Recent investment by Valor Equity Partners, Salesforce Ventures, T-Mobile and others in the field of “climate change adaptation” brings Pano AI’s total funding to $45M, demonstrating its commitment to protecting communities
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., July 10, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pano AI, the first company to offer a fully managed solution for active wildfire detection using artificial intelligence, has raised $17 million in new growth capital led by Valor Equity Partners. Joining the funding round as new investors are Salesforce Ventures, T-Mobile Ventures (Pano’s communications partner T-Mobile US) and 5G Open Innovation Lab, alongside ongoing support from existing investors Initialized Capital, Congruent Ventures, Convective Capital January Ventures, Kevin Mahaffey and Jade Van Doren. In conjunction with this funding, Pano announces the expansion of its executive team, including Ryan White, an outstanding leader in artificial intelligence who previously led high-profile machine learning teams at Amazon and Meta.
Sonia Kastner, CEO and founder of Pano AIHe emphasized the importance of this funding: “The world has been experiencing an increasing number of wildfires and other natural disasters in recent years. Even in an economic downturn, we must act quickly to combat these worsening climate change impacts. This additional capital represents our emerging market leadership and growing business activity, and highlights the urgent need for new technologies focused on climate adaptation. Today is a huge milestone for all of us at Pano AI, and we couldn’t get there without the support of our investors, team members, and loyal customers. The funding will allow us to accelerate the expansion of our solution around the world, as well as our investment in R&D so that we can increase our product offering to provide even more powerful tools for emergency managers.
In the year In 2022, Pano AI takes center stage as a leading innovator in the rapidly growing field of climate adaptation technology. As the climate crisis escalates the threat of wildfires around the world, every minute of wildfires is a response. Pano AI integrates mountaintop cameras, satellite feeds, artificial intelligence, 5G connectivity and state-of-the-art cloud software to provide a comprehensive turnkey solution to detect and identify new fires and alert firefighters within minutes. This actionable intelligence helps first responders get to the scene faster and safer—with the right equipment, the latest information, and improved coordination—so they can stop new fires in their tracks.
Abe Yokel, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Congruent Ventures“We’ve seen Pano AI grow as an exemplary leader in climate adaptation. The team’s unwavering commitment to innovation is driving change, and solutions to the devastating effects of wildfires. The impact of wildfires has never been clearer, and we’re proud to continue Pano’s efforts to address these threats.” We feel it.
Pano AI will use this funding to continue to advance its AI-based proactive wildfire detection solution, improve how fire agencies respond to new fires, and prevent catastrophic wildfires. The funding will support continued talent acquisition and facilitate expansion of the Pano AI market into additional fire-prone areas in North America and Australia. This latest investment, in an economic downturn, demonstrates an unwavering commitment to protecting communities from the growing threat of wildfires.
“With smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketing large parts of the U.S. and announcements that insurers are pulling out of the California market due to climate concerns, it’s clear we need solutions to deal with the growing number of wildfires.” Claudine Emeott, Partner at Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund. “While our funding has always focused on climate change mitigation technologies, our investment in Pano AI is our first contribution to climate adaptation, which has never been more important than now.”
In the past year, Pano has shown great momentum, gaining many new customers and partners in two countries and being recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Tech Pioneer and Fast Company Most Innovative Company.
Pano has expanded its executive team to include world-class leadership in the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence. To existing CEO Sonya Katner, CEO, Arvind Satyam, Chief Commercial Officer, and Brad Faircol, VP of Operations, Pano has added several more experienced Silicon Valley leaders: Michael Golub, VP of Finance, from Doordash and Sunbasket, Lina Rizzo of People and Talent; Director, with previous experience at Apple, Square and Nest, and Pano’s new Vice President of Engineering, Ryan White, brings decades of experience in computer vision and AI from both academia (UC Berkeley) and industry (Amazon and Meta). Under Ryan’s leadership, Pano AI will continue to be used to develop new situational awareness tools for Pano’s emergency management clients to respond to the ever-increasing natural disasters.
“We’re proud to partner with Pano AI to identify wildfires faster than ever before by combining our industry-leading 5G network with their innovative technology,” he said. By T-Mobile EVP and Chief Technology Officer John Saw. “With this investment from T-Mobile Ventures, we are doubling down on our commitment to bring this life-saving technology to more areas and limit the devastation caused by wildfires.”
“Because of climate change, we are entering an era where most of the world’s communities are learning how to live with and adapt to large wildfires that harm air quality and public safety,” he says. Kim-Mai Cutler, Partner at Initialized Capital. “The Pano AI solution integrates advanced hardware, software and computer vision with local and regional infrastructure to enable communities to identify and manage these risks.”
Bill Clerico, founder and managing partner of Convective CapitalA wildfire-focused capital firm, he said, “Pano is that rare company with an important mission, an outstanding team, an impactful product and a strong commercial drive. We are excited to double our investment in Pano for wildfire detection and situational awareness.
Pano AI is active in six states in the United States: California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. In addition, the company operates in two Australian states: New South Wales and Queensland, bringing Pano’s total skin area actively monitored for bushfires to 6.05M acres. Pano AI’s notable customers include PacifiCorp, Xcel Energy, Portland General Electric (PGE), Holy Cross Energy, Big Sky Fire Department, Aspen Fire Protection District, Telluride Fire Protection District, Boulder County, Washington DNR, Forestry Corporation of NSW (Australia). Southern Cross Forests (Australia) and Noosa Council’s FireTech Liaison Program (Australia).
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About Pano AI
Pano AI is the first company to offer a fully integrated solution for detecting active wildfires using artificial intelligence to help fire officials identify and extinguish new fires before they become a threat. Using the latest developments in cameras, 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence and cloud-based software, Pano AI provides fire agencies with real-time actionable intelligence and situational awareness to coordinate data-driven rapid response before wildfires escalate, protecting lives and communities. and the environment.
About Valor Equity Partners
Valor Equity Partners is a growth investment firm focused on investing in high-growth companies at various stages of growth. For decades, Valor has served its companies with exceptional skills in solving growth and scale challenges. Valor works with leading companies and entrepreneurs committed to the highest standards of excellence and the courage to transform their industries. For more information about Valor Equity Partners, please visit www.valorep.com.
About TMobile
T-Mobile US Inc. T-Mobile customers benefit from an uncompromising combination of value and quality, an obsession with delivering an unwavering service experience, and a disruption that drives competition and innovation in wireless and beyond. Based in Bellevue, Wash., T-Mobile provides services through distribution and operates its core brands, T-Mobile, Metro by T-Mobile and Sprint. For more information please visit: https://www.t-mobile.com
About Salesforce Ventures
Salesforce Ventures helps enterprise founders build companies that reinvent the way the world works. Since 2009, we have invested in more than 400 of the world’s strongest enterprise software companies from seed to IPO, including Earthtable, Databricks, Docusing, GuildLearn, Hoppin, monday.com, nCino, Snowflake, Snyk, Stripe, Tanium and Zoom. . Salesforce Ventures leverages our decades of expertise in the cloud and our long-standing relationships with key decision makers in thousands of businesses around the world to give our portfolio companies an unfair advantage, build credibility and accelerate growth. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 25 countries with offices around the world, including San Francisco, Irvine, New York, London, Tokyo and Sydney. Follow @SalesforceVC and learn more at http://www.salesforceventures.com.
CONTACT: Contact Details Yulu PR Pano@yulupr.com 604-558-1656
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