New Investment Opportunity: Flash Forest
Revolutionizing reforestation with drones and automation
- Canada's first-to-market, largest drone reforestation company
- Proprietary seed pod technology and deployment mechanism double germination rate
- Drone-based delivery system reduces cost 3X, increases planting speed up to 10X
- Secured multiyear multimillion-dollar contract through 2025
- 2022 GovTech Award for Climate Change at Dubai World Government Summit
- OurCrowd co-leading up to C$11.2M (US$8.4M) Series A with North American headquartered corporate impact fund with roots in technology
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Dear Josb,
The world loses over 10B trees every year: 15B trees are lost to deforestation worldwide, but only about 5B trees are replanted. Reforestation is an expensive, labor-intensive industry that has experienced very little innovation to date.
OurCrowd is investing in Flash Forest, a Canadian-based company that has developed seed pod technology, automation and delivery systems to replant forests at scale immediately after devastating forest fires. The details in this email are based on information received from, and verified solely by, the company.
The Problem
Deforestation is a global problem. Trees urgently need to be replanted to restore local ecosystems and mitigate the effects of climate change. The process is labor intensive and slow, and it is dangerous to plant manually immediately after wildfires – yet that is the best time to ensure successful germination. Forests are by far the most effective means to absorb CO2, so the net loss of trees significantly reduces nature's ability to control carbon levels.
Manual tree-planting has lacked innovation since inception. Efforts are still limited to hand and shovel, greatly limiting the speed and scale at which reforestation can occur. Issues with speed, safety, and energy persist.
The Solution
Flash Forest, Canada's first-to-market and largest drone reforestation company, is seeking to plant 1B trees by 2028 in post-wildfire areas without stopping there. The company uses drone technology, aerial mapping software, automation, ecological science and engineering innovation to reforest at a rapid pace, especially in areas that have been ravaged by wildfires. Flash Forest has developed unique biological seed pod technology and a proprietary deployment mechanism attached to a drone to fire its proprietary seed pods into the soil from above the forest floor.
By using drones, the company automates the process and performs reforestation at scale. Compared to manual planting, drones make planting 3X cheaper and up to 10X faster. By embedding its pods into the ground, Flash Forest has succeeded in more than doubling its germination success rate.
Flash forest has unlocked scalability with its approach. The company's mechanized pod production line is able to produce over 220,000 pods each day and these can be used in any environment where trees are required.
For every tree planted, one ton of CO2 is absorbed – important for the environment and enabling both corporations and governments to adhere to aggressive emission-reduction goals.
The Market
Globally, the market for reforestation is estimated at US$260B. Flash Forest is currently focused on Canada where the government has committed to planting 2B trees by 2030 in its 2BT program, yielding a market estimate of C$3.2B (US$2.3B).
The Company
In only three years, Flash Forest went from proof of concept to securing multimillion dollar and multiyear contracts with customers. The company has planted over 200K trees and is scheduled to plant 1M+ trees in 2023 with a 4X YOY increase through 2025.
The company forecasts YOY revenue growth of 400% to 2025. Gross margins are projected to rise from 23% to 85% by 2025 as the company scales pod production and automates both the pod production line and drone delivery process.
Flash Forest has developed proprietary systems throughout its business from the pod production machinery to the biological seed pods, as well as the drone-embedding mechanism and the drone-control software. Many components are in the process of being registered as patents.
The company won the GovTech Prize for climate change in 2022 at the World Government Summit in Dubai.
The Customers
Flash Forest has secured a multiyear and multimillion-dollar corporate contract through the end of 2025. Among its customers are the Canadian government and multiple corporates. The Federal Canadian government has already signed a C$1.3M dollar contract with Flash Forest for planting in 2022-2023 and the company intends to capture a significant share of the government's 2 Billion Trees (2BT) program.
The Team
Bryce Jones, CEO and Co-founder, has a background in mechatronics engineering, forestry, solar energy consulting, and biology, and has personally planted over 75K trees. Angelique Ahlstrom, Chief Strategy Officer and Co-founder, previously was COO of an EdTech firm, specializing in robotics and energy issues, and has MA in Political Science and masters certificate in Commercial Space Technology. Cameron Jones, COO and Co-founder, was a Director for the Alberta Department of Energy, adjunct professor at two of Canada's leading universities and has published multiple papers on climate tech.
The Round
OurCrowd is co-leading this up to C$11.2M (US$8.4M) Series A round with a North American headquartered corporate impact fund with roots in technology. Proceeds will be used to scale operations and expand within Canada and the US, scale pod production, fully automate production facilities, source top talent and invest in R&D.
Meet the CEO
We're hosting a webinar/conference call on Tuesday, December 6th, at 7PM Israel / 12 Noon New York / 9AM San Francisco for investors to meet CEO Bryce Jones and learn more about Flash Forest.
Can't make the webinar? Register and we will send you a recording of the call.
The Flash Forest Solution
Flash Forest uses drone technology, aerial mapping software, automation ecological science and engineering innovation to reforest at a rapid pace, especially areas that have been ravaged by wildfires. Flash Forest technology maps out the best planting locations and averages a planting density of 1,000 to 2,000 trees per hectare. By using drones to plant trees, the company is automating the process and performing reforestation at scale.
Flash Forest has developed a unique dry seed pod using its own proprietary machinery which can be shot and embedded into the soil. The dry pod is compacted into a bead-like shape and sealed so that when it hits the ground it can penetrate the soil and not explode on impact. The seed pods are uniform, portable, and tested for each specific biome and tree species. As soon as the seed pods experience rainfall, they swell to four times their size and develop growing medium that keeps the seedlings hydrated in periods of drought. The company has created a pod production line that is efficient at scale and mostly automated, enabling production of over 200,000 pods each day. Proprietary machine learning algorithms are being developed and continuously optimized to ensure precision microsite selection, shooting pods only where the seeds can grow.
The deployer that fires the pod from the drone requires no site prep, has no nursery delay, and is safe, scalable, and automated. The deployer embeds the pods into the ground at a rate of 5 pods per second, more than doubling their germination rate.
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