Wildfires are becoming one of the most destructive consequences of climate change. With more frequent droughts and extreme heat patterns, entire ecosystems are now vulnerable to fast-moving flames. Every year, wildfires destroy up to 40 million hectares of land, trigger over $20 billion in insured losses, release billions of tons of CO₂, and put lives, infrastructure, and biodiversity at risk. Munich-based startup OroraTech is tackling this crisis head-on with a cutting-edge, satellite-powered wildfire detection system.
Its end-to-end platform, built around proprietary thermal infrared satellites and AI analytics, enables governments, insurers, and climate responders to detect, predict, and respond to fires faster than ever.
OroraTech has just secured an additional €37 million in Series B funding to fuel its next phase of global growth. The extension round was led by BNP Paribas Solar Impulse Venture Fund and Rabo Ventures, joined by long-term backers like Bayern Kapital, Edaphon, and the European Circular Bioeconomy Fund. The company now boasts close to €100 million in combined capital and commercial contracts.
Scaling a Satellite Constellation for Real-Time Wildfire Intelligence
OroraTech has already launched ten thermal-sensing satellites into orbit, delivering real-time wildfire monitoring with global coverage. Its vision is bold: build a “wildfire digital twin” of Earth that offers round-the-clock alerts, predictive modelling, and data-driven fire spread forecasting.
Founded in 2018 by a team of engineers from the Technical University of Munich, the company started as a spin-out from TUM’s student CubeSat projects. Since then, it has evolved into one of the most ambitious Earth observation startups focused on climate resilience.
The startup’s growth has been accelerated by strategic partnerships. Isar Aerospace provides flexible launch capabilities for its nanosatellites, while Spire Global supports rapid deployment and data transmission. In 2025, OroraTech also joined the GREEN+ Programme to monitor protected forests across South America, helping preserve carbon sinks and biodiversity hotspots.
What sets OroraTech apart is its hardware and software integration. While many competitors still depend on optical satellites or slow ground-based infrastructure, OroraTech delivers AI-driven wildfire alerts directly from orbit. Its satellites use mid-wave and long-wave infrared sensors to spot fires through clouds and smoke, even in remote areas. The edge computing onboard processes and compresses the data before transmitting alerts within just 3 minutes—a massive leap forward from conventional systems that often take hours.
Forest-3, the company’s latest satellite, launched in 2025, introduced a three-channel thermal infrared system with onboard GPU processing and 4×4-meter spatial resolution. This enables highly accurate fire detection at a scale that can stop small blazes before they explode into full-scale disasters.
From Detection to Prediction: A Holistic Wildfire Platform
OroraTech’s solution doesn’t stop at spotting fires—it helps predict and mitigate them. Tools like Fire Spread use real-time wind, vegetation, and elevation data to simulate where a fire is heading. Forestry firm ARAUCO used this tool during the 2024 El Quillay fire in Chile to dramatically reduce containment time and save resources.
Meanwhile, Burnt Area Mapping helps insurers and agriculture firms quantify losses post-fire, using 10-meter resolution thermal imaging to assess damage and verify claims. The Land Surface Temperature product supports broader climate goals, such as managing urban heat and precision farming. Recognized by the IPCC as an essential climate variable, this data is now part of a growing ecosystem of environmental intelligence.
OroraTech’s growing customer base reflects its impact. Brazilian cellulose giant Suzano uses the platform to oversee 2.7 million hectares, adding orbital monitoring to its ground-based systems. The European Union integrates OroraTech’s alerts into its Copernicus emergency response system. In 2022 alone, OroraTech’s technology helped protect over 183 million hectares of forest, reducing CO₂ emissions by 41% and improving air quality for millions.
The company is also playing a key role in next-gen climate modelling. In 2025, OroraTech partnered with NVIDIA’s Earth-2 digital twin platform, embedding its thermal data to improve extreme weather prediction. It already uses NVIDIA Jetson for onboard processing and Google Cloud’s Vertex AI to continuously improve detection accuracy.
Looking forward, OroraTech plans to scale its constellation to more than 100 satellites by 2026. This will enable 30-minute revisit times across the planet, offering near-instant fire alerts globally. New features in development include mobile-optimized Fire Spread simulations for on-site commanders and AI-driven updates via ground-based thermal sensor networks.
With its end-to-end platform, OroraTech is positioning itself as the “thermal intelligence backbone” of global wildfire resilience—providing tools to detect fires earlier, stop them faster, and understand their long-term impact on the planet.
