORT technical school in Buenos Aires. With classmates Joaquín Chamo and Ulises López Pacholczak he built a prototype that tapped NASA satellite feeds; fire agencies told them alerts arriving three to five days late were useless, so the team restarted around early detection.
What happened
Rather than build its own satellites or cameras, the team made a software platform that fuses data from more than ten satellites (NASA, NOAA, ESA), 360° tower cameras, drones and weather forecasts, running three AI models: ignition detection, smoke-column recognition and spread prediction. Alerts go out by WhatsApp, SMS or email, and user reports feed more than 20,000 field validations that retrain the models. The first paying customer came about 18 months in; clients grew to forestry and energy companies, Argentina's volunteer firefighters and insurer AON, and in 2025 its alerts supported responses to more than 600 wildfires.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Satellites on Fire began as a school project after Córdoba's 2020 wildfires, among the largest in the world that year: 340,000 hectares burned and homes of the founders' families and friends were destroyed. Three ORT Buenos Aires students — Franco Rodriguez Viau, Joaquín Chamo and Ulises López Pacholczak — saw that fires were only noticed once smoke was visible, and set out to make detection faster.
Their first prototype drew on NASA satellite images, but fire agencies said alerts arriving three to five days late were useless. So the team rebuilt: instead of building its own hardware, it made a software platform that fuses more than ten satellites, tower cameras and weather data with three AI models — ignition detection, smoke recognition and spread prediction — and alerts crews by WhatsApp or SMS in real time. By 2026 the service had 55,000+ users in 21 countries and reported detecting fires about 35 minutes before NASA's system.
A US$2.7M seed led by Dalus Capital in April 2026 funds better models, CO2-impact tools and a parametric insurance product with AON, plus entry into the United States. The startup had just won the UNCCD G20 Youth Ecopreneur Award at ChangeNOW; its bet is that earlier, more accurate alerts — not bigger firefighting machines — are where wildfire prevention is won.
What has to be true
- The wedge was timing, not sensing: fires were already visible to satellites, but alerts landed three to five days late, so crews could not act on them
- Software over rented hardware scaled where satellite builders could not: no capital-heavy assets, faster into 21 countries
- The free tier was a data flywheel: 20,000+ user field validations made its models detect fires faster and more precisely
- Buyers had a real budget line — fire loss — and the platform sold to insurers, forestry, energy and agriculture, not just governments
What can be applied
You can beat a vertically integrated incumbent without owning the asset: a software layer over existing satellites beat NASA's alert latency, and the free tier fed the field data that sharpened the AI
Aftermath
As of May 2026 the startup had 55,000+ users in 21 countries, 33 active clients and a 26-person team, and had just won the UNCCD G20 Youth Ecopreneur Award at ChangeNOW (31 March 2026). It plans to spend the seed on better AI models, CO2-avoidance measurement tools and a parametric wildfire insurance product with AON, and to expand from Latin America into the United States; the long-term goal is drones that verify and eventually fight fires
Sources
- Tiene 22 años y es CEO: creó un sistema que detecta incendios forestales antes que la NASA y levantó US$2,7 millones
- Detectan incendios forestales antes que la Nasa: el proyecto escolar que hoy recaudó 2,7 millones de dólares
- La startup argentina creada por estudiantes de secundaria que previene incendios y consiguió USD 2,7 millones para ayudar a combatirlos y expandirse a EEUU
- Satellites on fire: a new era of wildfire detection
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